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Edition 2017 Internship Booklet Are you ready for the international experience? IAESTE IS ALL ABOUT INTERNATIONAL INTERNSHIPS. IAESTE provides a fun way to discover the world, by working abroad. In this internship booklet you can read stories written by students, just like you, who went abroad last summer with IAESTE. The goal of this booklet is to give you some impressions, to remove all doubts and to give you the chance to get this great experience for yourself! IAESTE is active in Ghent, Enjoy reading and we hope to Leuven and Brussels. The co- see you on the next IAESTE operating institutes are UGent, activity; sometime, someplace, KUL, VUB and ULB. If you are in somewhere in the world. your 3rd Bachelor or master in engineering, bio-engineering or sciences at one of these institutes you are able to Gert Weutens, Jelle Lanting participate in IAESTE. and Liesbeth De Ryckere Visit www.iaeste.be Facebook: IAESTE Belgium Don’t hesitate to e-mail us! LC Presidents 2017-2018 Gent: [email protected] Brussels: [email protected] Leuven: [email protected] !3 Andrée De Cock – Ghent University – Bioscience Engineering – Brno, Czech Republic CZECH REPUBLIC ANDRÉE DE COCK My name is Andrée. I study bio- science engineering at the university of Ghent. Trough IAESTE Ghent I got the opportunity to do an internship at the University of Brno. Brno is the second largest city in Czech republic and I totally loved it. I was an intern at the faculty of chemistry for six weeks during summer holidays. This IAESTE internship was such an amazing experience! Not only did I gain some more knowledge on Brno, educaIonal level, I lived in another county by myself for the first Ime. Czech This gave me the chance to discover Republic the Czech culture, to meet new people, make new friends and to develop myself as a person. answer my quesIons. I am very exhibiIons,… During the weekends thankful for that, and will probably we made some trips with the The different topics and projects, I cherish this insight for the years to interns to some places nearby, such was involved in at the faculty of come. It was also very interesIng to as Vienna and Prague, both chemistry, gave me an overview and integrate and work in another beauIful ciIes! Also, IAESTE Czech idea of the subjects the faculty university. In this way I discovered republic organised a kayak weekend deals with. This smulated my different habits, rules and on the Vltava river. Here I interest to get to improve my behaviour of the people working at discovered the crazy drinking habits knowledge in this field. In this way it the faculty of chemistry. of the Czech people. They get up certainly helped me to widen my and have a beer, drink the whole view on “my” master specialisaIon, An IAESTE internship is, of course, day and rest of the night… Never which is chemistry. not only about the internship. I did seen anything like that. And did you so many great things and made know Czech beer is cheaper then Also I learned that working in a high such amazing memories apart from water…..?! Not only the beer was standard scienIfic organisaIon is my work. I explored Brno, the city I cheap, Czech republic, in general, not only about scienIfic knowledge lived in for 6 weeks. It was a calm was a cheap place to live. and analyIcs. It is a lot about and quiet city in the summer period Restaurants, café’s, public transport, people and communicaon. My because there were no students. cinema… And also the room I stayed supervisor and colleges were very Although there were sIll some nice in, located in a student resort, was kind and helpful. They trusted me in organised events like a beer fesIval, half the price we pay in Belgium for what I was doing and took Ime for open air movies, beer yoga, art a room. me to explain me new tasks and !4 Andrée De Cock – Ghent University – Bioscience Engineering – Brno, Czech Republic Also, during my internship I culture. Not so healthy and a lot, discovered step by step the Czech really a lot of meat. And yeah… I am culture. In my experience, Czech kind of vegetarian so not the CZECH people are an introvert populaIon. perfect combinaIon. They were almost never the first one to show interest in me, as a During this internship I met a lot of REPUBLIC foreign person. Although aZer a awesome people from all around while I noIced that they opened up the world. Mexico, Bosnia, Ecuador, when you show them you are Colombia, Panama, Colorado, sincerely interested in them. And Scotland, Macedonia, Russia, then they are absolutely prepared Turkey,… Those