From Internship to EVS

Edyta is a young psychologist from Poland who decided to take life in her own hands and came to Spain. She had a lot of fun,   and she has learnt many things there. Edyta also met many interesting people from different cultures and that made her personality stronger and more open-minded.

Questions to be answered by Erasmus interns:

1. Present yourself.

Hello! I am Edyta from Poland, Poznan. I am 26 years old. On December I finished my Erasmus+ internship. I studied psychology, so my working task was related to that field. I like meeting new cultures, I like culture in the meaning that I like cinema, music and all the stuff. I like travelling and I would like to take from life as much as I can; therefore, I would like to try all the possibilities that come to my life and it was one of the reasons why I decided to do an internship in Spain.

2. Where are you doing your internship (where are you from)?

As I told in the first question, I was doing an internship in Spain, in the fantastic city called Ciudad Real situated almost in the middle of Spain, in Mille Cunti Asociacion. It gave me a lot of opportunities because we had projects in psychiatry.

3. Why did you decide for the internship?

I decided to try an internship because I always wanted to experience Erasmus+ and I thought that after graduation it is the last opportunity to do it. I think it is phenomenal to try to live abroad, experience different cultures, to meet new people, language, habits and to improve skills in other environments. Also, I think it is very good to develop your personality and self-confidence.

4. What did you study?

I studied elementary education in combination with English and social therapy with health promotion and psychology.

5. What did you learn there?

This is a very difficult question because I think I learnt things that are not visible, I mean in my personal life. I think I became more open, I know more what I want from life and I am more confident about the goals that I can achieve comparing to the past. Of course, some more soft skills like the basics of Spanish. In practical skills I practised how to work with patients I think I improved my creativity because I was supposed to prepare a lot of activities and it was very interesting for me. I learnt how to work in the team – I improved it a lot and how to work in a multicultural environment.

6. Did your expectations meet with the reality there?

I did not have big expectations so it is hard to answer the question. I do not know, for example, I did not expect that I would experience cultural shock because I was sure that I am a very flexible person so it could not happen to me but on the beginning, to be honest, I experienced it but it was a very important and surprising for me. There were, of course, some obvious expectations like meeting new and interesting people, and that I will have some adventures – and of course all these things happened!

7. What about the culture of the country you stayed in?

Estupendoooo. It is quite different than mine. I learnt here how to relax. How to not to be in a rush. I like that people really appreciate their time, that they can find life-work balance that is important for me. In general, I think that Spanish people are really open and nice. For me, the time of eating was very surprising because people here eat very very late. And I like siesta haha.

8. Was it hard to change your life from one day to another day?

It was not easy because from one day to another day I was put in the completely different reality; therefore, it was a bit hard at the beginning but after this experience, I feel more powerful that I can adapt to many situations. In the beginning, it was also difficult because I did not speak Spanish at all and here not many people speak English so it was awkward to communicate but after some time I made some friends and it was very good.

9. Can you tell us something very interesting about your experience?

I tried hitchhiking to Toledo for the first time in my life and I was caught by police.

10. Do you have any funny story?

We were hitchhiking from Ciudad Real to Toledo because we decided to have a trip with my flatmate. From the beginning, it was very easy and we got to Toledo fast but hitchhiking back was pretty complicated because we did it in the evening and it was quite dangerous so Police came to us and told us that we should stop it and recommended us to find a hostel to stay per night. Luckily my friend has friends in Toledo and they recommend us a place to stay. So we stayed in the hostel – castle with the breakfast. So it was not such a bad decision. Next day we started again and we were waiting around two hours for the car but luckily good people exist.

11. What about the people you met there?

I met a lot of very interesting people from other countries so for me it is very interesting to hear other stories and some of them became my real friends and I really appreciate it. It was a very uncommon experience to live in the flat with people from Turkey, Pakistan, Italy and Slovakia. We were preparing dinners together with our national food so we had always something new, we had a lot of fun together. With some people, we are like family because we are in a very similar situation. We have tried to support each other as much as we can. I think there are not bounders between us even we are from different cultures.

12. Do you think the internship improve the skills you got at university?

Yes, definitely. I prepared a workshop about eating disorders and it was the first time that I was leading workshop in psychologist position, so I  can compare what I learnt at university and in real life. I have the possibility to go to the different units of psychiatry so as a psychologist it is very important for me because can meet patients and I can work with them. this is something that I could never experience at university because I could only read about it.

13. Do you recommend Erasmus internship to other people?

Definitely yes. I think if someone has the feeling that would like to work and live abroad this is a great opportunity and definitely, you should take it. I can say my internship was so good that I decided to do EVS here, in the same position and in the same city.

Written by Edyta Jasinska from Poland