Hey :)

Irina and Margit again here :)
Now its our second practice`s first week (third day ended today)...Im in CT and Irina is in Acuta (emergency x-ray and CT).
Monday morning..was again like first day..we were so nervous cause its was our new week in new place with new people and NEW VOCABULARY! I quess we were worried most about the last one. We meet the Mirja (i like to call her "head lady" :) ) 8.30 in the morning and we are trying to "push" our Finnish as much as possible to get directions where we must go and how we get there..it worked and finally when we were out of words we just used English..so the new week started

Irina is very happy in Acuta..so much new situations and people who need first aid. She was very excited yesterday when the workers told that in 5 minutes there is going to be a car crash patients and they need to be ready. It was a whole new experience. Today she was doing already the examinations and she is so happy that i can see it from my room already :)

My week has not been so good (at least those three days). Im angry about myself that i dont know how to express myself. For me the machines are all new and not familiar ones. Still i have so many helfup people around me and i have seen also some new things that i have even seen before. And i already know that tomorrow is going to be more of those examinations. So im excited and a bit afraid also. But i hope it gets better.

We learn finnish every evening. Like really...every evening..i would never thought that i will learn something so much and all the time. We dont like the fact that we dont undrestand whats going on around us.

The days are getting longer...we can see that when we wait the bus in the morning and evening. Its not dark anymore. Its still cold actually. Our apartment feels already like home and we are over this "coming to new and strange place" phase :)

Tomorrow is 24th of February..big day in Estonia...practice day for us. But in the evening we will meet Andra and Henri (Estonians :) ) and we will sit together and eat some cake and celebrate that big day. But not very long...cause next morning 5.30 is wake-up call and practice starts again.

Margit & Irina

Terve!

We are Irina and Margit. We have been here 2 weeks. Those 2 weeks have been very interesting and busy ones. Maybe even too busy. First week we had lots and lots and LOTS of information...all papers and signatures and tours. We are studyin at TAMK (Tampere ammatikorkeakoulu :) ) and we are doing here our radiology technician practice. Starting from last monday we were at practice fisrt time...our finnish is begginners one and it was very hard to us.
My firt locaton was thorax x-ray (children and adults). Cause i needed to comminuicate with patients my fist day was..writing :) i wrote all sentences that i needed to communicate with patients in that apartment. Next morning i had to take my first picture. That was scary..my voice was shivering and i mixed some words. But it worked! The patient understood me :) What else can you wish!
Irina`s first week was in MRI. Cause this place is a pit more complicated (the examinations are more specific) in first we she did`nt communicated with patients..but she had a really good language practice and theory practice. She helped the workers as much she could and enjoyed learnin the new machines.
Life here is..cold right now. Really cold. But we are used to it.

We have selected also Finnish course. It is twice a week and we love to go there cause there we can meet other exchange students. And there are stundents from many different places. Spain, Frace, Kenia and so on. Everybody are enjoying the snow and so we try to do it also :)

Today is sunday and we are preparing ourselves menatly for tomorrow..we continue next week in the same places but we are much more smarter than last week. Everybody in the hospital are very friendly and patients. Nobody look you like "what are you doing here you are disturbing me". Thats makes you feel so good when you are going there in the morning!

So..thumbs up for monday and now we start to prepare our Valentine`S day cake..cause this day is tomorrow and then when we are eating that cake..we are thinking about friends back home...and the new ones who we find here :)

Moi!:)

My name is Andra and I am writing this blog entry from Tampere, Finland. Well it´s already my sixth week in here, another seven to go.So there is pretty much to tell. Time passes really quickly and I am gone miss this city.
I have finished one of my practices-massage and at the moment I am dealing with neurology. In future I going tell more about my practical training.
Tampere is really nice city, there are almost 200 000 inhabitants, it´s the second largest city in Finland, also Tampere is a student city, there are three big schools, all of them have around 10 000 students. Tampere is a little bit similar to Tartu, here is also only one main street. In every semester my school TAMK(Tampere Unversity of applied sciences) accepts almost 150 new exchange students. So we really have internatinal atmosphere. In the dormitory, where I am living, I have met only one finn, who has actually studied estonian for one semester in university. So I am teaching him estonian and he is teaching me finnish. Also I am studing finnish at university, but because finns speak really good english, so I haven´t had really change to practice it.
Twice a week are held international parties. For me it´s almost only chance to meet other, because most of the exchange students study at university, while when I am doing my practical training at the clinc. And also I live in different place. Actually we have this organization called CLINT, that organizies events for ex-students,(citytour, survival week). We had cruise to Stockholm at the begging of this week. And there are gone be trip to St Petersburg.

Moikka!

Andra, FT III

Jyväskylä is still cold and snowy

Hei!

I have already finished my massage practical training and also my neurological practical training in Kinkomaa hospital (on the picture) is heading towards end. I have also managed to learn some Finnish, because one of my patients didn't speak English at all, so I had to speak Finnish to him - it was hard, but I liked it.

But there were some problems with my children's practical training. I came here in knowing that I can do 3 practical trainings here, but as it turned out they were unable to find me a place for children's training. After some negotiations I still managed to get 2 weeks of children's training in a private practice.

Otherwise it is good in here. I have new flatmates now and one of them is a finnish girl. She is really nice and we have so much fun together.
I have visited Helsinki for a weekend and gone to ice-skating on the lake in the city of Jyväskylä. Finland is actually very beautiful in Winter time :)

Terv.
Mari, FT III