“Time flies so fast, I have come here for more than one month. The working , living and learning conditions have temporarily settled down so I can share some thoughts with you about daily job and living environment in internship program I currently take part in. I hope that it will answer some questions of America-loving students and students interested in the program”- Tran Thi Hien, USA internship program participant, said.
Hello everyone,
My name is Hien. I’m currently an intern of the USA internship program (Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry) at University of Minnesota, USA. Time flies so fast, I have come here for more than one month. The working , living and learning conditions have temporarily settled down so I can share some thoughts with you about daily job and living environment in internship program I currently take part in. I hope that it will answer some questions of America-loving students and students interested in the program.
Before going to the US, I have enough basic information from USA partners such as : farm-related information, Minnesota orientation day, meeting schedule, required fees, working time in farm, learning time in university, contact information in emergency, etc. Therefore, I don’t feel too nervous before departure. I basically keep my health well, raise the spirit, prepare the personal stuff, and then pack my bag and go.
When arrived to Minneapolis airport, I and my friend had been welcomed by a beautiful and funny representative woman. She realized us first although she said we didn’t look exactly the same as our passport pictures. Then she took us back to the hotel. The hotel cost and breakfast cost was paid by the USA partners, and we paid the dinner for ourselves. The next day, there was another person in charge picking us up from the hotel to the university to join the orientation meeting.
In the orientation meeting, the director of USA organization talked to us first, and then he introduced about program information, training plan, learning curriculum, important material,etc. Everyone has a handy handbook containing necessary information and personal experience. After that, his staff helped us complete procedures such as paying the insurance, paying the administration fee, making the “social security number” (it’s like some kind of everyone’s code in USA- every transaction needs this code). The insurance expense depends on the staying period in USA. In my case,it was 1200$ insurance fee (because I stay for 15 months, the longer you stay, the more you have to pay) . The administration fee was 1100$ so the total fee was 2300$. Anyone who brought enough money from home paid at once. If you don’t have enough money, you just have to pay 600$, the remaining portion is deducted from your salary in 5months. The 1500$ tuition fee will be paid when you go to university. The learning time is 4 month compact period. You learn at the university of Minnesota and can work part time in Saturday and Sunday (depend on diffrent situation). I like this because I can focus on my learning without any distraction. I don’t start learning until January 2016 so I don’t know how the study goes and I have nothing to share about it right now. I think that the working style of USA organization is quite professional: They instruct me experince in the :Open Mind” way – it’s amazing experience if you are an outgoing and active person.
My main purpose when joining this program is improve my English skills. Besides, I like this program because it has one study semester. The opportunity to practice English is plenty here so you will have a huge advantage if you are quite good at English at home. Moreover, I learn lots about Amercica and new cultures,travel here and there. My host is Israeli and his wife is Uckrainian (she went to Isral when she was 17 ). Both of them are friendly so I learn a lot of things about American, Israeli, Russian cultures as well as Israel dishes that I never had a chance to taste when interned in Israel. (^^)
I always wanted to work in nursery farm or in organic farm and live with host family . So far my expectation is met: I work in the farm including both nursery and organic specialization, live with the host family in my own room. I’m the only Vietnamese student around here but I like to be independent like this because it makes me learn new things and keeps me active all the time.
About my job: My farm is not so big, the green house field is in my charge and only mine so I almost know all the procedures from cleaning farm, preparing the soil, seeding, transplanting, watering, fertilizing, caring, and packing and harvesting. They do in the in-house style here so they have a farm and a shop selling fresh products from the farm. My hostess cooks very weel and knows how to make many dishes out of products selling from this shop. Beside me,there are other interns, part-time workers or local workers to work with but they only work in the certain day and in the limited period. The work burden is shared among us but the selling duty is one special student’ job because he already did it last year.
My farm is growing the vegetables like : salad, carrot, potato, zucchinni, onion, leek, rose, strawberry, raspberry, cherry, apple…There are lots of them but they are grown in a small amount.
Farm also rasing chicken: 50 laying chicken and 50 chickens is gonna lay eggs in July, 100 meat chickens. I often spend 1 hour each day to take care of these cute chickens and I like the feeling of picking up eggs and organizing it into the tray.
In this time I mainly work alone. My host gives me work, instruct me carefully if don’t understand or do it by himself. The host let us independent in our job and so do other people. They gave work, instructed and let us take care by ourselves. If something is too difficult, we can phone to host or ask him to take a visit to the farm because the convenient , close locations between farm and the office. The independence is the most vital thing . I see everyone does their best at the job, play hard and work hard at the same time. They are both polite and enthusiastic.
The job is gonna busier in the summer which is the harvest season and has more clients. Now I work 7-8 hours a day and 2 hours in the Sunday. In summer, the day is long and the sun the not set until 9 PM
The work has heavy and light types, too, everything is not relaxing like you are playing. If you have gone to Israel, this work is quite simple for you. The heaviness depend on your strength and your skills. For example, if you carry a heavy water bucket, you can divide it into 2 buckets or carry 2 times, they dont force us to overwork.
About living condition: I eat with the host family so I share the machine and equipments. The personal stuff is bought and used by myself. Here they only cook dinner and breakfeast.The lunch is free style: they only eat light food which is not complex like us and they only eat for 15-30 minutes then go to work. There will be more sophisticated dishes and wine on Friday evening like a weekend welcoming party with cheer and Shabat Shalom (like Israel dose)
I live in my own room. My room is warmer and more beautiful than my expectation. They have a heating system for the whole house so it always kept warm even the outside temperature is -15 degree. The house has 3 bathrooms, 2 toilets, 2 fridges, a heater, a dish wahsing machine, a baking oven, etc .The living equipment is very sufficient from small to big things , and there some machines that I have never seen in my life. My thought is never covering up my ignorance. I always ask if I’m not sure about things.
About salary: Here they pay salary every 2 weeks, 8$ a day. The income tax is deducted depends on the amount of the salary (fluctuate from 13-17% the total salary you receive, including the state tax and the government tax). However, you will be compensated about 60-90% tax amount you have paid in America after you come back to Vietnam
Conclusion
Everyone has different thinking and living attitude. If you ponder carefully, make the goal for yourself and choose one path to go. When the path is chosen just walk on it and determine to achieve your goal. Life is strange: there are always challenges, ups and downs, highs and lows, and beautiful things. Your life is good or bad depending on your own way of thinking. As long as we have positive, optimistic thoughts and never give up, we will succeed.
For me, I always learn from simplest things in my life
“Happiness is …Felling excited for the future!!!”
Wish you all succeed.
Tran Thi Hien
