My research project takes place at the Institute of Molecular Bioscience (IMB), a separate part of the University of Queensland. The IMB is dedicated to research only and disposes of top of the bill machines leading to very high quality research.

Brisbane is located in the middle of the west coast of Australia. It’s the third largest city of Australia and since it’s ‘Down Under’ it’s summer over here. Due to the tropical climate this means a temperature of 27-30 degrees and a very high humidity causing a lot of sweating.

The nature here is awesome. Everything is green here and a lot of national parks are close by - enough opportunities for camping and hiking through beautiful scenery.

Additionally, Brisbane is a relaxed and modern city. It has 2 million inhabitants, however, the city center is quite small making it very convenient. During the weekends there are foodmarkets all over the place offering dishes from all over the world; from Swedish to Nepalese and from Chinese to Dutch (I even had Dutch fries and ‘poffertjes’ here).

Living in Australia is quite expensive (average prices are 1.5 times higher than in the Netherlands) so the markets are a good alternative to buy your fruits and veggies since they are generally cheaper than the normal shops.

I like the city very much and I would highly recommend Brisbane for an internship.