By Autumn Brown

One afternoon last fall, at my mentor’s barbeque, I was talking about my summer plans to another professor, Dr. Clark.  I casually mentioned to him that I was looking at internships and that I thought it would be amazing if I could intern internationally but that it was hard to find them online in such a specific field (horticulture). Dr. Clark mentioned that the UofA had started a new collaboration with Edward Vision Ltd. and Berry World (one of the bigger berry breeding companies in the UK). The next day and a few emails later, I was in contact with my future boss/supervisor. 

The journey just to get to England was hard and long.  However, six months later, a very complicated visa process, countless back and forth communications, and a ridiculous amount of money later, I was headed to England!  My entire internship was independent. The company I worked with had never had an international intern before – meaning the paperwork for them was complicated too. But in the end, it all worked out and I made it to England. 

I ended up interning in Faversham, which depending on traffic, is an hour to an hour and a half from London by car.  After arriving at Heathrow, I got a cab and made my way to my new home, was given a tour of the breeding farm, and told to be ready at 8 the next morning. On the farm that I worked at, I lived in a small bungalow with a Bulgarian couple (one of who spoke very little English) and a Romanian man (who quickly became my in-country friend). The farm I worked at was a breeding farm so it was the smaller of the farms in the Company. I tended to work 40-43 hours a week doing DNA extraction, digital phenotyping, and many other things. Every weekend, I went exploring on my own.  I traveled to 12 cities, toured 10 castles and palaces, visited 7 cathedrals and chapels, saw several Roman and neolithic sites and climbed one extinct volcano.

I feel I grew emotionally and matured immensely from my time abroad, most of what I think is due to the fact that I was on my own in a different country (in essence). My first weekend there, it took me 3 taxi services and 2 hours for someone to finally find the farm I lived at and to get me to the actual town of Faversham (a ten-minute taxi ride).   After that first weekend, my traveling became much easier as I was learning how things worked by trial and error. 

I solo traveled every weekend. I figured out on my own how to ride the buses, tube and train systems, get an international sim card, my national insurance number, and much more. I had the moral support of my parents who were a big help, of course, but there was something insanely liberating about being all alone in a country. I was there for nine weeks and it was one of the best and most amazing experiences of my life! I think a person grows a lot just by traveling (even more so internationally), learning new things and meeting new people.

Unfortunately, I didn’t pick up a British accent.  The only thing I know I picked up was to call a bathroom/restroom a toilet.  The word restroom really isn’t a thing there and after having to explain myself all of the time, I just started calling it a toilet like the locals. 

Not only did I learn about British culture, I learned from my Bulgarian and Romanian roommates, had a French boss, and drank mate (a traditional South American drink) in the back of an old tour bus with an Argentinian and Polish girl who were also solo travelers. I saw amazing historical sights and learned so much, not just from what I learned in my internship.

There is a great quote from Hannan Arendt that sums up my experience pretty well,

“Loving life is easy when you are abroad. Where no one knows you and you hold your life in your hands all alone, you are more master of yourself than at any other time.”