I am Lorenzo, a third year bachelor degree student in biotechnology at the University of Camerino, Italy. I`ve always been fascinated by the majesty of such a big country as China and by the oppurtunity to spend a period of study and research abroad. I was aware about the strong and successful cooperation between Professor Cristina Miceli laboratory and Professor Wei Miao, head professor of the Protozoan Functional Genominc reaserch group at IHB in Wuhan, and with their help I applied and then got a fellowship for an internship in non-UE countries.  

My collegue Angela has already chosen Wuhan for her postgraduate research progam and her exciting testimony encouraged me to go forward despite being an undergraduate student. I`ve decided to perform my third year internship at the Institute of Hydrobiology to improve my laboratoy skills and learn how to use some bioinformatic tools. I`ve been here for more than a month and I am continuing Angela` work  about the toxicity of nanoparticles and the study of some genomic analysis of Tetrahymena termophila.  

As soon as I arrived in Wuhan my lab mates provide me all the necessary for my stay and they are always very kind and available to help me either in the lab or outside with the language. I do not speak chinese but everybody can speak english.  The dormitory is five minutes walk from the laboratory and in the area around Wuhan University you can join a lot of street food, market and restourant.  I Have to be honest, the first week I was not “friendly” with foods but now I am enjoing all kind of spicey and delicious food and I am sure I will miss it. I was worned the the weather would be really hot in summer but it not as awful as everybody told me and moreover every two or three day it is raining.  

I had the oppurtunity to visit Wuhan and its main spot such as Yellow Crane Tower, East Lake and Hubei Provincial Museum. The city is well connected by subway, bus and taxi and it is also connected by high speed train with Shangai, Beijing and Guangzhou.  

It`s really a great experience not only for the lab project but also for all the friendly and smiling people I met and for the wonderful places I`ve seen. I am pretty sure that I would have other chances to go to China.