Before I went to Sweden, I was told that there would be Global friend students which can pick up your key and bring you to your student room. I arrived in the evening when the UAC center is closed and unfortunately I didn't hear anything of a global friend student, not even that there won't be one. Luckily, a friend who was already in Sweden that day could pick up my key. I would advice to tell the students whether there will be some help or not. When not, it's useful to recommend the students explicitly to arrive during working days when the office is open!

The introduction days were arranged well, but some of the lectures were'nt useful (like accomodation). It was good to become a bit more familiar with KI in this way.

I went to some activities organised by global friends which were nice to meet other international students. I also took part in dragplastret, the dancing group of MF. Here I met the Swedish students and I learned a lot about the way of living in Sweden. I appreciated that it was possible to join a Swedish group.

When you want to sport, play music or something else you have to look for it yourself, but most of the time you can join.

I took part in a beginners course organised by studieframjandet. I enjoyed not only learning the language, but also the Swedish culture. Sometimes it was too easy (but the next level too hard), because Dutch is sometimes similar to Swedish. It would be nice if students of different parts of the world have their own classes (like Dutch and German together, Chineze an own class, English and Irish together) to keep the level high enough.

KI is a nice place to study. There's a good library with reading rooms and there's a building with rooms you could use to study in groups. All information about your courses (including lecture powerpoints) is placed on the internet.

In my opinion, the study is too much focussed on knowing facts than on understanding mechanisms. We had a lot of lectures and very few seminars or discussions. You just have to study on your own and in this way it's sometimes difficult to find out whether you understand a subject or not. The seminars in Leiden are the parts in which I learn the most. The examinations are also different: it's more about the facts and it's thus not allowed to bring books. In Leiden you can use books, because the questions are insight questions and I think this is one of the qualities a student needs in later career. I didn't mind that the way of learning is different that much. It's good to experience studying in a different way, so you become aware of your own way of studying.