Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia

It has around one million people and it is a very calm city surrounded by a range of landscapes and beautiful coastal beaches.

There are so many places to visit, I did lots of camping trips, because the distances in Australia are quite big but definitely go for the Inneston National Park, Flinders Ranges, Kangaroo Island, Goolwa beach (if you wanna try surfing), Eyre peninsula, Mount Lofty, The Grampians, etc. It is good to find a group of people to travel around with and share the car expenses.

University of South Australia

I joined a research team focused on material and surface engineering. The aim of my project was to develop a prototype of a medical device that would enable rapid diagnosis of urinary tract infections using plasma technology. Afterwards I had the possibility to take over another project that consisted in testing antimicrobial properties of lipid coated nanoparticles.

350 AUD/week - enough to cover rent, food and a social activity from time to time. Take in mind it will not cover any traveling around Australia.

English - B2 at least

I overtook the room after another intern that was leaving. I was living in a house with 6 other people (189AUD/week + electricity bills ) in North Adelaide. It was about 11 minutes by train + 15 min walk from the university campus and about 20 min by bus to the city.

There is no IAESTE committee in Adelaide unfortunately, so there was no one to pick me up at the airport - I was lucky enough to have an AMAZING airbnb host who picked me up and showed me around during my first days in Adelaide.
There were no activities organized by IAESTE for the interns. We were nonetheless invited to an event that took place in Melbourne, but did not attend because tickets were quite expensive.

During my stay I managed to get to know other interns at the university campus, which turned out to be the best travel companions! Also Australia is the definition of multiculturalism so expect to live with students from all over the world. My housemates and neighbors became really good friends of mine as well. Australians in general are very friendly.

The university offers a lot of sport clubs, unfortunately during my stay students were on holidays, so the clubs weren't opened. Otherwise there are plenty of swimming pools around, the beach, yoga studios, HIIT. In terms of culture I felt there is always something going on in Adelaide - they have many museums and most of them are for free, many food festivals, markets, and specially if your are in Adelaide during February-March do not miss the world-renowned Fringe festival. The city comes to life during this time of the year.

There are plenty of cafes and restaurants in Adelaide. I recommend the Central market specially on Saturdays before closing time, that was my place to go for brunches and cheap fresh groceries!

Social media (WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook, etc.) - upon arrival I purchased a SIM card in Aldi - 15AUD/month for unlimited calls and 3GB of data.

Start planning everything in advance, it took me about 8 months to sort out everything (from visa, agreements, contracts, etc.) The visa process is quite tedious you need plenty of documents and it can take up to 3 months or longer to get your visa approved.
Upon arrival I did not have any accommodation sorted out, because the Australian IAESTE does not help you with that. Depending on the season it might be harder to find something, but I recommend checking out StudentRooms (https://studentrooms.com.au), if staying in Adelaide.
Also buy the concession 28-day pass for public transport - it will enable you unlimited travel for 50AUD.

Proper hiking boots, international driving license and a power plug adapter ! Otherwise everything can be purchased on the spot.

I like to think pushing yourself and getting out of your comfort zone makes you grow as a person and this experience certainly fulfilled my expectations. It was a great transition from studying to working within a highly skilled and innovative team. I got involved in a range of different projects, and acquired skills in plasma deposition, 3D printing and microbiological techniques amongst others. Also managed to get to know so many interesting people and travel around Australia.

I had some trouble before the internship even started with my contract and visa and the Australian IAESTE was not particularly responsive to my mails. I kept trying to contact them via phone to get a response from them, but it wasn't really helpful either. I must admit I was slightly disappointed with their overall approach.