Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Hello!
I have already wrote that hospitals in Estonia and here are very different. All the machines here are not like in Estonia. Here is an older ones. For example to lift MRI-table you need to push the pedal. My teacher said that it is fitness. They don't use a paper. I mean that table isn't covered with paper. Paper is only under the head. I don't get used to this yet. Students from Estonia wrote to me, that every day is the same. They don't have something new. But for me everything is new. That is why I like my practice here.
Anzelika RT2

Italy, Foggia

Ciao!

We are doing our clinical practise in south Italy, in small city called Foggia. We arrived here on 22 February, it was quite hard to get in Foggia. We took flight from Riga to Milano, spent the night in Bergamo Airport, then we had another flight from Bergamo to Bari. In Bari we took the train to Foggia. First expression wasn’t nice and we didn’t have any place to stay.

Fortunately things changed the next day, when we met our Erasmus coordinator.

Since that day we are living in a big apartament, we also had a roommate from Slovakia, but she moved out.

The weather here is quite warm now, but it can change quickly. Soon we have big „festa“ i.e Pasqua, during that we are going to beach in the cities nearby.

Clinical practise’s start wasn’t very easy, because english isn’t a popular language here. But have italian language course with ohter Erasmus students. For the moment we can understand italian language a bit.

We had problem with duration of the clinical practise, beacause there were differences in the dates in the learning agreement. Our estonian Erasmus coordinater thought that that’s not a problem, but it was. Fortunately we were able to solve that disagreement.

We can’t use our school’s practise book beacause it is a disaster, there are many mistakes (grammar, practise duarion). So please, Danel, correct the mistakes!

Arrivederci!

Maria Küüsmaa

Jevgenia Lašmanova

FT III

I am big fan of Erasmus program

Its very interesting to read posts from our college outgoing students. I am sure that here will be now more and more offen posts from Tartu Health Care College students because there are about 20 students doing their practice ourside of Estonia with Erasmus program. As I am big fan of the program I am very happy to read our students thoughts, emotoins etc about their experiances.
Also I invite all you who read the blogs ask from writers everything you want to know about their practice, countries, citys, experiances where the posts writers are.
So my suggestion to you dear blog reader: keep on reading and asking from our college students and I am sure you will be too interested to become an Erasmus student :) in the future. . .


Best regards from Tartu Health Care College Erasmus program
coordinator and FAN of the program,
Danel Jantra

Physiotherapy practice in Lisbon

Greetings earthlings!

We arrived here on 21. February and despite exhausting trip everything went well. Although, we have to admit, one of four wheels on Katrina's super expensive suitcase came off during transportation! On our first week, we stayed at a hostel named the Traveller's House which is

located on the main street - Rua Augusta, right next to Rossio. Since we didn't find an apartment as quickly as we thought, we had to stay there a bit longer than we firstly planned - but thanks to our portuguese friends a.k.a tutors from our school (Estesl) we managed to find a decent place to stay. Our practice started next week and we were lucky enough to get a hospital that is located just 20 minutes walking from our flat. Name of the first hospital we are working at is IPO (Instituto Português de Oncologia) and the patients are 99% with oncologycal problems - we get to see mostly respiratory patients and also post-operative breast cancer patients. We have to be at the hospital 5 hours a day 4 days per week, because on Wednesdays interns from our school are attending their practices there. Both of our supervisors speak english, so we are managing quite well. Twice a week we have our language course and we have to admit that we find portuguese a very difficult language to learn. By the end of both practices we have to make reports about two patients and one of them we have to present to our teachers at school; also we have to write down general information about every day we have spent in a hospital. Luckily we get to do it in english.

So everything's well and we are very happy here.

Beijinhos!

Katrina and Veronika

Arrival to practice in Riga

Greetings from Jurmala,
We arrived in Riga (the capital of Latvia) 1 march by bus. We were met by Aiga - International Coordinator of Pauls Stradins Medical College of the University of Latvia. She kindly took us to our hostel and introduced to our new neighbors. Hospital named after Pauls Stradins - famous Latvian doctor and professor - shall be our main practice place thought we shall visit also 6 other hospitals. Our place of residence is located at the heart of Jurmala, which is approximately 15 km from Riga and is well known recreation location for the residents of nearby premises and Riga. Jurmala is also the town where the richest people of Latvia reside, somewhat like Pirita in Tallinn. Even though the size of our room is only 14 m2, as soon as we go out for a walk to Baltic sea (3.min on foot from our hostel) we feel anyone but students. Small point, but nice. Things change contrary as soon as we have to think of ways how to get to Riga. Taxi or fetching cars is not an option. Fortunately we learned from our helpful neighbors that railway station is not very far. At least traffic jams won't be a problem for us unlike other wealthy residents of Jurmala.

