ive been feeling really frustrated with myself and the internship over the past few weeks. the problem with the internship system in europe is that it creates a dependency on free labor. yes - free labor - i've spelled it out here because that's how i've come to feel taken advantage of. of course, the positive aspects are that i love my job and i am learning a lot here. but of late, my working hours have been increased by another 1.5 - 2 hours / day, not to mention that we work on saturdays as well. yesterday when i requested to leave earlier by 2 hours, my boss asked if i was going to work extra hours next week then? i immediately said no, and i didn't know how else to react because i was really surprised (excuse me, but haven't my extra hours for the last 3 weeks more than compensated for the hours which i've missed at work???) today i went to work with a mission to inform her that no - i refuse to be treated this way anymore. i really want to be involved, but because i've completely missed out on the whole creative/design/decision making aspect , it's terribly difficult for me to be 200% committed, as if Her deadlines were also My deadlines. i Know i've tried my best in everything, but ultimately i'm only an intern with limited abilities. well, we talked about it today and i've decided that out of work responsibility, i will help her out in these intense weeks - and because that's just the demands and constrains of the fashion industry. i should have known what i was signing up for. it's not an ordinary 9-5 desk job and it often requires a lot more than you think. i asked her what she would do without us - to which she said she would simply reduce the size of her collection (which was after all, how she had been working for the past year). right. that's a bull way of running a company.