Setubal

Hello everyone !

We wanted to tell you about our  first roadtrip to Setubal and Sesimbra. There were five of us, Miguel (Portuguese student, already graduated physiotherapy), Matteo and Michele – Italian physiotherapy students and us (Liina and Kristina). First we visited the main sights of the city Setubal, saw the local churches, the port, the main square of course etc. Walked along the coast and enjoyed the ocean view and fantastic beaches. Setubal is famous for its choco frita which we tasted in a local restaurant but had to wait for ages, because all the restaurants were really full. It is unusual for us that people are willing to wait, sometimes even an hour to get seated, so we did not manage to get our food on lunchtime. But we must say the food is worth waiting for, we all liked it very much.  

The most amazing time we had when we were driving up to the mountain – Arrabida national park. Of course we were asked about Estonian highest mountain, so that was a suprise to them that we call some random hill a mountain J. There were amazing views from everywhere and we did several stops to take pictures like some Japanese tourists. Also, people were so polite that they even stopped in the middle of the road to let us take pitures and at one point there were six cars in the line (and no honking!).

Next stop was Sesimbra, famous for its’ beautiful coasts and restaurants with great seafood.

There was again, amazing beach and fabulous views to the ocean and some really big waves also. We were challenged to eat snails, and we did it ! It was totally disgusting, because it was too wierd to eat animals which crawl in our gardens. But the Italians ate them, but clearly they did not enjoy these as much as Miguel whose plate had the biggest pile of shells afterwards.  We chose to eat Portuguese traditional desserts instead – different Pastel de natas and drank good coffee.

On the way back crossed the 25th April bridge, there was such a beautiful view to Lisbon in city lights and a great view to Cristo-Rei (famous Jesus statue, almoust the same as in Brazil).

Back in Lisbon – was a super trip !

Liina Kõllamets FT2        
Kristina Kärk TK3

View from almoust top of the mountain

Sesimbra

Setubal is famous for its dolphins

Our three boys

Choco frito

Snails

Salo, Finland

Hello everyone!
The weather has been bit rainy and cold about month, but people here are friendly and warm. My tutor is really nice person and knows how to relax between school and practice period. Also coordinator here is fantastic. The coordinator is organizing different partys and events for exchange students, so there are many different ways to get to know the Finland, Salo and other students. I also like, that coordinator itself is having sometimes partys with us. J

The dorm here is really super. We have here semi-detached house as dorm. There are living 2-3 persons together in one house. Everyone gets his/her own room and kitchen is common. Every house has a little backyard, where you can sit on sunny days and have some barbecue etc. There is also sauna and special house for partys and barbecing for all the exchange students, which is really cool and comfortable.J

Turku University of Applied Sciences

 Railika Toim

Õ3

Meu Portugal

Olá!

I have stayed in Portugal for a month now and already on the second week I thought this decision to come here is one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life.

At first I didn’t know where I was going to live and people close to me were so worried about it, but not me! Because I believed that luck had to be with me. So when I met my tutor at the airport she said that her cousin wants to rent out a room. Muito bem!  The accommondation problem was solved. Even when some locals say that I live in the ghetto I still think it’s not worse than any ’’ghetto in Tallinn’’. And of course I can’t complain about the view on 9th floor – because it’s over the river and I can see one of the most modern part of the city (Oriente which looks really nice in the night).

My everyday trip to my internship

I’m doing my internship at Healtcare Center called Agrupamento de Centros de Saude da Grande Lisboa where I feel very welcomed. My instructors are very friendly, humorous and besides me there’s another student Tiago from ESTeSL. Tiago really is my personal translator J.  He will visit Estonia in October so maybe I can return the favour to him as a translator.  My practice place is at Cascais and every morning I ride more than a hour with the metro and train to get there. For them 1 hour to get to your school/work is almost nothing because some people ride two and even more hours to work, but for me it took some time to get used to it. Anyway I’m not complaining because the train to Cascais goes right beside the coast shore and the view over the river and ocean is more than wonderful.

