Thinking about participating in an internship in Serbia? Do not hesitate. Comparing to our country, Iran, Serbia is a small country. Being situated in central Balkans, Serbia has about 90000 km2 area and 7 million population. Serbia has a rich history and has suffered from many wars through the ages. The capital of this beautiful land is Belgrade which literally means white city. While having European lifestyle, Serbian people are warm and friendly. They will be glad to do you a favor, if they find out you are a foreigner.
Taking an internship in Serbia, they pay you 22000 RSD monthly. As you arrive IAESTE office, they give you a SIM card and a student ID by which transportation will be free for 1500 RSD. The lodge arranged by IAESTE Serbia, which is the cheapest option for you, costs 10000 RSD. Therefore, you will have 12000 RSD monthly to spend on food and activities. While in my work offer, it was written that the payment is more than enough for a student life, my experience showed that you cannot even survive in Belgrade with this amount of money. Excluding lodging expenses, students meanly used to spend 1000 RSD daily.
There are plenty of places to visit, foods and drinks to taste and activities to do in Belgrade. On top of all, making new international friends is the best part. There are many students participating in IAESTE program with whom you will have a lot of fun. If you are into travelling to nearby countries like Hungry or Croatia, you have to request for their Visas in Iran; otherwise, you will not be able to visit them as I did not 🙁 . It was an invaluable reminiscent experience for me and I strongly encourage you to do an internship with IAESTE.
Written By: Amir-Mahdi Rabiee
M.Sc. of earthquake engineering at University of Tehran