Work

I was very happy with my employer. On my first day, I received a warm welcome and got on famously with all my colleagues and the boss right from the start. Teaching me something and making the internship a positive experience for me was noticeably close to their hearts. I was given a desk with a computer and a small German flag, as well as a wide-ranging schedule, which was more of a suggestion than a fixed program. During the lunch breaks we gathered at the conference table and talked about differences between Iran and Germany. This has been a gladly used opportunity to exchange vocabulary in Farsi and German as well.

I spent the first few days of work translating summaries of company projects from English to German. This was not a particularly exciting task, but it was a good start to get to know the company's work better and to polish up my technical vocabulary in English. As the internship progressed, I learned quite a lot about hydraulic systems and piping. One project I was involved in was the design of a pumping station to supply water to a copper mine. For this, I had to determine the required properties of the pumps for different scenarios and then request suitable products from manufacturers. This is not so easy to be done due to the economic sanctions. Of the manufacturers from abroad that I contacted, none were allowed or willing to do business with Iran. My boss even took me on a business trip to Kerman province with two other engineers to analyze the piping system of a large copper mining complex. I am very grateful that I joined this trip, as it allowed me to see the theoretical considerations that I had been dealing with in the office put into practice. I learned a lot about copper mining there, as well as about water supply and the surveying of potential building ground, which is an unusual task for a mechanical engineer, thus widened my skills in general engineering fields.

Experience

The accommodation was about what you would expect from a student dormitory. Everyone has a single room, even with its own refrigerator, bed, desk, closet. In addition, there was a spacious kitchen with minor equipment. Two bathrooms were in the hallway - one with, one without a lizard. In Iran, a dormitory is naturally segregated by gender. However, the women's accommodations were in the adjacent building, so it was easy to arrange to meet outside the door. During my stay, there were several other IAESTE interns there, so I was in good company after work and while traveling. However, the locals are also very sociable and don't mind much if there is a language barrier. Since Iran has much more to offer than Tehran, it is a good idea to use the weekends for trips to other cities. One weekend I went to Gilan province with some friends to visit Rasht, Masouleh and Bandar Anzali at the Caspian Sea. In the north of Iran, there is more frequent rain, so the landscape there is much greener than in the other parts. Masouleh is a small mountain village that creates a very cozy atmosphere because of the stepped arrangement of the houses. The roof of one is practically the terrace of the other. Corridors and stairs wind between the houses. There we met locals, with whom we went hiking, before enjoying a fantastic dinner with their family, where we were then allowed to spend the night. When the working period was over, I traveled for two weeks through the country with two friends who were IAESTE interns too. We were in Isfahan, Shiraz, on the islands Qeshm and Hormuz in the Persian Gulf as well as in Yazd and in the desert near Varzaneh. We experienced many adventures, met a lot of people and admired all kinds of impressive buildings and geosites.

Discover

To be honest, I had little idea about Iran before my trip. I expected a very religious population living between desert and concrete. The first impressions on site were therefore promising. Tehran presents itself as a city with a high pulse, where cabs and motorcycles roar through the sea of lights of the quite existing infrastructure. The young average age is also immediately noticeable. Things I learned about Iran are that it is a four season country with loads of very beautiful places, a huge variety of ethnicities and regional cultural subtleties, that there are many highly educated people (especially women in engineering), that the hospitality of Iranians is limitless and how politics can influence the daily life of people. However, in my opinion, the most important aspect of an internship like this is to see that there are beauties and difficult things on this planet that you might not be aware of at home and even if they are far away, that these exist today and involve people like you and me.