Exchange report - Student at KI
Home university: Universiteit Leiden
Study programme: Toxicology (Master's)
Exchange programme: Erasmus
Semester: Autumn semester 2011/2012

Pre-departure

I was always interested in going to the Netherlands since it is a beautiful country of tulips and windmills. When I was in the university, I watched a movie called Daisy and it told us a sad but moving love story happened in Amsterdam. The beautiful scenery in the movie really attracted me; the daisy blossoms besides the canals ; windmills were wheeling around in the grasslands under golden sunset. That picture was always on my mind and I wish I could go there one day. 
The university education there was also at high levels in Europe. So I became really excited to know that the master program of toxicology had an ERASMUS exchange program with Leiden University in the Netherlands. Leiden University is one of the top universities in Europe and the medicine there was of high quality. I applied for it immediately and got the nomination letter from the international office in KI. 
As a Chinese nationality student, you have to apply for a Nuffic certificate first to get admission to a Dutch University, but it is simple and takes about several weeks time. So you'd better apply for it first when you are planning to go on an exchange study. The documents needed for Nuffic certificate were written clearly on the Nuffic certificate application website (https://certificateassessment.nesochina.org/student/), so register first and then just follow the website and it will tell you how to manage it. 
And then I used the nomination letter and Nuffic certificate to apply for the exchange program on Leiden University website. Finally I got the admission letter from the Leiden University. 
Before you go there, you need to apply for a visa if you are a Chinese citizens and the international coordinator in Leiden University will send you emails clearly stating what you need to do. So don't worry about it. Just prepare the documents(including admission letter and bank statement) and go to a Dutch Embassy and apply for it. It won't take much time.

Arrival and registration

I arrived several days before I start the lab work. You don't need to arrive too early before you courses start. I read from the email there was a introduction course for new students in Leiden University Medical Center in September but I didn't join it since I went there only to do my master thesis in November so I missed. However, it could be nice if you go to the introduction course since you can know new students and make new friends. 
After you arrive at Amsterdam Schipol airport, you only need to take a train which destination is always Den Haag central(there is a train station just in the airport) to Leiden Central and it costs about 20 minutes. The train tickets can be bought easily at the train station from both ticket machines and ticket office. You can use cash or credit card. After you arrive at Leiden Central Station, you need to go first to the visitor's center right outside the train station and there you can get a welcome package. The package contains you student card and other useful information brochures(including map, shopping and traveling guide, tips while you live in Leiden). 
Leiden is a small town and it's easy to find places everywhere. If you are good at reading maps, then it's totally simple for you to go everywhere. You can easily find LUMC just on the other side of the train station and there are signs inside the train station.
Leiden Central Station

Economy

Things were much cheaper in Holland compared to in Sweden. The food, consumer products and almost everything. 
You have to pay 15 euro to get a badge used in LUMC and 15 euro registration fee for the website where you can find houses. A bike is very useful if you don't want to go by foot to everywhere(30 minutes at most to a place in Leiden). A second-hand bike costs at about 50-100 euro and a new bike is more expensive. You can but second-hand bikes on the bike shops on the streets. Just visit more shops to get a bike at a reasonable price.
There are several supermarkets in Leiden, Albert Heijn is the most common grocery store and also the most expensive.  I usually go to a medium supermarket near my house called Digros(but no chicken sold there), cheap and good. Other cheaper supermarkets where students like to go in Leiden is Aldo and Lidl, however with less kinds of goods. The supermarket Jumbo outside the train station was also a good choice since it is very convenient with lots of goods and the price was reasonable there.  
Since I am a Chinese student, I have to apply for the visa and it costs about 500 euro. That was a huge amount of money.

Acommendation

The university itself offers housing to students, however it was very expensive. You pay 500 euro a month and get only a small room(12sqm) with shared toilet, bathroom and kitchen. So it's not good to apply the housing from the university.  I feel the housing in Leiden is more expensive than in Stockholm since in Stockholm a corridor from SSSB does not cost much and you can have your own toilet and bathroom. It can be hard to find accommodation in Leiden since there are lots of students. You can go to several housing websites via the Leiden University Official Website. Roofs foundation was my recommendation, it was a website where students from Leiden advertise their rooms and apartments when they go to study abroad. You'd better find accommodation as soon as possible after you received your admission from the university. Keep on looking and refreshing the website every day and you will find a suitable house in one day. Don't feel frustrated if you can't find a house for a long time, believe you will have it before you arrive at Leiden and it will do. A reasonable price for a room with shared facilities was 300 euros and a small apartment was 500 euros. I thinks anywhere in the Leiden City would be ok if you have a bike, it will take at most 20 minutes for you to go to school every day.

