The city is located in south west of India, in the state Karnataka. Manipal is small city with
2 main areas with university buildings. Accommodation is very close to school in a walking
distance. It is possible to reach every part of the city by walk or if you are lazy by
rickshaw. Transportation is very cheap,you can go for almost nothing to near small city Udupi
or bigger city Mangalore.

Manipal is very westernized.In Manipal live the richest students of India, so you will feel
more like at home, but the comfort of western food, clothes and western thinking people also
goes with the cost of living in this city. You can find there everything you need and buy
everything you can think of. There is big, nice hospital located and 2 universities. There is
plenty of possibilities to spend your time.

5 km away from Manipal is small city Udupi, where is beautiful a well‐known temple. Right in
Manipal is End point with beautiful view and Lake. For 2 days trip you can visit Jog falls
(second highest falls in India), Hampi (beautiful place with extraordinary landscape and
sightseeing), Mysore (former british capital of the central India) and many more. There is
always something to see nearby.

My supervisor was a professor of the university. She was very nice, helpful and supportive.

I was working in a lab, making new substances, which were after my project tested for medical
purposes. That was the compulsory part and I wanted to learn something more, so I did also
docking studies for my molecules. (modeling in silico)

For India generally, maybe, if you really live out of the cheapest food and don't travel and
have fun at all. Manipal is really expensive comparing to normal prices, so even with eating in
mensa every day, it's not enough.

They required advanced english. I think intermediate english is all right. Even though you are
advanced, you won't understand first days, because they have horrible accent. Some people
didn't understand after weeks of being in India. That's why level of english doesn't make much
change.

Accomodation is for free, provided by local IAESTE and university. It was very basic, with cold
water and cockroaches. We had only bed and wardrobe. Be lived in flats by groups of 3‐7 people.
He had two bathrooms and toilet,living room, kitchen was unequipped. All around, you have
everything you need. But it recalled me my days on summer camps when I was young, the
conditions were very similar.

The drived was waiting for me on the airport and took me with university taxi to Manipal. Then He dropped me directly in front of the IAESTE office, where many members and interns welcomed me. I filled all the papers, then waited around 7 hours until I got the accomodation. But all over, IAESTE comittee was great, we had so much fun together, they organised trips for us during August and September. Everyone had his buddy, who took care of them. They were very helpfull.

In Manipal is every summer more than 100 interns from all around the world.

Close to the university in new, awesome fitness centre. The membership is quite expensive and
hard to get, but it's absolutely worth it. Other option is swimming pool. This one is cheap,
but you need swimming suit (they don't allow bikini) and swimming cap. Hours for girl and guys
and divided.

Food is delicious! ...and spicy. You have big selection of indian, chinese and "european" food. (european = burgers, pizza, french fries, pasta). Southern Indian cuisine consist mainly of rice, typical bread and vegetable gravys. You can get also meat in non-veg resturants, but it's more expensive and you get only small amount of meat. In some restaurants, they have only chicken (beef and pork is quite rare). Definitely try 'Biryani','Mango Lassi' and 'Butter Chicken'.

We got SIM cards. But I used only internet connection to call home. Sometimes it's too slow for video calls, but it's fine for basic calls.

Definitely go for vaccination (typhoid and hepatitis). Then after you arrive and meet your professor. If you don't like your project, you can still change the subject or the supervisor, also if you are interested in subject you can ask for more difficult and fun topic. Other thing is - travel! As much as you can, you never know when you'll have such opportunity again. I would also recommend make some indian friends, this way you really get to know the culture.

Considering money, take smaller dollars or euros, because you can't exchange cronas. Also take summer, worn clothes, because the hummidity destroys everything and you probably end up throwing them away after your stay. Take some summery clothes, especially lightweight long pants and t-shirts with short sleeves. I would avoid t-shirts showing clevege or tank tops. Eventhough people in Manipal are quite forgiving and they are used to foreigners, other parts of India are still conservative and you have to wear long pants to work too. And take umbrella, it's esential during monsun season!

The internship is overall overwhelming. The experience was priceless. I learned and really managed to work in lab. I learned many procedures and find how to improvise with less equipment. Also I discovered interesting field which is actually close to my field of study, molecular modeling and docking studies. I also improved my english, the speaking as well as writing, because I wrote the report about my project.

IAESTE members were very close to us, we met almost every day. They helped us with everything.