Internship Feedback

Uveřejněné zprávy z praxí neprošly ani jazykovou ani textovou úpravou. Proto, prosím, omluvte chybějící „hacky a carky“, stylistické a gramatické nedokonalosti textů.

Bc Martin Rott, UCT Prague,

ročník 4

About the country

Location of the place

Manipal is a small student city in Udupi district in south India (Karnataka state).

City

Manipal is a student's city with lots of restaurants, shops, clubs and good connection with important places in Karnataka. The univesity is private, so Manipal is more international than most of the country.

Surroundings (possible trips, ...)

Udupi (5 km) - city with temples and beaches, Mangalore (60 km) - city near coast with shopping centres and airport, most of the famous places in Karnataka are available by night buses (Coorg, Hampi, Goa, Bangalore)

Employer

Manipal University, Department of Chemical Engineering
prof. S Sivasankaran

Work description

My project was production of hydrogen peroxide form water by introducing ultrasound and electrolysis to the solution. I was working with two other interns and one Indian student who was studying at the department.

Salary (sufficient for local conditions?)

In case you only visit food courts and don't travel, it is sufficient, but 6000 Rs (-15% accomodations) is not enough. For example one trip with IAESTE costs 2500 - 3500 Rs.

Language requirements

Excellent level of english is not required. Not all the interns have this level of english, also not all the locals know english well. But for communication with Indian students and people at work it's good to speak english well, but the locals usually have strong Indian accent and understanding can be very difficult sometimes.

Accommodation (price, who provided it)

Accommodation was in one of university's dormitory. It was very basic, with only bed, wardrobe, desk and chair per person in rooms for two people, three rooms in one flat, two bathrooms and entering hall. There are other dorms with higher live standards (even internationla hotel), but they have strict time, in which you have to be in your room. For us nobody controlled us so we could have parties til 3 AM.

Social life

Meeting IAESTE members (pick-up at the airport, organized events...)

Meeting local IAESTE wasn't lucky for me, because my taxi from airport to university didn't arrive so after 2 hours of waiting IAESTE contacted me and told me to pay my own taxi. Otherwise it was good. Local IAESTE members are nice, they helped me with everything I asked. Trips were well organized, only problem was amount of interns which prolonged breaks for refreshments.

Meeting other foreign students

It was the best part of internship. I have met people from all around the world, learn some new information about other countries and had a good time travelling with them to different parts of country.

Sport and culture

There are some gyms on the dorms, basketball, tennis courts, football fields. The biggest centre is Marena with running track, courts, gym, etc. But mothly fee for Marena is 1500 Rs. There is also a swimming pool near university for 200 Rs per 6 months.

Food, local specialties

Most important aspect of Indian food are spices. Nearly every food is spicy so one of the most heard sentence of interns in restaurants is "Make it non-spicy". The Indian food is quite good. Majority of people are vegetarians so menus are divided between veg and non-veg, but only meat you can get is chicken and sometimes mutton. As a suplement for lots of food they have breads (chapati, roti, naan). In Manipal you can get some european and chinese food, there are also restaurants like KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino's pizza.

Other information

Possibilites to communicate with the Czech Republic

In dorms and at the university was WiFi network so at the right places you can call home via Skype. At the begging IAESTE provided a simcard, one SMS to Czech Republic costs 5 Rs.

Recommendations for students who will go to the same place

Most importantly - relax, there are a lot of things very different from Europe (people, driving style, life standards), but you will get used to it. Read some travel articles about India and don't bring anything valuable (cloths, electronic,...). The humidity during rain season is ideal for molds, so anything can be damaged by it (cloths, laptops, even money).

What not to forget with you

Mobile phone, passport and money are the most important things. Also bring some medicines for stomach problems and even cold (lots of interns cought cold at the beginning), umbrella or raincoat is very useful, but you can buy them there.

Benefits of the internship

I have met a lot of interesting people from different countries and spend good time travelling with them. I have seen different style of life and work, wonderful nature and historic places, took my first flight and spent 8 weeks without my family.