My Erasmus journey started from the moment I received my acceptance as the candidate stand from my university CEU. Because I met many friends and settled down in Spain, Erasmus was never part of my plan and leaving Spain was out of the question. However, suggestions from family and classmates at the end encouraged me to make this decision.
Surprisingly, it was a great and unforgettable experience that I would like to share with people who are considering doing Erasmus and having dilemma like me.
This Is the first astonish view that I saw when the airplane touched the ground, it was a cold winter weather in Stockholm. I began to miss the sun and my friends in Spain since the first moment. Luckily, people from university kindly picked me up from airport to my dorm and welcomed me. They also advised me on how to survive under the cold weather of Sweden. I arrived to my dorm shortly after, settled down and went to sleep, excited to go to school to meet new friends and professors.
“I have treated many patients from simple checkup to fillings, crown to the endodontic treatment during my stay here .”
The morning after, I met my professors who introduced to me all the university facilities. Professors at Karolinska Institute were very kind to us, they took very good care of us from the start. It made me feel very safe and secure which made me understand just why Swedish Education is said to be one of the best.
Later, I went to the city which was fully covered in snow and whole city was covered by thick snow, the streets are clean and neat, but from the photo it’s not difficult to see how cold it was.
The following days, I received my brand-new student card and joined my preclinical courses which ranged from prosthetics to endodontic treatment. At Karolinska institute, we use many new techology such us CAD-CAM scanning and milling system for the prosthetic treatment. I learned new protocols and slowly to get used to how people work in the clinic here. Soon after two weeks training, I was allowed to enter clinic to treat real patient!
The clinic here was different from CEU, here the student is required to call the patient on their own. I have treated many patients from simple checkup to fillings, crown to the endodontic treatment during my stay here at Karolinska.
Generally, they are more conservative and focusing on prevention. There was one patient with many caries, and I followed this school’s protocol, checking the dietary habit of this patient and oral hygiene technique. At the end of the reflection time I thought I did nothing actual treatments; however, professor told all my classmates what I did can change this patient’s life. Performing a treatment is easy, but prevent the further disease is more important. This photo was taken after clinicJ.
As part of my Erasmus journey, I was able to travel to many other countries including Brussels, Denmark and Latvia with classmates also from Erasmus course and different universities. We enjoyed those trips abroad and some little trips inside Sweden and those are all memories that I will never going to forget in my whole life.
On my 23rd Birthday, My classmates threw me a surprise party which was very unexpected and very kind. They even had the words “happy Birthday” written in Chinese. Also, some other friends from valencia visited me during Las Fallas, and I was baptized in the church here in Stockholm and felt surrounded by the love of God.
And then by the end of my Erasmus course, stockholm was also getting warmer. Flower start to bloom and I spent more time outside enjoying my last few days of Erasmus life in Sweden. Peace and love were fullfilled in my heart and I very much appreciate that our university (CEU) provided me this chance to come to experience this wonderful life in Sweden. I strongly recommend students in the future to visit this wonderful place and experience your own Erasmus life.