My first impression of internship

Hello, everyone! Today I would like to share with you very first experıence in my internship. At this time I have an internship in Odunpazarı Municipality Building Control Directorate for two months. My Erasmus+ internship period has started from the middle of July and will end in the midst of September. Siauliai University offered me a scholarship of 600 euros per month doing the internship. To tell the truth, doing an internship with Erasmus+ mobility program is significant opportunity to experience new things in your life. Imagine, you are going to the foreign country, getting a scholarship, during the free time you can travel, improve your language skills, experience a different culture and much more!

Why did I choose Erasmus+ internship abroad?

It is an excellent opportunity to improve the experience in an area in which you are studying. I started to think about internship during my first Erasmus+ study period in Anadolu University. Moreover, you can do an internship anywhere you want, but you need to find a place abroad. Most students find internship places with the help of the Internet, but you should do this some time before your planned internship. It is possible to take a maximum of 2 months of Erasmus+ internship abroad. In addition to this, I felt that I very want to stay here in Turkey for a longer time. That is the main reason I planned my internship.

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My very first impression of my internship

Firstly, I would like to say that I was getting familiar with my internship before my Erasmus studies have ended. After my lecturer found me an internship, a few days later I already met my mentors. I remember my instructor called me, and he was very excited that he will have a foreigner trainee! He invited me to come over to their office in the municipality when I have free time. By the way, he speaks English fluently, so we did not have any language barrier issues. A day later I decided to accept the invitation and visit their office. My mentor told me where we should meet each other and after that show me the room in the municipality. I had to reach Eskişehirs Hospıtal. The fastest and the best way is to take a tramway because it takes a maximum of 20 minutes to get there. Eskişehir transportation with tramway is advanced and to go to the places you spend just a little time.

First meeting with my mentors

After I had met my mentor near Eskisehir Hospital, we went to the municipality, to their office. I found out that I have three mentors. One is an electrical engineer, and the second one is a mechanical engineer, and the last one is an architect. I realised that this internship is going to be amazing because I will also learn a lot of new things. All my mentors were speaking fluently in English language, so we did not have any problems communicating. They were speaking with me quite often, they were curious about me, wanted to find out about Lithuanian culture, food. I could admit that my mentors are one of the friendliest people I have ever met. We are not like colleagues, but more like friends. Every time you come they ask how are you, what have I done yesterday. We are always having discussions about various topics. I am happy with them. Also speaking with me they are improving their English language, and I am improving my Turkish language skills step by step.

Colleagues

During my first days of internship, I met many people in the municipality. When they found out that there is foreigner doing a traineeship in the building control directorate, our office was full of people. Imagine, even if they do not know English, they try to communicate with you. I just have one problem, it is very hard to remember so many names. When I meet many new people every day, it is hard to remember all the names. Time by time I need to ask for their names and memorise them. It is good that they understand me. Colleagues always try to speak with me, ask how I am. They are planning some trips to Istanbul, to which maybe I will effort to go. It would be very nice to spend time with them.

They are open-minded, generous, friendly, socialised people which I like to have a conversation with. Sometimes they pay lunch for me, I am not so comfortable with that, but it is Turkish people hospitality. There are also some adolescents working in the canteen who greeted me warmly. They do not know English, but they are also interested in me. It is great having a foreigner friend, isn't it? I am looking forward to speaking with them when I improve my Turkish-speaking skills.

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Municipality

I found municipality huge. In total, there are three municipalities in Eskisehir. There are an enormous amount of people working here; it can be more than one thousand. Our municipality has more than 30 departments. In Building Control Directorate you can find a lot of engineers working, mostly civil engineers and architects. It is very great opportunity to meet these people and ask questions about their work. The municipality also has an inner garden with tables and sitting places in which you can come to relax during your free time. You can find people there very often. Near the park there is Porsuk river is flowing, there are some trees, it is quieter. People love to come there to drink tea and have a conversation. Municipality also has a small canteen. You can call them and order roasted sandwiches, tea, coffee and other beverages. Before you finish your work day, a person from the restaurant comes, and you should pay for what you have ordered that day.

Our municipality also has transport service department. If you have some business related to your job, for example, you need to control a building, you can go there and wait for the car to pick you up. These cars will take you anywhere you need. To tell the truth, inside you can find municipality nothing too special, but it does not matter. In my opinion, people are making it unique.

Our workplace

Before I came, my mentors were working all together in one small office. Office could be bigger, but the municipality could not give larger room because all of them are already occupied. We do not have a window! During the working hours, a lot of people are coming to the office for the consultation, for business purposes, so without a window, we do not have fresh air to eat. But this is not a problem because we are going to sit in municipalities park quite often. Turkish people like to drink tea outside; I like this tea drinking culture. In general, it is a small office. At least we have a ventilator to cool down the room little bit. Also, there are a lot of document archives in our office.

Introduction to our job

In my opinion, our job is not very difficult. Mostly we are going to control the buildings across the city. In this case, controlling a building means to check and detect mistakes, to check if everything is according to the project. Nevertheless, you also must look to the projects model, usually people are painting their building not in a colour as it should be in the project. I have no idea why they are doing this. However, if you have painted your building incorrectly, for sure, you will have to repaint it according to the project. To paint an 4 or more floor building it is expensive, isn't it? Especially if you have to repaint it, you pay double money for a not logical decision.

My mentors are also controlling the buildings according to their area. Mechanical Engineer can not check the architectural project. Mostly you can detect the mistakes by looking to the architectural project. Sometimes people are making enormous mistakes because they try to build not according to the project. These errors can cause building collapsing because the load is not shared equally between the columns. It is strange for me why Turkish people are making this kind of error. If you have your building designed and architecture did a project, you should follow it no matter what.

When we are finishing the building controlling, we get back to our office and consult people. Of course, I can not ask them because of insufficient knowledge of the Turkish language. But listening to them I am learning because I can understand some sentences. During our free time, we are having discussions about various topics. Discussing with open-minded people is fascinating. In the same time, I am improving in civil engineering area, improving English language speaking skills and improving my Turkish knowledge skills.

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I look forward to finding of everything I can during this internship. During my free time, I already have plans to travel to Turkey. Guys, if you have the opportunity to take Erasmus+ Internship, just do it! You are not going to regret.

And if you are still unsure whether it's worth it, check our our post: Internship Abroad: What Are the Advantages and Benefits? Is It Really Worth It?

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