“My home university Lusaka College of Nursing and Midwifery and Metropolia have an agreement for an exchange programme. Students are selected based on the results and grades and I was very excited that I was one of the selected students. I had never flown in my life so traveling to Finland was very exciting. I didn’t know much about Finland beforehand but a friend of mine who had been in Finland before told me a lot of different things. Before arriving to Finland, I figured out what the time difference is and where Finland is located. I knew it’s going to be very cold and that I should prepare for that.
I studied in the field of Health Care and Social Sciences and took courses from the degree programme of nursing at Metropolia. One of the courses I chose was Gerontological Nursing which was a good experience as back home we don’t learn so much about gerontology. In the courses we did simulations where we got to practice procedures in different situations. You learn a lot during the simulations and observing them! Everything related to the studies was clearly organized in the intranet OMA. There I was able to see what I’m supposed to do for my assignments, what to do before classes and all the presentations. Myllypuro campus is very big and the labs have a lot of equipment. I ate lunch in the student restaurant and tasted different kinds of food. In the beginning it was difficult because there were a lot of different apps to use for different things but I managed!
In my free-time I went outside to walk. I also did trips to Porvoo and Joensuu. In Joensuu I got to try ice swimming and skiing. It has been amazing to see a lot of snow, this has been the first time for me seeing it. My tutor was very helpful, he also showed me a second-hand store where I could get more warm clothes. It gets dark here very early in the winter so vitamin D is important, in Zambia it’s not necessary. I would advise the future exchange students to be active: take part in class activities and in-school program. It will help to interact and to make friends and to feel like you belong.”
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