Before departure

Now when I look back to the spring and summer 2012 knowing that everyting went alright with the practical things required by Karolinska Institute and LUMC, I realize how unnecessary all that nervousess was. By saying that I do not mean it is unnecessary to take care of deadlines and important documents. On the countrary, it is important to follow the instructions given by both LUMC and the coordinator at KI. However, the instructions given by both universities were clear and I received most of them conveniently via student mail.

To sum up the paper work: I posted my application to KI after which I just had to wait for the nomination.  Then KI sent the information about all the nominations to LUMC. Thereafter LUMC and SEA Housing Office mailed me about online registration, housing application, and other practical details. Well, the practical details were many and I’m not going to summarize them. The best advice, I would say, is simply to check your mailbox often.

One practical thing that would have been nice to know before arrival to the Netherlands was that neither VISA nor Master Card work in most places. Instead, the Dutch use Chipknip cards, an electronic cash system, which means that you need to load money on the card. In practice you can either open a bank account in Netherlands or load money on a pre-paid Chipknip card. It is also possible to order Maestro card already in Sweden, since Maestro is accepted in most places, or just use VISA to take cash from any ATM. I choose the latter option.

Other practicalities that may be good to keep in mind are listed below:

• Take with you an unlocked mobile phone.
• Order “Europeiska försäkringskortet” from Försäkringskassan.
• Although it may be unnecessary to mention: take your laptop with you.
• Pack some wind- and waterproof clothes.
• Book your flights in time. For example, SAS flies from Arlanda to Schiphol and Ryanair from Skavsta to Eindhoven.
• Inform CSN and your landlord about the exchange period.

Arrival

When I arrived to Leiden Centraal by train one week before the course start, the first thing to do was to find “Visitors center” that luckily is located right next to the railway station. There I got a paper to sign and thereby informed the university about my arrival. I also received a folder with a registration card and information about both Leiden and the Leiden University. Because I did not rent my room via SEA Housing Office but directly from a Dutch student, I didn’t have to worry about signing the contract, which otherwise can be done at Plexus, which is one of the university buildings located close to the city centre. I didn’t either register myself at the town hall since it was not obligatory due to such a short stay as half a year. One thing that on the contrary was mandatory was to get a student card from Plexus. For that I needed my ID and a passport photo. Still another thing I didn’t do that was half-mandatory was to get a so called LUMC campus card from the information desk at LUMC. I did quite well without it, but it would have given me access to the laboratory as well as a tunnel between the two buildings where all the lectures and seminars took place. Anyway, if I had anything to ask, I could take contact with the tutors our group, so in fact there was nothing to worry about when I already had taken myself to the Netherlands. We also had a couple of introduction lectures in which all the practical information was explained.

The most convenient way to take oneself from place to place in the Netherlands is to do it by train and bicycle. Therefore it was first on my list after I had settled down to purchase OV-chipkaart, the Dutch equivalent of SJ and SL cards as it works both in trains and local busses. I consider myself very lucky since I was able to borrow bicycle of a Dutch girl and so I didn’t have to buy one. Otherwise it is possible to purchase a second-hand bicycle behind the university sport center during the introduction days. The prices vary up to 80 or even 100 euro and for me seemed quite overestimated seeing the condition of the offered individuals. And to be honest, I wonder if many of them were not stolen.

Economy

It is not that easy to compare the Dutch price level to that in Sweden as the prices may seem cheaper for a person who lives in Stockholm and more expensive for a person who lives in a town with Netto. Well, rents of the student rooms and apartments were in general higher than in Stockholm. For example I had a room with a water tab, and shared kitchen, bathroom and rest of the house with two other students. For that I paid 320 euro per month, and in Stockholm I would probably pay about the same price. My room was located perfectly in between the campus and the city centre and I did not have to queue it for a year, so the room was definitely worth its price. What I heard from other exchange students, some of them paid some 500 euro and more for a small apartment.

Transport and shopping, including groceries, gave more room for own planning. For example, I didn’t make many trips to visit the nearby towns by buss or train, but instead cycled around the city, to a village by the seashore called Katwijk, and to other places within 10 km radius. On the other hand, I didn’t visit the cheapest grocery stores, such as Aldi, but instead did all my grocery shopping in Hoogvliet, which had a much better assortment, but also higher prices.

All in all, I did quite well with my study grant, which I still receive from Finland, but I guess that most of the Swedish exchange students took out a CSN loan. Also the Erasmus stipendium of 10 000 SEK did help and gave a possibility to do some nice things on free time.

Housing

A piece of advice: start looking for housing in time if you want to avoid experiencing the awful stress I did during the summer before my exchange period. Unlike Karolinska Institue, Leiden University, including LUMC, offer housing via their own housing agency, SEA Housing Office. To be able to give some preferences concidering the type of housing, it is highly recommended to follow the deadlines, as their system follows the "Early bird catches the worm"-ideology. In other words, if they don't receive your application and deposit of 500 euro in time, you may risk ending up living in a shared room or an appartment with sky high rent. Well, these are the worst scenarios I can think of, but probably everything goes okay in the end.

I would also like to recommend an alternative as there is one that worked better than well in my case. I didn't arrange housing via SEA Housing, even if I did apply and pay the deposit. By the way, SEA Housing returned the deposit very fast, and the only thing I had to do was to fill in an application. To continue, as I implicated before, I started studying the different housing possibilities relatively late and totally missed all the deadlines. My savior was Evelien Hack, the international student coordinator for Biomedicine students in LUMC, who contacted me via e-mail and asked if I was interested in renting a room of a Dutch girl that would do her student exchange at Karolinska Institute.

