My arrival did not went very smoothly. Several weeks before I left from my home country I contacted Global Friends, so they could arrange me a global friend who could pick me up from Cityterminalen and give me the key to my apartment. I would arrive on Friday evening, so it was quite important for me that somebody picked up the key for my room at the UAC office, because I wasn't able to do that myself. However, I didn't receive any emails back from Global Friends. Three days before I went to Stockholm I received an email from Global Friends that they weren't to find a global friend for me, so nobody could pick up my key. This was very, very stressful. Fortunately I was able to find a person in Stockholm that could up my keys just in time.
Global Friends said to me that there were much more students coming to Sweden than the amount of Swedish students that could pick them up, which I understand off course. I just think that Global Friends should respond earlier than just three days before my departure and I also think that Global Friend should say that they can not guarantee a global friend for everyone.

I thought the introduction day was very well organized and it provided a lot of useful information about KI. I did not have any contact with the student health centre, simply because I didn't need any medical help during my stay in Stockholm.

The housing arrangement was very good. I applied for an apartment at the UAC and I got a nice room in Pax 1. The procedure went very smoothly. The rooms had a lot of space and I was very pleased with my own bathroom and the kitchen was very big as well. I really enjoyed living in a accommodation with so many exchange students from all over the world.

I have met many other international students here in Stockholm and I really enjoyed that. I didn't participated much in the activities that were organized by Global Friends, mostly because they gave the information very short before the activity. I only participated in the Kanelbulle-baking day, which was great to do. I also enjoyed the big parties that were organized by MF (Amphiox and Introgasque), I met a lot of friends during these parties. It was also nice that I lived in the same building as most other international students, because due to this I made a lot of friends.

Unfortunately, I did not make many Swedish friends. The Swedish students from my class at KI were not very open in the beginning, but in the end it seemed that they were getting a little more interested in getting to know us. It would have been nice to have more contact with Swedish students.

I had a fantastic time in Stockholm and I am very happy that I participated in this exchange program! It was a great opportunity that I am grateful to have had. I really liked the city and enjoyed the activities Sweden has to offer and I met a lot of amazing people from all over the world. I also liked the atmosphere at KI, still I do prefer the method of teaching at my home university, but it was very nice to experience what it is like to study at another university.

I attended a Swedish language course which was paid by KI and it was given once a week for 10 weeks. I was looking very much forward to learn Swedish, I even practiced a bit at home already. However, I was quite dissappointed by the quality of the course. We were never given any homework and the classes themselves were very slow. I think this was mostly due to the different levels of the students in the class. Because the students came from very different countries (e.g. China, Australia, The Netherlands). I think it would be much better to put the Dutch students in the same class with for example the German students, because they have quite the same level. Learning Swedish is easier for them than for Chinese or Australian students. Because I thought the level of the group was too low, I decided to go to the more advanced group. The level of learning Swedish was much higher in this group, which I liked. I was also given homework (summarizing articles, preparing a short speech etc), due to this class I learned Swedish better. That's why I really advice to put the Dutch-speaking students together with German-speaking students.

I thought that studying at KI was easier than studying at Leiden University. We had lots of lectures during the courses and not all the lectures had a good structure. Besides, there was a lot of overlap between the lectures, so it was very common that some information was told for the fifth time during the course. Besides, the lecturers didn't seem to be enthusiastic themselves during giving their presentations. However, they were all very nice and willing to help us. We didn't have so many lab-experiments and the lab-experiments that were given, were very easy compared to those at Leiden University. The examinations were different as well. On the examinations at KI lots of details were asked and I wasn't used to this. In Leiden the examinations focus on the bigger mechanisms behind processes instead of asking details.