Exchange report - incoming students
Hanoi
Home university: Universidade de Lisboa
Study programme: Dentistry
Exchange programme: Erasmus
Semester: Spring semester 2011/2012
Name: Adriana Rolim
Email address: adrirolim@gmail.com

Arrival and registration

I think there was little communication by part of the Global Friends, and i never had any contact with them ... But after arriving, the students from the student-union were very helpful and friendly!!

Acommendation

I applied for the accommodation in UAC, which was quite easy and practical, with lots of information in the internet. Staying there was quite nice, a very good environment. The only negative aspects were the price ( which i found a little bit expensive) and the cleaning...it was hard to keep places clean with that many people, and the cleaning staff didn't always did the best job.

Leisure time and social activities

Social life was one of the things that lacked the most during my stay, special related with people from school. There were not that many student activities (sport, parties, ...) and although people were nice and friendly...they were not as much welcoming as i expected. I guess i just the cultural difference, and as i was told, the weather...

Pre-departure

Since i started studying in the university i´ve always wanted to go in an exchange, mostly because i´m very interested in getting to know new cultures and people. But also because some of my friends have done it, and it sounded like a very enrichment expirience! Because of the selection program at my university i wasn't able to chose here to go, but KI sounded like the best of all options, and so it confirmed to be! Although my home university didn't had much information to give us about...everything, i found lots of information on line, and also with the exchange students that were coming to my university,

Courses during the exchange period

ETL002 : Child and Adolscent Dentistry - Odontology
In this course i didn't work that much...i guess i had bad luck with my patients. Most of them missed their appointments, and the one i had was 19...so it wasn't much pediatrics. But it was very intersting to see diferent control behavior techniques that my colleagues used. Other thing was the materials and different techniques used, for example glass ionomer, that we don't learn how to use in my home school.
ETL001 : Comprehensive Care - with subject specific courses
This course works in a very different way compared to my school, we have all the different subjects separated in different appoints/classes, so we get to do a little bit of everything... Here i found the working with the "patient" a little bit less interesting, first, because most of our patients didn't have much to do, just fillings... And since we just stayed for 3 months, i didn't had time to do more interesting and complex dental treatment. But, although the work was very diverse, it was good to see different approaches. All the teachers were very helpful, they always tried to explain how they do thing, and were also very interested in the way we do them.

Summary

In general everything was very good! The beginning was quite hard, it took some time to get patients, and to start working properly. And, in the end.....we didn't had enough time to do more elaborated treatments....so we just spend 3 moth doing check-ups and filling...and that was a little bit disappointing. But, it was still worth it!

Language and Culture

I attended a Swedish course, but it didn't had much success. It´s a quite different language, and we just had classes one time a week, and with some holly days in the middle, and just only a few weeks...it was no good. So after a few lessons i gave up. And, since everyone, everywhere spoke English, it wasnt that much a need...

Studies in general

I was very impressed, in a good way, by the Swedish study environment! Everything was quite different form what i was used in Portugal! Starting with the relations between teachers and students,  which were very informal and easy-going, and i think that helps in getting students more interested and makes it more easy for them/us to learn and just ask any doubts we have.  
Student-patient relation i think was also quite different, but i think that´s just because we Portuguese people are more sociable, and i notice that patients were used so a more serious environment. 
The thing i thought was more different from our home school was the confidence and autonomy that  students have here, in KI, i think students have more responsibility for their actions, and are asked to do more by  themselves, to think and use their own knowledge. Instead in Portugal, we tend to relay on our teachers every time we have doubts.
About what i´ve learned...i noticed that in KI they are way more conservative when it comes to treatments, and they take so much in considerations all the factors affecting oral health and try to act changing them instead of just doing invasive treatment. Other thing were the new/different dental materials and more technology, because in my home school we still  have lot´s off "old school" stuff.