Best of Internal Voices 2013 | Page 8

INTERN LIFE

Each year, hundreds of young people invade Brussels to join the EU, the UN, and other institutions as trainees. And each generation of stagiaires probably goes through the same experience: Whether having graduated recently or just taking a break in-between studies, your life is suddenly turned upside down once you arrive in the European capital. In 2013, many trainees took the opportunity to write for Internal Voices about the extraordinary, the everyday routine, and the likeable peculiarities of their new Brussels life.

It is the impediments of professional life that many trainees find hard to get used to. In May, former trainee and now policy officer at the European Commission Gemma Amran told us about her experience during her traineeship and how to make the best of it in terms of your career

Anyway, Place Luxembourg. Each Thursday evening the square in front of the European Parliament’s buildings turns into the symbol of the Brussels bubble and intern life. Just in time for the new traineeship season, Lina Strandvaag Nagel and Antti Lehtinen provided us with a manual on how to handle the weekly after work craziness.

Johannes Uhl

Editor Intern life and Event sections

December 2013