I really enjoy my stay in Portugal and every day I’m falling more and more in love with Lisbon, because big city life never gets you bored and there is still many places for me to discover. J

I present you the famous Rossio railway station

You can see the whole Lisbon from up the hill of Eduardo VII Park

Terreiro do Paco

Park in Oriente next to Vasco da Gama bridge (which is 17.2 km long)

Just a random beach very near to my practice place

The views! :)

Cascais

Sao Pedro beach. Cascais

Sao Pedro. Cascais

Kristina Kärk

TK3

Madrid, Spain ! :)

Hola!

My name is Heleene. I am a second year physiotherapy student and this year I am doing my practical training in Spain. Though, as it turned out, here I am a third year student since their curriculum is four years long so I can get used to the fact of being a third year student for the sake of next year in Estonia.

So, where do I start? The amazing placement in Hospital Universitario de Getafe, superb people or the morning excitment you have to start yet another perfect day? Since I ♥ absolutely every single thing about my practical training, I will start from there!

I want to start with my colleagues - other students from Pontifical Comillas University of Madrid. They are supercool! One of them is a matchmaker and found a great boy for one of the chicas. Couple of days later this guy became a patient of mine, well patient of my tutor's but still. So I did some digging : name, age etc. And today it turned out it is not the guy, the right guy has something wrong with his ankle but mine has shoulder problems. Close enough, both are joints at least.. :)

But, lets move on to the amazing team of physiotherapists! First and foremost I want to recognize them for speaking or trying to speak English with me. I so-so appreciate it! And the spirit that these guys have is impressive! Couple of days ago I was at the electrotherapy room and one physio was explaining me how does the patient system work there and how another physio trolled with her. They have these small papers with patient's name, patient number (like a personal code) and what treatment should they receive. So the other physio came up with a patient called Antonio Banderas. So she went out to call in the new patient "Antonio! Antonio Banderas!" Hahaha! So funny! They are so freakin' amazing!

And the working conditions.. well part of it. :)

Other students told me that my tutor is one of the strictest teachers in that hospital. Student before me had to wait couple of weeks before he could actually touch one of the patients. I don't understand it, since she is amazing. She explains everything very well, shows interesting techniques and lets me to try them. And even gives me advice what to do in Spain to get full experience. And I so love her accent! I think I have never ever been so amazed by a teacher! So to prove the cool different tehniques: left one shows you how to make a bandage for lymphedema and right one is TENS (electrotherapy thing, feels very nice and I got my own personal electrodes, üüüü!)

And today, we were treating one of the patients that we have : I usually treat his right shoulder and she treats his left shoulder (right one is in better condition and doesn't cause that much pain). So, as I started to treat him, I raised the bed and started to do the exercises and when I was done, I wanted to be nice and lower the bed for my tutor but I got too carried away so she came and
"Heeey, I am not that short!"

Oh, and then we had one more patient. Two patients a day. lol ! It was our last patient that day and we had finished treating her, she just had to receive cryotherapy and it went something like this
Tutor: "You can stay and talk to her if you want to or you can leave."
Patient: "Yeah, I am the nicest person."
Tutor: "In the whole world?"
Patient: "Yes."
Tutor: "Yes, well third nicest after me and Heleene."
I so love her! :)

But also about my patients. I love them! Everytime I get to work and walk to the physio-room they are waiting outside and they are like "Hola (waving), que tal?" with a superbig smile on their face. Mmm, and I have so many young patients which is cool because you can actually treat their injuries. I mean last year most of my patients were old and the injuries were caused by their old age so I can't really do anything.

Since physiotherapists promote healthy life style, here are some snacks from our room ! ;)

Well, I'll keep you updated! ;)

Lisbon

Boa noite !

Thank god for the Carnation Revolution in 1974!