Studies in general

Since I am doing my master degree project there. So I don't know about the courses. I am doing my thesis in the department of clinical pharmacy and toxicology in Leiden University Medical Center. The people there are very friendly and kind. Most of the staff in he department were pharmacist, lab technicians and some PhDs. There were only 2 master students doing projects there during my stay(including me). My supervisor and the technician there were really helpful to me and we had a very friendly relationship.  I am staying about 6 months to do the thesis(45 credits). At first my supervisor asked me to read relevant papers about the project so I can get a thorough understanding of the project background. Then either he or the technician showed me the techniques that will be used in the project, I practiced several times and then I can work independently in the lab. If I need any help, I can always find my supervisor and the technicians. I kept a lab journal every day, recording my protocols and experimental results. This is useful, necessary and also obligatory if you are working in the lab. So you can always check what you did before and this will make your research much easier.
During my stay, I had 2 meetings every week. One is on Monday morning with all the people in the lab, everybody will talk about what they did in the last week. This was also a time to inform others if you need to book things(solutions, kits or everything needed in the lab) or if the machines were broken.  The other meeting was group meeting within our research project, my supervisor, a PhD who is working in this project and a lab technician to discuss about the process about our project.
LUMC

Courses during the exchange period

Courses corresponding to semester 4 at KI
Since I am only doing my master degree project there. I don't know much about the courses there. 
My master project was 45 credits and I spent 6 months in Leiden University. So it correspond the same credit in Karolinska Institutet. I don't apply for a course transfer since it was a degree project. You don't need to transfer credits.

Language and Culture

Dutch people can speak very good English as Swedish people do. So you won't have any problems when you are living there. Actually I found Dutch language sounds really interesting. If you are a Swedish, I guess if will be easy for you to study Dutch. However, I am a Chinese so it's quite different from my language. I spent a little time to study Dutch Online and learned some simple word, phrases and sentences used in everyday life. It turned out to be very helpful and at least you can say byebye and thank you. I don't know if the university offered any language courses. But you can ask the international coordinator there. I think Dutch people were a bit different from Swedish people. They are more open and enthusiastic. Sometimes they can be quite direct and just speak out what they think, even it will make you feel a little embarrassed. However, overall, Dutch people were very friendly and kind-hearted, at least the people I met were very nice to me.

Leisure time and social activities

You can always see the posted announcements to see if there were any social activities. There is a international students get-together every Wednesday night at the Einstein bar in the town. You can get to know a lot of students there and talk together.  There were gyms offered by the university, it's not expensive and you can go there every day. i don't go sports much so I don't know about the sport center like football and basketball fields. You can always find useful information from the university website.  You have to be social if you want to know more student, if you just go to the lab every day like me, there is no big chance to get to know more students. 
There is a shopping street in Leiden with many shops including clothes and food. You can also go to the shopping centers in Den Haag and Amsterdam if you want to have more choices. They are just near Leiden and Holland is such a small country that it's very convenient for you to travel from one city to another and take at most 1 hour. Den Haag is only 20 minute's train from Leiden and Amsterdam is about 30 minutes.
Every Sunday, there is a open market along the river beside the shopping street. Is sells a lot of things covering vegetables, food, clothes, flowers, bags, electrical, keys etc, some of which you can't buy in the supermarket  like pumpkins. 

Summary

Leiden was a really beautiful small town with all the canals through the town and old windmills.  It's not so cold comparing to Sweden in the winter and this was really nice. I like the country Holland very much. 
Overall, I really appreciated this period in life and benefited a lot from it. It offered me not only a scientific training, but also a unique experience in life. I learned a lot in academic research, but also a lot from experiencing a different culture. I also grew stronger as time passed by. When I went there first, I don't know many people and felt rather lonely, then I got to know more and more people and they helped me a lot, I adapted to the new environment fast and began to like it. 
Thanks to KI, I had this treasurable time in my memory and I will remember it forever.