Internship Feedback

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Bc. Marie Kubů, ,

ročník 4

About the country

Location of the place

Agricultural University is close to the city center by metro and it is 15 minutes walking to the metro station from the uni.

City

Athens were a bit dissapointment for me. The city is dirty, all covered with graphity (even the university), and sometimes I did not feel very safe there. The city center is better but you need to be ready that everybody wants to make some money on tourists. And sure you have to be ready for strikes and delays :D

Surroundings (possible trips, ...)

"I lived at Kato Patissia which I would not reccommend to you as it is not very nice over there. And as I said, when it was dark, it did not feel safe there.
Otherwise it was always the best to make a trip during the weekends and not stay in the city. It took me 1 week to explore the sightseeings in Athens and then I prefered to buy ferry tickets and travel to the islands. Definetely go to Hydra island and Paros, these were my most favourite places in Greece."

Employer

My professor was great, he took my work seriously and he always tried to explain everything properly.

Work description

I worked in a Lab of Microbiology but I did not do anything regarding microbiology. I mostly did titration of samples for another PhD. student. I also had my small project about osmotic dehydration of Kalamata olives.

Salary (sufficient for local conditions?)

400 euros - not very sufficient if you have a high rent and if you want to travel. Also food is quite expensive there but it is not impossible to live with low costs.

Language requirements

English - at uni everybody can speak english, also in shops etc it was okay

Accommodation (price, who provided it)

IAESTE offered me a flat for 270 euros per month but I stayed via Airbnb with my boyfriend

Social life

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

"In the beginning there was only one girl from India who was also at the internship at Agricultural University and who helped me with the first day at uni. After 1 month two other girls arrived and we did some trips togethers.
Noone picked me up from the airport, I had to take a bus to get to my place.
By IAESTE there were sometimes some events organised (f.e. beach, cinema,..) but mostly I was doing stuffs by myself.
"

Meeting other foreign students

As holidays started when I arrived there were not many students to join or make friends with but there were some people working in the lab who you could talk to or people from the IAESTE.

Sport and culture

"I searched for some sports to do I was not lucky. You can go swim in the sea (its at least 1 hour from the city) or you can play beach volleyball if you have mates to play with. Otherwise it was hard to find any sport.
There is popular open theatre which I would reccommend or open cinema."

Food, local specialties

My favourite was Souvlaki, cheap and tasty and you can find it everywhere.

Other information

Possibilites to communicate with the Czech Republic

Easily via Facebook. Girl from Czech IAESTE stayed in touch with me and asked me if everything was okay etc.

Recommendations for students who will go to the same place

Do not expect much, as I did, and you will avoid disappointment :-)

What not to forget with you

ISIC (you have free entrances)

Benefits of the internship

To see how does it work in other, foreign, labs and at foreign university.

Cooperation with IAESTE in the foreign country

It went smoothly.

Overall experience with IAESTE

Good experience for life but for my next internship I would choose different country (depends on what you expect from the intersnhip).

Student's website

If you want to know more information, do not hesitate to ask me: [email protected] There you can see my video from the intership: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ-kfIvrJN4