I chose to carry out my summer internship in Spain. I have always wanted to visit this country, so Spain was my first choice. Before my internship began, I had spoken with my classmate and we had decided to spend four weeks of the internship in Spain together. At first we wished to be placed in Valencia or Cadiz. After all we ended up in a small town called Albacete. When we arrived, our contact persons were already waiting for us at the bus station. Then they showed us our flats. The flats were very comfortable- four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room in each one. As far as Albacete is a small town, besides me and my classmate, there were only eight other incomings- from Lebanon, Mexico, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and three more from Slovakia.
I was assigned to the department of Neurosurgery. In Spain, you have to put a lot of effort into finding a doctor who can speak English. Fortunately, my supervising doctor had been working in the United States and Sweden, so he spoke English fluently. He also tried to teach me a lot of new things from Surgery, Neurology and Radiology. In my opinion, Neurosurgery in Albacete is a very good place for summer exchange for students interested in this field of medicine.
As far as food is concerned, we had a lunch and dinner in the hospital every day (from Monday till Sunday). We could choose two meals from five, a soup, salad, fish, pasta and meat, a desert such as pudding or yogurt was included, as well. However, when we travelled we aimed to try especially typical spanish food, e.g. paella in Valencia, fity-fity wine in Córdoba and calamari in Madrid.
Undoubtedly, the social programme was the best part of the summer exchange. The first weekend national trip to Valencia was organised- we met incomings and contact persons not only from Valencia, but also from Murcia. Next weekend our contact persons organised a trip to Cuenca (one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen), Encantada ciudad (a place near Cuenca, where the erosive forces of weather formed rocks into various shapes) and Chorreras (a national park). The third weekend seven of us, incomings, planned a trip to Córdoba and the last weekend we spent in Madrid.
In the end I would like to recommed the internship in Albacete to everyone, who intends to meet great new people- not only medical students, who will take care of them, but also doctors and local people. Although Albacete is not as famous as Madrid or Barcelona, it is situated among Murcia, Valencia, Madrid, Córdoba, Granada, so you can easily travel to all these cities. Moreover you don´t have to pay for public transport, since you can get everywhere on foot. Eventually you will pray it could last longer than a month.
