From August 1 to October 25 2012 I did an IAESTE internship in the nice little city (about 130 000 inhabitants) of Botucatu, located in the state of Sao Paulo in Brazil. I worked there with an international team of doctoral students from India, Canada and Brazil on the topic of nano-cellulose and fibres, vegetal and bacterial nano-cellulose. I was given a lot of responsibility and was able to work independently in a laboratory, where I produced bacterial cellulose. Moreover, I assisted in other projects on nano-cellulose and fibres in the working group of Prof. Alcides Leão, who was really warm-hearted and nice. He or my colleges helped me whenever I needed them or had a question. I also participated in Prof. Alcides Leão’s lecture on environmental sciences. Thus I could join excursions in connection with the lectures (e.g. to a Eucalyptus industry, where they showed us a plantation, the harvesting, processing, chemical treatment and purification of Eucalyptus, and a huge iron plant: we heard a presentation there and got a guided tour through the company). One day I assisted in a project of one of the doctoral students: we sorted and weighed municipal waste on a land-fill. It was part of a project to get information on the inhabitants‘ behavior concerning waste disposal.
My accommodation was nice and relatively near to the university (about 20 minutes by foot, 10 minutes by bike). I lived in a student house, which are called “republica” in Brazil. I lived there together with eight girls and one boy. I shared my room with another girl. The house had one kitchen, a living room, three little bathrooms and a little inner courtyard. The price for food was not included in the costs IAESTE had told me. So I paid 250 R$ per month for living and an additional 100 R$ for food. The girls were very friendly and we did nice trips together.
In my leisure time I had the opportunity to visit some beautiful places in Brazil. For us IAESTE students, Campus Brasil organized some very nice trips. We had to pay in advance via PayPal (which was easy and hassle-free) and I went to Ubatuba, Rio de Janeiro and Paraty with Campus Brasil. Meeting IAESTE students from all over the world on these trips and becoming friends with them was a very precious experience. Also the guides where very friendly. I really enjoyed the trips, although organizing the trips on our own would have been much cheaper.
In my opinion, doing an internship abroad is a unique opportunity to get to know different cultures, meet interesting new people and widen your personal horizon. Also, it makes one much more responsible and Independent.