My internship abroad in MexicoI

was one of the lucky ones to be supported by the DAAD's PROMOS program during my stay abroad. I was studying ecology and environmental protection and was firmly convinced that I wanted to do my internship semester in a company in Germany. The persuasive powers of two friends and fellow students then encouraged me to spend my fifth semester abroad with them. The main reason I decided to do an internship abroad was the experience you can gain after such a year away from home and away from the German language. Added to this was the thought that this might be the last opportunity for me to spend a longer period abroad. The choice quickly fell on Hermosillo (Mexico), as Professor Delakowitz has good contacts with the "Universidad de Sonora" (UNISON). I attended a Spanish course for three years when I was at school, but that was years ago. So I took part in the university's beginners' course again. But even then I wasn't confident with the language. After a year of preparation, during which I collected all the necessary paperwork, earned money for the trip and, above all, convinced my parents of the idea of an internship abroad in the "dangerous" country of Mexico, me and my two friends met in Berlin on the first of March to finally start our journey.

after a long, exhausting flight, we were welcomed in Hermosillo with kisses from a university lecturer. He rented us an apartment in his name and helped us get started. Over the next few days, we got to know our supervisor for the internship at UNISON. We were not entirely satisfied with our choice of topic for the internship, which we had worked out in Germany, so each of us took care of a new topic. A Mexican student on the "Sustainability" Master's course dealt with "zero waste" in her Master's thesis and designed a recycling plant for the university. Following on from this, I carried out a waste analysis, which consisted of taking samples from the university's waste containers. For this, I was given an employee, a kind of janitor or gardener, who collected the samples and helped me sort them into different categories such as paper, organic waste, PET, PVC, PS...., and weighed them. One difficulty was that he didn't speak English, but with my basic knowledge of Spanish we were able to clarify the most important things. In addition to the practical part of my project, I also researched a lot about waste management in Mexico in general and compared it with the German system

. Getting to know the country, the culture, the people and nature are also part of it. Because we were at the university and also attended some courses held in English, it was easy for us to make contacts. Everyone wanted to talk to the Germans and show them their city. Mexicans are also very hospitable. One example of this is a student who came up to us one day and apologized for her poor English. She said that she had told her mother about us and that she had invited us to her house for a family dinner. Her mother doesn't speak any English and we spoke in broken Spanish. The student also translated a lot. We were overwhelmed by the hospitality. It is unbelievable how many different people I met there who were just so welcoming. I never felt unwelcome. We were constantly invited to various events and taken to the beach, which is an hour and a half to two hours' drive from Hermosillo. We really appreciated the fact that we were able to get to know Hermosillo through the eyes of the locals. We wanted to retain this for our trip through the country. Over the course of our stay abroad, we went on various weekend trips and a ten-day trip. At the end of the internship, we traveled through Mexico for most of August. We requested couchsurfing places as often as we could, which saved us money and gave us a contact person to show us around, and

I would like to thank the PROMOS program for their support. It was a breathtaking six months in which I learned and saw so many new things. I would recommend everyone to go to Mexico and experience the culture. You can also look forward to the Mexican food! One of the first questions the Mexicans always asked was "How do you like the food?". They are very proud of their food and now that I've gotten to know and love the food, I can understand why! Our ecological footprint has grown a lot as a result of the trip, but so have our experiences. This was definitely not the last time I was in Mexico. The country is huge, the regions are very different and I haven't seen everything yet.

Mexico we'll see you again!