My university in Rostock requires every student to go on an internship for at least four months. And most of the time the people just find something nearby, maybe in a town like Hamburg, which is not too far away. If close-to-home is what you want you might even accept a rather boring internship that consits of coding html or similar, but some people just want the opposite. Get as far away as you can.

So did I. I signed up with the AIESEC student organisation. It was founded in the late 50s or early 60s I think by a group of Finnish students if I am not mistaken who were kinda fed up with history so far (who wasnt..) and decided that cultural exchange is a good way to ensure peace in the future. But it does not matter if you are a pacifist or not if you want to go on an internship. Basically you sign up, visit a couple of meetings to get to know people, and your data including your resumee gets posted in their database which is searched by companies looking for interns worldwide. Thats how I ended up to be in Japan. Do I even need to mention that AIESEC is an excellent organization? No, I dont. It should be obvious by now. When I arrived at my destination I was picked up by a handful of AIESEC people at the airport and it was great from the beginning. They took care of most things, beaurocracy, housing etc. and spiced up my life here with meetings and parties. (Japanese drinking parties! Maybe more on that in a later post.)

So I am thankful to them for making my stay so far so enjoyable and hope that if you read this and if you are looking for an internship you just surf up their website to find out more and then go to the AIESEC office in your university to sign up. Chances are good your school has one. Just ask around.

The website is www.aiesec.org.