To sum upp: start looking for housing in time. Inaddition, ask the international student coordinator if there are some Dutch students that would like to rent their appartments/rooms, or maybe if you could offer housing in Stockholm in exchange, it would be even better.

Studies

There are both similarities and differences between Dutch and Swedish study system. All the hand outs, lectures and other materials are posted on Blackboard, which is an equivalent to Ping Pong and Ladok. We also had seminars and working groups in a similar manner as we use to have in Sweden. As at KI, we were given questions at the beginning of the course, and we were expected to prepare all the group meetings by providing written answers to those questions. The questions can be found in the “blokboek”, a booklet that provides all the practical information about the course, seminars, instructions for practical work, and sometimes the schedule. The blokboek as well as other course books can be bought at the student pub called Hepato located behind the hospital building. I understood that it was almost impossible to find the obligatory course books from the university library. Instead, I only used the library for studying or doing group work. Also Plexus has rooms for group work and self-studies.

The examination of the courses differed quite a lot since the first two courses were so called “open book” exams, which means that students are allowed to use the course books. Even if this sounds too easy, it is not a good idea to only rely on the book in the examination since the time is limited. On the contrary, in the examination of the physiology courses no books or notes were allowed, and the exam consisted of multiple choice questions.

The greatest difference I noticed between the Dutch and the Swedish study system is that in the Netherlands one has to study quite hard every day in order to keep up with the course and to do well in the exams. This was very important because we never had one week to only prepare for the examination, but maybe a weekend. In addition, in Sweden I use to read the course book when I have inspiration and time to do it, whereas during the exchange period I read one chapter per day. Reading the course book and doing all the seminar questions really make a difference in the course mark, and I would definitely recommend you to do it, even if it may be frustrating.

Language

The thing I like the most in the Dutch language is that it has many words that are similar to German and English words. It was nice to notice that I could actually understand some expressions and even sentences here and there, especially towards the end of the semester. I also spotted some words that are quite the same in Dutch, German and Swedish, as for example "trappenhuis". However the Dutch "r" sound confused my ear a bit. I did try to learn some common expressions from the booklet we received from Visitors center and due to my orchestra hobby I was forced to learn the numbers from zero up to hundred. I had to do it because for some reason our Brittish conductor said all the numbers in Dutch, even though he otherwise refused to speak in any other language than English. Even a course in Dutch were offered before the exchange period, but due to summer job I missed that possibility.

Generally speking, Dutch people are skilled with languges, and in fact many of them speak good English, French and German. Anyway I cannot recall any situation in which the language barrier would have become an issue. Although I cannot find much whining about the English skills of Dutch people, for some reason those of some lecturers ranked below the average. In addition, all of the patient demonstrations were in Dutch and unfortunately for all of us exchange students only some of the lecturers bothered to translate all the questions and answers. Othewise I did well with my language skills, and the only Dutch words I had use of were “rooster” (=timetable), “college” (=lecture) and “collegezaal” (=lecture hall).

Free time

Even though I had a lot less free time in the Netherlands than in Sweden due to tight schedule and all the homework, I had enough time to experience a lot. However, I didn’t attend that many activities arranged by the student committee, called ISN Leiden, with the exception of one movie night and student pub at Einstein a couple of times. I rather took a walk on Wednesdays of Saturdays at the city market or cycled to the beach of Katwijk with some friends. And despite the fact that all of us were more or less poor students, we did spend time sitting in restaurants. I can gladly recommend Jazketz (baked potatoes), Bagels & Beans (bagels and the best breakfast in town), Shabu Shabu (“eat as much as you can”-sushi), and Oudt Leyden (traditional Dutch pancakes), just to mention few of my favorites. The holidays that I liked the most during my stay were the 3^rd October, when Leiden’s Relief is celebrated and the city gets crazy for a couple of days, and Christmas Day when Sinterklaas enters the town riding on his white horse Americo surrounded by his assistants, all of which are called Zwarte Piet.

I also purchased the membership of Leiden University Sport Center, which gave me access to many different group training programs, gym at Plexus, tennis courts, and swimming hall. Unfortunately I was too lazy to put all my ambitious plans into action, and so I didn’t attend Irish dance group, swim three times a week or try pole dancing. In reality it was easiest to take myself to the gym since I lived quite close to Plexus, at Noordeinde.

So, I had such a nice semester in the Netherlands despite the school stress, but the thing I will and do miss the most in Leiden is playing in the town’s academic orchestra called Collegium musicum. I got more friends during our orchestra camp and repetition weekends than I did during the whole half-year at the university. The conductor was the most demanding one I have ever seen, but when we started our concerts in December I was just amazed how talented every single musician in the orchestra was. And that is quite impressive as most of them did not study music, but for instance economy, medicine, linguistics, or well, biomedical science.

To conclude, the number one advice I have to share is to start some hobby in which allows you to get to know some Dutch students. As a matter of fact this is possible even in a student residence with shared kitchen and living room. Just keep in mind not to bury yourself into your own room with homework. Anyway, not too much. And remember to enjoy and do and plan nice things to do since half a year is a surprisingly short time.

Conclusions

All in all, the half a year in Leiden gave me a lot of new experiences and so to speak broadened my view of the world even though I already live "abroad" in Sweden. Both the study time and free time were different from those in Sweden or Finland, probably because the Dutch culture is somewhat more "central European". The expectations in both hobbies and studies, in my opinion, were higher than in Scandinavia, and hence the time in the Netherlands was as demanding as it was interesting and fun. I definitely think that studying abroad gives us exchange students somewhat good merit to put in CV, since being international is highly respected by many employers. Not to make all too long conclusions, because it is not possible to get room for everything I would like to mention, I would like to repeat that I would always recommend studying in the Netherlands or any other country, because it is so giving during the exchange period and may open many doors afterwards.