West coast of Norway, Bergen

Bergen (around 270000 inhabitants) lies on the west coast of Norway, surrounded by mountains and fjords which results in very frequent rains but the city itself is very beautiful that so many things to offer, great for small as well bigger hikes, great city for students.

Bergen is called "gateway to fjords" - countless trips to Sognefjord, Hardangerfjord, surroundings islands and mountains - great place for nature lovers.

University of Bergen, Department of Physics and Technology

The work was different than what was written at the description. I didn't work with helium microscope but the project dealt with patterning of PDMS microstructures on SU-8 2000 coated substrate. PDMS is a popular material to fashion microfluidic devices. It is assumed that height of PDMS pillars influence its hydrophobicity meaning that at certain height a hydrophilic liquid can flow freely. The aim of the project was to create suitable master mould for nanoimprinting to gain the PDMS with different height of pillars.

The problem was that almost everyone went on holiday at least for 5 weeks even my supervisor. So I worked with another postdoc but she had some other important stuff to do. So it means that even T wanted to work more and have more results I couldn't. Also, some machines didn't work as well and there was no one during the summer who could fix it. To sum it up, the work wasn't really that exciting but I have learned something new and I am really glad for this opportunity, though.

18000 NOK/month + around 11% taxes (hopefully will be refunded next year)

Excellent English

5000 NOK/month provided by IAESTE (not easy to find something cheaper, especially in the city centre and during summer vacation, usually it can be even more expensive).

Pick-up at the airport by IAESTE member, meeting other members during summer as well, barbecue, parties and one IAESTE weekend during my stay.

There were three other trainees working at the Department of Biology but they spent most of the time at the fieldwork + one other trainee working outside of Bergen in a small town called Vik.

Bergen is a great city for hiking and outdoor sports in general.

Fish and mostly fish. Norwegian cuisine is not very rich rather modest.

Skype, WhatsApp,...

Enjoy every moment in this beautiful country, profit from every sunshine and have some savings.

Waterproof jacket, raincoat, hiking shoes, backpack, sleeping bag, warm clothes.

New work experience, cultural experience, the best way how to meet and know better local people, explore this beautiful country.

Everything went well, the Norwegians are very nice and friendly people. The only problem was with the salary and taxes - the Summer coordinator probably didn't have enough information from previous years so she wasn't able to tell us when we were supposed to get the salary and how much the taxes are - but at the end everything was sorted out and we got the salary eventually (although very late). But in general, I can't complain since everyone was very nice to us and tried to be helpful.