KI provided arrival pickup service and I applied for it. It was a one to one service as they arrange local students to pick us up depending on the time that we will reach T-centralen/City Terminalen. This service even includes helping us to check in at our accommodation place so that once we were picked up, we will be able to receive our keys instead of dragging the heavy luggages to collect the keys then head to the accommodation place. However, on the day of departure, there was flight delay and my flight was postponed for about 12h. As such, the time of arrival of my flight at Stockholm would become 12 midnight. By the time we reached T-centralen it was around 1 plus past midnight and it is not convenient for the local students to pick us up. As I have friends exchange at Stockholm, I arranged for my keys to be passed to one of my friends and have my friends to pick me up instead. T-bana/metro service at Stockholm ends quite late so I was still able to get a ride to my accommodation place.
It is good to go for the introduction day as many information were provided and that is also the day to make our KI student card, getting the temporary card to show to train or bus inspectors that we are student (so as to avoid being fined for using a student concession) as well as creating a library account for printing and borrowing of books. The exchange coordinator is also there so I got to ask her all the things that I was unsure. Local delicacies in the form of buffet was provided too and it was delicious!
There is no need for me to have the health check at the student health centre as my course does not require interactions with patients at the hospital.
I applied for Strix, Armegatan 32 but later moved to Pax, Emmylundsvagen 1 as there was a problem with the toilet and I need to move out and the next available room is at Pax. Comparing between the rooms at Strix and Pax, Strix has a smaller room and very small personal toilet while Pax has a bigger room and much bigger toilet. Kitchen in Pax is bigger than Strix too. Pax is 2 mins walk from the nearest station, Vastra Skogen while Strix is slightly less than 10 mins walk to the same station. My recommendation for girls would be to stay at Pax as I heard of robbery incidents of a girl at Strix as residents of Strix have to pass by a park from Strix to the station and from station back to Strix and the park is not brightly lit. It is impossible to see the robber who was hiding among the trees as it was too dark to be seen. So it is better to pay for a slightly higher rental for safety, convenience and more comfortable stay. Both Strix and Pax are near to KI Solna campus- 10 mins bus ride on bus 507 or 25mins walk but very far from KI Huddinge campus- 1h ride on T-bana/metro and Pendaltag/train. Recommended to check which campus the lessons will be held at. I was not aware and 3 periods of my lesson was at the Huddinge campus and only 1 period was at Solna campus so I got to travel very long for most of the days.
Accommodation can be applied through uac.se
Choice of accommodation, pricing and facilities can be seen on the website.
Any enquiries can just email and the person-in-charge Kristina Nyström [kristina.nystrom@kihousing.se]
is very helpful and replies fast.
I did not join the MF/student union and did not join their activities. I tagged along my Singaporean friends who are having exchange at Stockholm universitet once for their student union social events which was pub crawl and once at their hall/accommodation place clubbing event. Sweden has a strong drinking culture in which every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday are their partying nights so on these evenings we will start seeing young people drinking and talking loudly in their drunk state on the metro.
When I was applying for exchange, KI only offers one slot to my university, NTU. At first I was procrastinating as I was not confident enough to go on exchange to such a far away place by myself not together with any peers from NTU.Hence, I read through exchange reports provided by both KI and NTU and also talked to a senior who went to KI for exchange before. My senior told me how science become so exciting during their study at KI and Sweden being part of the Scandinavia is a country as safe as Singapore so even though I am a girl, it is still safe to live in Sweden alone. However, when I reached Stockholm, life wasn't as lonely as I thought! I met friends from all parts of the world (my classmates- local and exchange students & corridor mates) and there were many Singaporeans from other Singapore university like NUS and SMU who were studying in Stockholm university and Stockholm School of Economics. We then hanged out together every weekend.
For Singaporeans, it is recommended to take a flu jab and purchase a very basic insurance. I bought mine from NTUC income- Overseas Student Accident Insurance which is also what my other friends who went to exchange bought as well as a 2-day travel insurance to insure my journey from Singapore to Stockholm. I took the airline AirFrance which is economical and the meals and service were good.
BIOX09 : BACH - Pharmacology and Toxicology
A course in which we will learn about drugs and its effects on human body. Besides attending the usual lecture sessions, there were 3 lab sessions which we will be given the drug (assured safe for the body) to see the effects on us. This makes science comes alive as we get to see the effects of the drugs with our own eyes and not just accepting it from the lecture notes. The drugs that we were given at lab includes anesthesia to test the effect and duration of numbing sensation, eye drops containing drugs to see the effects of near/far vision and the change in pupil size and lastly, cardiovascular drugs affecting heart rate.
BIOX08 : BACH - Tissue Biology
It is a very short course that only last about one month. This is a histology class so there is an emphasis in identifying tissue specimen of various organs in our body such as kidney, spleen, lymph node, ovary, testis, muscle, lungs, blood vessels and more. There will be a short visit to their lab in which we will get to see how an organ is sliced into such a thin tissue for examination.
IEE073 : BACH-Biomedical project for exchange students
I was attached to an immunology lab which focuses mainly on NK cells. Blood samples were sent from the hospital by the doctors to us. My mentor and I will then do lab tests on the blood samples to check what disease they were down with so that the doctors will then know treatment will be appropriate for their patients. I was also taught to extract DNA from blood samples and run PCR for analysis. As blood samples are sent in using tubes containing various anticoagulants, my project was to identify the one best anticoagulant that will produce good results for lab testing. By identifying the one best anticoagulants, it would be more convenient for the doctors as they will only need to send in blood in one type of anticoagulant tubes instead of sending in many tubes of blood of different anticoagulants. Also, patients' blood are precious so by identifying the one best anticoagulant, doctors will not need to extract so many blood from the patients. This project is carried out by taking blood from colleagues in lab as well as my own blood to test the effects on the various anticoagulants. It was a fun experience and I learnt a lot of experimental techniques that I never had the chance to learn in my universtiy.
Exchange at KI was definitely an awesome one. The style of teaching at KI is so much more interesting than in my university. Also, studying becomes very relax as Singaporean exchange students were only required to pass the subject. Hence, as an Asian, my Singaporean friends and I travelled many countries in Europe and had lots of fun! I am glad that I made the right choice braving my fear of being alone in such a far place as the awesome learning experience at KI as well as the fun I had exploring many European countries is really worth. Through this exchange, my family and I noticed that I have grown up and became much more independent which is a valuable life skill that I can only gain through exchange.
The fun that I had with friends who I know in Sweden and that I returned back to Singapore safely, exchange at Sweden is definitely the correct choice! :D
I picked up Swedish from my Swede classmates and from daily life like grocery shopping. I did not attend the classes as I was quite busy with my Research-Oriented Project which usually ends only in the evening. In addition, there is a need to pay for the Swedish classes. Although it is already subsidized, I do not wish to pay so I did not take up the classes.
I applied for Research-Oriented Project which I get to do full time lab. This is the most memorable module at KI for me. To apply for this, I have to directly email the professor. Once he has approved, I have to submit the details to the exchange coordinator for this Research-Oriented Project course to be approved and this course will replace the normal modules that I was supposed to take. I would strongly recommend students to go for this project as it was really a good experience for me, a good exposure to get to learn lab techniques and to know what is the life of a researcher is all about. As KI is a medical university, it has close links to their hospital. My lab is at the Huddinge hospital.