Meet Victoria in New York!

"It is worth the experience! You will meet so many great people, you will live a totally different life and learn how to deal with challenging situations on your own. It will definitely make you grow and everybody should take the chance and go abroad! You will not regret it!"
Victoria is from Germany and is currently doing an internship in New York City. We asked her some questions about her experiences, read the full interview here.

Why did you choose to go abroad?
First of all, I wanted to improve my English skills. Since I’m a translator and interpreter for French and German I wanted to expand my knowledge to English as well.
I travelled to New York City for the first time about 4 years ago and came back ever since. I fell immediately in love with this awesome city and dreamt of living here for a longer period of time.

How did you find your internship?
I found my internship at this company through Stage USA.

How do you feel about your internship so far?
I feel so thankful. My work is interesting but I especially want to point out that I’ve never met so many kind and supportive people like I did during the last months.

How does the American culture differ from your culture and what has impressed you the most?
I immediately recognized that everybody is way more welcoming in the US than back home in Germany. Even when you talk to people you barely know, they always make you feel comfortable.

Could you take us through a day? What is your routine?
From Monday through Friday, I get up at around 7:45 in the morning. I meet my roommates in the kitchen before they both leave for work. At 10, I start working. Every Monday, we have a morning meeting to talk about upcoming events and plans for the week. After that, I work on different projects until I get off at around 5:30pm.

After work, I go home or go shopping groceries and meet friends and other interns after work. When the weather was still warmer, we used to check out different rooftop and outdoor bars.

What is your housing situation?
For the first 4 weeks, my living situation was a little difficult because I lived basically in the living room. So whenever one of my roommates left the apartment/ wanted to use the restroom or just go to their rooms they had to walk through my room. But it was a convenient solution since I was able to rent this room from back home.
After 4 weeks, I moved in with two girls, one of them was the one who was subletting the “living room”. My current apartment is just two blocks away from the old apartment and I just love the area, everybody who is familiar with New York City can probably admit that the West Village is one of the most beautiful areas in Manhattan.

Have you made any trips so far? (Or have you trips planned/in mind?)
I went to Washington DC for 3 days to see a friend there who spent the weekend there with his parents. I was visiting all the memorials as well as a huge amount of different museums. I was especially impressed by the Holocaust Museum. This is definitely worth a visit!

What are your future plans?
I will stay in New York City for another three months now. After that, I don’t have any plans yet. Right now, I try to figure out what I would like to do after this internships and what possible opportunities I have in the States.

How has this experience abroad helped you grow both professionally and personally?
It helped me grow a lot, especially personally. I’ve never lived on my own before and I sometimes I had to deal with anxiety. The first week I got here, my anxiety was very bad and it was really challenging for me. But after the first two weeks, everything got so much better! Now I feel so relieved, because all my anxieties have gone and I’ve barely been so happy and satisfied in my life.

Why would you recommend others to do their internship/traineeship abroad?
It is worth the experience! You will meet so many great people, you will live a totally different life and learn how to deal with challenging situations on your own. It will definitely make you grow and everybody should take the chance and go abroad! You will not regret it!

If you could express your internship experience in three words, what would these be?
BEST EXPERIENCE EVER