Since here is a Freedom Day on 25^th of April gave me some free time to write to you about my stay in a lovely city Lisbon. Although I enjoy my time in hospital, I always look forward to these nice sunny and free days in Portugal. We, white Estonians, are already changing colour. J

Now, let’s begin.

First days in the big city were scary, I am quite used to living in Tartu, I even get lost in Tallinn, Lisbon is a whole new level for me. But the metro system saves me, it is very logical and only three lines, it takes people everywhere they like.  

It took me 3-4 days to find a home, since then I had a friendly host, now I live in Rua Campolide, I have a magnificent view to one of the sights of Lisbon - Águas Livres Aqueduct from my little balcony, plus I have a cat living here.  And as I am a lucky person, my internship place – Hospital Curry Cabral is just a 15-20 min walk away. Okay, I have to walk up to a hill to a nearest shop, but this is not a problem to a physiotherapy student.

Everyone in the school (teachers, international office) was very helpful, kind and friendly – this comes naturally to Portuguese people.  Of course Grete, who was already feeling herself home in here, helped me a lot. Thank You ! First days were full of different parties (it is a big part of Erasmus, specially in Lisbon) and sightseeing, few days and it already felt like home. But as a blonde, they will never take me as their own. Have not been homesick yet!

Today, it is exactly a month of my stay, just noticed that.  I have already travelled outside of Portugal (stories about our trips are coming), but I will never forget the first time I saw the ocean in Cascais (city near to Lisbon). 

I have already found so many friends, I am still finding new beautiful places in the city, more and more love my work/internship in the hospital, it has been SUPER and the best moments are yet to come.

Lisbon is the best city to do your Erasmus, different events EVERY day for international students, you just can not get bored here. 

Cascais

Tradition of Portuguese students is to arrange a dinner and after that there is a schools' ansambel Tuna performing and the traditional ceremony takes place. 

Picture of our hospitals' gym.

And the shopping places are fantastic. 

Liina Kõllamets

FT II

Bulgaria

Здравейте!

Shout-outs from Balkans! It is unbelievable that we have been in Bulgaria for 5 weeks already. Feels like just yesterday we arrived.

I guess the right way for estonians to start their blog is to talk about weather. Okay, it’s quite amazing. It hasn’t been too hot yet and of course the locals are still wearing jackets that a stereotypical estonian wears in the winter, but the weather forecast for may looks promising even for the locals. The temperatures will get up to 30 degrees, perfect.

Life in Bulgaria is very different from Estonia, especially when it comes to medicine. It’s definitely a good experience for us to see the life in Bulgarian hospitals. We live in Plovdiv, which is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after the capital Sofia. Plovdiv is definitely worth a visit, because it’s one of the oldest cities in Europe and is surrounded by beautiful mountains.  

We are staying in student’s dormitory which in general looks nice, the only downside is that there are no kitchens. Only a room with a toilet and a bathroom. But it’s very cheap so we don’t feel very bad about it.

This week we are going to visit Istanbul with other Erasmus students. Stay tuned!

Довиждане!

Teele Naar Õ2
Jaan Luts FT2

Hello, hello, hello!

Labdien!

We have had practice in Riga for five weeks now. Two of us were in the surgical unit and others in cardiology department. The practice has been quite instructive even though we can't speak Latvian and Russian well. Luckily here are some nurses and patients who speak English. However, the medical system seems a little less developed as in Estonia.

Riga is also very beautiful city. Finally good weather has arrived and made the stay even more enjoyable. We are currently staying at student hostel called Prima. The conditions aren't the best but we have many Erasmus students from other countries here which is great.

We also had orientation event in Jurmala with students from Red Cross Medical College and Jurmala as well. It was a great way to explore the city to those who didn't make it to the pedestal and didn't do any running. Runners or winners, however you want, had chance to enjoy their prizes and aching muscles. Anyways, it was a lot of fun for everyone.

Greetings from girls in Riga!
xoxo