Internship report: Kuan Huang

My name is Kuan Huang. I am from China, but I came to the Cardiff EDC via my university in Germany. I have been studying a Masters Degree in British Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin.

I arrived in the middle of June for a three-month internship at Cardiff EDC. The main reason I chose to do an internship here was the opportunity to work in an EU related institution and to develop a deeper insight of the relationship between the UK and EU. Interestingly, I experienced the ‘Brexit’ time while doing the internship in Cardiff. There are so many discussions going on and obviously it has never been such a critical moment between the UK and EU.

Regarding accommodation, fortunately enough, I did not need to search for a room when I arrived because I found one when I was still in Germany and everything went well. The location was pretty good, which meant just a 10-minute walk to the university and a 10-minute walk to the city centre. One thing about Cardiff I like a lot is its walkable size but still full of cultural events and wonderful student lives. If your accommodation is not too far from the city, you can easily save the transportation expenses.
Cardiff EDC is a major source of information and policies of the EU, offering access to substantial academic materials for general public. If you are interested in EU institutions or EU policies, Cardiff EDC is definitely a place you cannot miss.

The permanent staff members are Ian, Fred and Ceri, who are very friendly and helpful colleagues. And there were three full time interns this summer, including Michaela from Czech Republic, Bruno from Italy and myself. This international environment created lots of interesting discussions about current affairs and our home country issues. I feel very lucky to be their colleagues and share my opinions and experience with them.

I was assigned with a variety of different tasks during this three months. I helped to create an information guide on EU information in China, with relevant EU organisations and institutions in China. I indexed publications from the European Commission’s Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs for the ESO database and some relevant EU academic journals. Another one of my responsibilities was where I had the chance to read about the areas I was interested in. And I also helped to correct broken hyperlinks on the system in order to provide the public with more useful and accurate academic sources. Additionally, we needed to take turns to take care of the enquiry desk which was part of the library service. Overall it was a very helpful experience developing my knowledge in EU politics.

In the weekends, I liked to explore the city and try out new cafes with my housemates, which was always fun and relaxing. Visiting nearby cities is also a very good plan for the weekends. I have been to Barmouth (North Wales), Bristol, Bath, London and Edinburgh. If you come at summer time and want to chill out at the beach, Barry Island and Ogmore by sea are good choices which are not far from Cardiff. For those who like hiking, Beason Brecon national park is a good choice which you can easily reach by bus. Besides travelling, going to cinemas and theatres was also my favourite. It costs only three pounds to watch a movie with student ID. There are also many nice bars with live music every night in the city centre.

I had a very nice summer here and I am very grateful for this internship opportunity, which gave me brand new life experience in Wales. I am proud to be living in Cardiff and working at Cardiff EDC. I wish the centre all the best and recommend EDC to anyone who are interested in EU politics and academic research!