six weeks went by to tell you everything about their so extremely fast. I wish I could life style, habits, educaonal have been there for a longer system, must visits in Czech period. I can only say: Don’t doubt, republic, beer and wine suggesIon just do it!! etc. One thing I must admit.. I did not really like the Czech food !5 Annelies VAndekerckhove - Ghent University - Master of Science in SustAinAble MateriAl Engineering - Quito, EcuAdor ECUADOR ANNELIES VANDEKERCKHOVE AZer coming back from an amazing erasmus experience in my first master year I realized I couldn’t get enough of the internaIonal experience. Unfortunately a second erasmus during my master was no opIon so I decided to wait unIl I would graduate to go abroad again. In June that moment had finally come and immediately aZer my graduaIon I leZ to Quito for a 3 month internship. And wow, it has been an amazing summer. When I arrived in Quito everything went very smoothly; Johanna from the Ecuadorian IAESTE commibee Quito, was waiIng for me at the airport with a name tag and gave me a Ecuador warm welcome. Soon we were heading to the hostel which was my home for the past 3 months. It was a one hour drive on which I My internship was in a company really close friends aZer spending immediately was impressed by the called Grüntec. They provide all the lunch breaks together. amazing views around Quito, being environmental services to other Alejandra, my best friend at work surrounded by the immensely high companies, for example analyzing even invited me on a family event, mountains of the Andes. The waste water or soil samples from with her grandparents, aunts, neighborhood where our hostel was food or petroleum companies to uncles, cousins etc and this was a located was very nice, on a steep check wether they respect the really cool opportunity to hill with nice views and around the environmental guidelines. Grüntec experience the real Ecuadorian corner we had lible local fruit, was founded by a German couple, family culture. vegetable and meat markets, which and this reflected in strict working were very convenient during my hours and rules. Every day I worked AZer work, there was no Ime for whole stay. The hostel was rented from 8 Il 5 and I really learned a rest, I took Spanish classes, which only for IAESTE trainees so I was lot. They gave me the chance to for me added a lot of value to my living together with more or less 15 pracIce mulIple analyIcal methods stay. AZer some Ime I could other students from all over the and even develop and improve one conversate with my colleagues that world. It was preby cool to come method which was quite new in the didn’t speak english and of course home and always have friends company, e.g. cyanide in general it made every day life so around, cook together, chill determinaIon in soils. Definitely, I much easier. In the evenings, we together, listen to music, pracIce can say that I gained a lot of someImes went to clubs, dancing Spanish with my roommate etc. No knowledge from this experience to reggaeton all night long, well at need to tell you that we had the and would recommend it to least unIl 2 am as the clubs in Quito best Ime ever in the hostel and I anyone. I really liked working for closed preby early. wouldn’t have wanted to live in any Grüntec, all my colleagues were other place. extremely nice and we became !6 Annelies VAndekerckhove - Ghent University - Master of Science in SustAinAble MateriAl Engineering - Quito, EcuAdor Every single weekend, we made a Salinas, Otavalo, Cuicocha, Tena, weekendtrip with the whole hostel Mitad del Mundo, Papallacte, group. SomeImes far, then we leZ Riobamba and Chimborazu. As you on a Friday evening and took a just read, we have almost seen ECUADOR night bus, someImes closer, and whole Ecuador, which is very cool. then we leZ Saturday early On top of that, I took some days off morning. One thing was for sure, to visit the famous Galapagos the weekend was not meant to islands. It’s expensive but believe rest! We went to Cotopaxi, me, so worth it! Quilotoa, Banos, Puerto Lopez, Isla de la Plata, Montanita, Mindo, Rucu No words can describe how Pichincha, Cuyabeno, Guayaquil, awesome the past 3 months have !7 Annelies Verheijen – KU Leuven – Engineering-Architecture – Łódź, PolAnd POLAND ANNELIES VERHEIJEN Last summer I did an internship in Łódź, Poland. A city nobody has ever heard of and everyone pronounces wrong. It was the best me of my life! The flight took only two hours. By chance, there was another person from Belgium on the same plane who was having an internship in the same city.