Travel stories

Trip to Turin

As I boarded the plane to Turin, I felt both nervous and excited, since it was the first time I would be spending so much time away from home. Once we arrived at the student residence, the reception staff welcomed us kindly and took us to our room, where later we would meet Daniele, from the company Didaxe, who explained everything about the stay and the internship. On the first day at the internship company, we were given a tour of all the facilities and told what we would be doing there over the next two months. When the stay came to an end, we said goodbye to our colleagues and internship supervisors. The next day, we went to Milan to catch the return flight to Barcelona, satisfied with everything we had experienced.

Impressions of the Country

I really like Italy in general, because the people tend to be very open and friendly—especially the food. This wasn’t my first time in Italy, but it was my first time in Turin. I was surprised by the difference in climate, as it’s quite a bit colder than back home and it rains a lot, especially during the spring months. Another thing I found difficult to get used to was the language. Even though it’s similar to Catalan or Spanish, it’s hard to understand when spoken quickly.

Trips

Most of the leisure activities we did were within Turin. Some of them were with other Erasmus interns and people from the student residence. We visited parks and squares such as Piazza Castello and Parco del Valentino, walked around the streets, and went to some shopping centers in the city. Regarding museums, we only visited the Automobile Museum of Turin. Although we wanted to go to more museums, the bad weather stopped us several times. Outside of Turin, we also spent a day in Milan, where we walked around the city center and saw well-known places like the Duomo and San Siro stadium.

Internship

The tasks we carried out at the company mainly consisted of solving issues with classroom and teacher computers at the institute, such as replacing hardware or installing and uninstalling software. In addition, halfway through the stay, together with the other interns (myself, Bernat, and two students from Portugal), we divided the tasks to be done. In my case, I worked with another colleague repairing old laptops that had been discarded, to donate them to people in need. The software we used most frequently included spreadsheet and document applications, which we used to keep track of the incidents we had resolved or still needed to address. I also had to use software to wipe the hard drives of the laptops.

The Company

At the institute where we did our internship, there was a good atmosphere between the staff and the students. Despite the language barrier, I felt welcomed and overall had a very positive experience. Since I hadn’t worked before, I couldn’t compare it with other workplaces, but what stood out the most to me was the flexibility we had with the schedule—both for breaks and departure times—depending on the tasks we needed to complete.