Tatjana & Zinaida

Greetings from Malta

Hi,

I have been in Malta now for two weeks and everything is going well. Here is far more better weather than I imagined. People in Malta are very friendly and helpful. Also in the hospital where I am doing my placement, all radiographers are nice. Now I am doing my placement in CT, and till now everything is going methodically. Life in here is totally different, much more expensive, and the food... One thing that I miss, is estonian food. Otherwise everything is going well and I am happy, that I started doing my placement in Malta at Mater Dei Hospital.

Silja

Bulgaria

It is my fifth day in Bulgaria. I arrived on Monday and already on Tuesday went to the Saint George hospital. I took a bus from Sofia to Plovdiv. It cost 13Lev. It is nearly 100kr. The hospitals in Estonia and here are very different. Mu first practice is in the MRI. There works radiography technician. He doesn't know Russian, but he knows English a little bit. He shows me images and talks in Latin some names of anatomy. I have already position the patients and push the buttons. Older people here knows Russian, but younger speaks English very well. I go to the practice with local students. I met one girl who speaks English. She explains me everything. Yesterday we went to national garden. It is very beautiful. The weather here is mo better than in Estonia. Everyday is sunny.

I'll write soon
Angie, RT2

Hello from Toledo!

I arrived Toledo 5 days ago. It was really warm then(for me, as I came from Estonia) and sunny, yesterday we had thunder and today its cold and it has been raining since morning.
My first practice is surgery at Hospital Provincial. I haven't had any just-from-surgery-patients, but a lot of patients with lymphedema (because of the breast surgery); patients with hand surgeries. Since we don't learn lymph massage at school, it is just great I can learn it here. The physiotherapists speak more or less English, so I can understand almost everything. Sometimes it is a bit hard when they explain things in Spanish, but I can understand a bit already.
My 2 roommates can't speak English, so every evening we sit on the sofa and communicate through google translator. I think in 1 month I'll understand everything they're saying.
The old part of the town is gorgeous, the people are very friendly and everything is just perfect!

Besos,
Relika

Finish in Toledo

Hi,

It has been a while. But now I can say, that the Erasmus experience for me is over. The final practice, physiotherapy of children, took place in a school for disabled youngsters - Colegio de Educación Especial Ciudad de Toledo. All in all, it was a great practice. At first I was a bit scpetic, but soon realized that it was a very good experience with excellent tutoring and interesting people.

To say a few words about the the whole trip...I would say it was an adventure i its best meaning. Being in a new cultural environment, speaking in a foreign language, living away from home and being independent. All these factors were very important for me and I feel more confident and professional than ever ;D. To be completely honest, I would recommend going abroad to study or practice to everybody. All it takes is a little courage. It is definitely worth it.

I guess this is it for me in this blog. And for those who walk the same path as I did, I hope that your experience will be as immense as mine.

Your´s faithfully,

Ott Vanem
FT-III

Greetings from Barcelona

Today is our 11th day in here, in Barcelona. And today was also our first school day in here. We go on the local nursing school and visit the classes, because our Spanish is not good enough to go to the hospital. In this way we can hear a lot of Spanish. In my mind it is a really good opportunity how to learn the Spanish more quickerly. And also it is very interesting to see, which the lessons are in here. Today we should have three classes, but we had only one. Our classes were canceled, because of the bad weather. Here is snowing!!! It is the first snow over the many-many years when it’s snowing in here. It is really uncommon. Firstly it wasn't like a real snow, it was something between snow and rain. In Estonia we call it "lörts". But after some minutes it really started snowing. It is really incredible. Autonoma de Universitat was evacuated. All the schools are closed There is a lot of people on the streets, who are acting like crazy ones. They are taking pictures, playing the snow ward etc. All the people are so happy, they are like young children, because I think most of them haven’t never seen the snow. And my room mates have been singing the Christmas songs all the day.

In Estonia, this is totally normal weather, but not in here. When our coordinator came and said that the classes are cancelled because of the weather, then she also said that certainly we laugh at it. We are used to with snow. :P Yes, of course we are!

Here is real panic at the moment. The public transport is stopped, trains traffic is interfered, Internet connection is gone. Everything is out of order because of snow. Tomorrow nobody don’t have classes also.

The one lesson what we had, was anatomy and physiology. It was the first year nursing student lesson and we went to there because it was in Spanish. Here are a lot of classes in Catalan, not in Spanish, because here, in Barcelona, are two official languages – Catalan and Spanish. Usually the local people can speak both of this language, but unfortunately not all of them. We try to learn only Spanish, because it is easier and more common in the word.

This is the reason why we visit a lot of different classes - some are the first year classes, some are the third year ones. It is interesting. Fortunately, there was quite easy to understand the point of the lesson, because a lot of words where similar to Estonian. As you know, all the medicine language is based on the Latin. That is really good.


We will write soon again,
Adios!

Kertu ja Maarjo