“My name is Daniel Dumitru Badea and I am a Master’s student at the Geology faculty of Iasi. I am studying Well Geology specialisation, currently in the second year of studies. Last year I was able to be part of an Erasmus+ internship, during three months, from February to the end of April, at the PALEVOPRIM Institute of Paleontology, at the University of Poitiers, in France.

In my first years, I managed to go to Italy, more specifically to Sardinia Island, in the summer of 2016. I was also able to go there in the summer of 2017, both travels being internships. Since I like to learn things and to have experiences, in the second semester of 2016-2017 academic year, I have also visited the Azores, in the Sao Miguel Island, at the University of Azones, in Portugal, which was a part of a scholarship. For my Master’s degree years, I chose France for the forth Erasmus+ experience, where I spent 3 months, for an internship in one of the most renowned paleontology Laboratories in Europe, namely PALEVOPRIM, located in Poitiers, a French town twinned with Iasi where I had a great experience due to the people who where friendly and welcoming. I met Masters and PhD students, from different countries and continents such as Ethiopia, Greece, Malaysia, Brazil and Morocco. Some where from France, who were doing internships or where studying in the same laboratory. They have all became my friends and we still keep in touch. In addition to all the laboratory activities, carried out during the internship, I had the opportunity to visit the surroundings. I went to the Valley of the Monkeys, a zoo dedicated to a multitude of species of monkeys. I have also visited a “delicious” city. I am saying  this because in this city, there is the famous Museum of almonds and macarons, which is named Montmorillon. This is a town twinned with the Putna town, from Romania. Being a geologist, I will mention that the mineral montmorillonite is named after this city.

During the internship I had the opportunity to use the most efficient microscopes and also the latest scientific information, to identify the species of micromammals, who lived in the area of the Moldovian Plateform around seven million years ago. This is something unique for a paleontological studies within Department of Geology from Iasi because the branch of paleontology was not really studied much in the past. All my work there was very well coordinated by the specialists in this domain, teachers from the university there, or researchers from the laboratory, but also by the coordinating professor from Iasi, Bogdan Gabriel Raçoi. It was a real honor to be able to collaborate with them for my first year of master’s degree and to accumulate the information necessary to continue my studies. I really wish to apply for a PhD in paleontology, at a  PhD level. If I have the opportunity, I really want to keep collaborating with the PALEVOPRIM laboratory from France and most likely I will also apply to other Erasmus+ internship at this lab. I also wish other Geology students live such nice experiences. Some have already experienced this, such as my colleague, PhD student Bodgan Stelian Maiduc.

In conclusion, I would like to mention that every Erasmus+ experience was a life lesson for me. Not only have I managed to make many friends from all over the world but also I have learned that anything can be done as long as you really want it. I really say this as a motivation, and encouragement for all students, or future students of our University and I wish them to be able to live many experiences like this. Most important however is to learn something from each one and to be able to grow both personally and professionally, during these internships.

I wish to all students from Alexandra Ioan Cuza University from Iasi, good luck in learning, to go beyong their limits. They will be able to really get to know each other, have fun and make the most of those internships and scholarships stages of the Erasmus+ programme.”