I am Emilie Roemer, I stay 6 months in Shanghai; 3 months as an intern in swissnex China and the 3 other months in Swiss Center Shanghai. I arrived in China the 29th of August and started working at swissnex the 1st of September. Before coming here I did a commercial apprenticeship and the “maturité professionnelle commerciale”. In January I saw the advertisement for an internship in Shanghai but unfortunately I can not apply for it because of my studies. Then in May I found a new job advertisement in the newspaper for the next six months and this time I did not hesitate before sending my application. One of my biggest dream is to travel around the wolrd. Work at the same time is, for me, the perfect combination to discover more about the country and the culture.
Currently we are 3 “Neuchatelois” at Shanghai. Daniela Dernedinger does a commercial internship too. She started in Swiss Center Shanghai, then in December we are going to change our place. Nicolas Holzlé does a mechanic internship in LX Precision for 6 months. We met a lot of other Swiss intern or student here. Now we are a great team of Swiss people, we do all together different activities.
As an example, the weekend of the 14th and 15th October, we went to Zhenjiang in the 3rd swiss theme week to bring “Swiss spirit”. We performed two swiss songs on a stage and the Sunday morning we ran a 7km race.
We also would like to organize some event all together so that we can use each other skills to build something more interesting.
Now working for swissnex China, I work for “Canton of Neuchatel” too. It made a new program with high school students. They went for six weeks in Shanghai, every morning during weekdays, they attended to Chinese lessons to improve their language skills. During the afternoons and weekends, they had time to discover Shanghai and its surroundings. One of my main task was to organize their afternoons and the visits of others cities.
I will never regret this experience here in Shanghai although before the departure it was a bit hard to leave Switzerland. I have learned many things, I think I have changed my point of view on various subjects and I am more independent. Everything change when you live in big city like Shanghai where you do not have time to get bored! I am very happy to stay 4 more months in this city. I already look forward to live more adventures in China and after that in many countries.