Kaia and Siret in Denmark

Hello, Kaia and me (Siret) arrived to Naestved, Denmark on March 16th. We have already been here for 1 week so there has been some time to look around and see the town. It is a small and quiet town with about 41.000 residents.

So far we like it here, we live in a small apartment (with kitchen, tiny hall and bedroom in one and the same room, toilet and shower in another room), but we are satisfied with it, this is our home for the next 12 weeks :) In the picture you can see our house, there are several houses wich look the same. Every weekend there is a party in some houses.

We live about 3,6 km away from the hospital, this is about 45 minutes of fast walking. In some weeks we should get bikes from our school, so it will be easier to move around here. The weather here is really nice, it is spring here in Naestved so we have no problem walking to hospital every morning.

The schoolhouse is near our appartment, about 5 minutes of walking. There is a big kitchen, where students can cook, sit down and enjoy their meal. We also cook in the school kitchen as there is better equipment and more space than in our kitchen. In the school there is also 2 gyms, one bigger than the other and the students are free to use them whenever they. One gym is for different ball games, there is also equipment like hockey sticks, balls etc. The other one is full of all kinds of machines to train different muscle types.

Life in Denmark is much more expensive than in Estonia. Food is about 2 times as expensive as in Estonia, but we are getting used to it.

People in Naestved hospital are friendly, they speak english very well so there is no trouble with understanding them.

Our first 2 weeks of practice are in transfusion center. We are learning many new things about blood banking and transfusion and reminding old things that we studied in the automn back in Estonia. Transfusion center laboratory has many expensive maschines so the laboratory staff has less work to do manually, almost all the procedures are automatised.

As mentioned, people are nice around here, even on the streets people just smile to foreigners.

Georg in Finland

Hello everybody!

I finally found some time to sit down and write a post.

Anyway, the week has been very busy - I have to start my practice at 8 o'clock and the days i have are usually 8 or even 8,5hours long. So if i train or run after that, there isn't too much time left (considering i also usually prepare a meal to pack with me to practise).

Even though the place I'm currently practising in, has a place to eat for a very good price (2,70 euros for students), the days are usually very active and i get hungry quite fast.

At the moment and in the near future my practise is focused on elderly gym groups (with various diseases), an aqua-aerobics class and a gym group for men. Also some break-time exercising: this is a service for the workers of the school and it's usually 15-20 minutes of various exercises to prevent work-related illnesses.

I even had an opportunity to go to a party with the students of the I and II course, so I have felt very velcome.

The guidance and supervision is very well managed in order to prevent mistakes and to keep an eye on the process of learning.

Anyway, all the best and I'll try to update soon.

Maarja Erasmus

Hi, I am a 3rd year physical therapy student from Tartu Health Care College and I am doing my final practice in Finland, Jyväskylä. I have been here for two weeks already so I can tell a bit about it.
Jyväskylä is a very nice place to be- a lot like Tartu. Here lives about 40 000 students from all around the world, so sometimes when you drive with a bus, you can't here any finnish but you can here chinese, russian, english, french and so on. I live in a student house about 4km from the centre of Jyväskylä. This is my house and my room.

I have two roommates, one from Germany and one from Netherlands. We have one kitchen and a bathroom and downstairs all the students can use washing machines and driers.

At the moment I am doing a practice in a hospital near here for 5 weeks and then I do another 5 weeks in a private clinic. All the people at work are very friendly and happy to have you around so it is very nice to work here.
In my free time I like to go running and skiing so Jyväskylä is the perfect place to do that. There are running tracks all around the city so you can start from your house and go where ever you like. Also there is a big skiing center called Laajavuori near here where you can do downhill skiing, ski jumping and also cross-country skiing. There are also big indoor sport halls in the center so if you like to play sports, it is a perfect place to be.
Yesterday we had a finnish food evening where we could taste some well known foods in Finland- like Karjala pie and finnish pancakes. There were a lot of people from different countries like Mexico, Singapore, Taiwan and so on. Two students from Taiwan were also physical therapy students so it was nice to hear about their studies.

I think this is it for now. I'll write soon again!

Maarja

Greetings from Finland

Hello everyone and greetings from the not-very-far away country Finland!
I am Georg, student of physical therapy and i'm in JAMK and Jyväskylä's central hospital to do my practise session, which is basically 3 months.
But first things first!

The "voyage" to Jyväskylä was very pleasant and convenient, not to mention high-tech. For those, who are addicted to the internet, there is internet on the boat and on the super-comfortable 2-storied train as well. The train trip was a bit under 4 hours, but time flew, as the picturesque landscapes with rolling hills and little patches of forests flew by.
At first it all seemed a bit confusing. Luckily my "buddy" (a student assigned to help and guide me a little) was there to meet me and he had even collected my student apartment's key and took me to it. He had with him a folder with school papers and another one with housing papers and transport information, maps and such. So that part was very convenient.

The student apartments usually have separate rooms (3-4) and a common kitchen area.

Pictured: the student flat house

I happened to stay with students from Nigeria and Holland. Both really helpful and cool people.
Anyway, the first day and half of the secont was mostly doing the compulsory stuff - doing and checking paperwork, looking for offices and such.


Pictured: view from the window

For those who are really interested, you can also use google street wiew by pressing HERE!
On the right you see a square with a map, click on the map and zoom in on the A, by scrolling with the mouse, until it turns to the street view!



Me and a girl from the 3rd course concluded the day by having a pizza, which we shared and which cost us 3.25 euros each. Not too bad!
The school has a cafeteria or call it what you like, and offers a swedish table type of serving - you get to choose what you eat and how much, plus salads. With a student ticket its usually 2.70 euros. The school has at least two of those diners.

Anyway the practical part in the schools healt-care unit or physical therapy center lasts 8hours a day and has a very unique system. It offers services to different social groups which are for instance group training sessions for women, gym training for elderly or men, or even personal training. The system is at least 10 years old and even doctors send their patients there to participate in the groups! And the groups are very succesful! You should see those elderly people work out!

Anyway, it's really interesting to be here and i'll leave something for the next time too! Stay tuned for more!