In January, my friends and schoolmates started looking for their regular summer jobs whereas I started thinking outside the box, stumbled upon this website and applied for a medical internship in Cape Town. The whole application process was smooth sailing; I got the type of an internship I wanted most, when I wanted it and over 10,000 kilometres away from home. I knew I was in for a real view-expander. During the course of roughly eight weeks in July and August I interned in a private clinic for orthopedic surgery. My average work week consisted of three days in an operating room having the privilege to witness top-tier shoulder surgery and two days of working on my own clinical research project. On the office days I also got to observe patient consultations and minor procedures done under ultrasound guidance. Despite the surgeons being busy beyond recognition at times, I feel that I got enough instruction on how to conduct the research. Also, worth highlighting is how well we interns were treated as a part of the staff and the creativity of the managing surgeon in, for instance, coming up with fascinating research topics out of which I could choose the most tempting one. All in all, the work schedule and how time was split between ‘theatres’ and office space was an optimal mix for an eager intern with a specific interest in orthopedics. Naturally an integral part of the whole internship experience was the innumerable evenings, nights and weekends spent meeting new and interesting people, going out and just having the time of my life – partly on the expense of my liver. In retrospect and amidst the lethargy-inducing Finnish fall weather it is invigorating to savor the afterglow of such South African outdoorsy activities as mountaineering, road tripping, bungee jumping and going on safari. The drinks nights and excursions organized by Connect staff deserve two thumbs up for bringing the Connect interns together every once in a while. As a non-native speaker of English I immediately realized I was in an obvious minority so my internship had one more dimension as opposed to that of a, say, Brit. I did find myself delving deeper in the de facto world language in two different registers that would have been hard to even graze had I stayed in Finland. Firstly, the refined medical lingo of surgeons and other healthcare professionals and the blatantly contrasting jargon of mostly American college students. Some of the more peculiar colloquialisms will undoubtedly linger in my mind for long… In short, the friendly Connect-123 staff enabled me to have the best summer of my life. The downright flabbergasting internship and everything it entailed also were the final incitement for me to strive for an international career. Apparently, I was the first Connect intern from Finland and coming somewhere ‘exotic’ only added to the value. The summer when I felt more alive than ever will definitely be remembered.