The accommodation was well arranged. I got my room number two months before I arrived in Stockholm. The housing was perfect: apartment with living room, kitchen, bathroom and shared laundry room. The only problem for me was that the apartment was a bit far from KI: 40-50 minutes for one way. We could have saved our time if the apartment was close to KI. Cost of living was higher than I expected. My suggestion for keeping costs down is cooking yourself rather than eating at cafeteria.

The teaching was conducted in English. There were no language barriers in teaching. However, I had some troubles at supermarkets: all labels in supermarkets were in Swedish and it took me long time to find items I wanted to buy. In my impression, Swedish are kind and quiet, always ready to help others.

The contact person at KI was very nice. She introduced me to almost every faculty member in the department the next day I arrived at KI so that I could feel comfortable to talk with them later. A reception dinner was arranged for me with some faculty members and international coordinator. I also had a chance to meet with Chinese students at KI to discuss my research and their study at KI. Regarding leisure activities, I found it was nice to look around at Stockholm. The surrounding islands are all very nice. The Vasa Museum is a place worthy to go. I was lucky when I visited the Vasa: I met the Princess Charles and the King and the Queen of Sweden.

This was a successful visit for me. I taught students and also learned from them. It also provided opportunities to build future collaborations with KI.

Other activities include: participating discussion in Journal Club: Measuring Interactions; discussing Motivational Interviewing with faculty member; attending seminar: directed Acyclic Graphs - A tool to select confounders and minimize bias in the design and analysis of epidemiological studies; discussing with faculty member research collaboration on HIV/AIDS (writing a proposal); attending seminar: The deterioration of health and health services in Iraq; attending seminar: Differences in self-reported alcohol use between two versions of an alcohol consumption measure: A split-half sample from the Stockholm County Public Health Surveys; discussing with Chinese students about studying at KI; attending a key note lecture at the Nobel Forum. With these activities, I think it is very likely to build collaborations between our university and KI.

This is the continuation of collaboration between our university and Karolinska Institutet(KI) . One of my colleagues and one student from our university visit KI in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Faculty members from KI also visit our university in 2011. I heard this exchange program from them and the contact person in our university. I prepared lectures to be given at KI and other materials required for visa application. Some links that I got from the international coordinator are very useful: http://www.programkontoret.se/sv/Languages/English/ http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Work/Move-to-Sweden/Living-costs/ http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/city_result.jsp?country=Sweden&city=Stockholm http://wwwjustlanded.com/english/Sweden/Sweden-Guide/Money/Introduction

The activeness of students at KI impressed me. I am considering how to stimulate my students in the class to actively participate in. I wish I could have come in a better time so that I can have more interactions with students.

Because my planned audience, the second year master students were busy writing their thesis, I only gave one lecture titled “Statistical power in epidemiological studies”. I was planning to give another lecture for the first year master students but could not found a good time because they were preparing for several examinations when I was at KI. I also gave a seminar titled “A multi-level intervention among aging population in urban community”, sharing our experience with faculty members and PhD students. With the limited time of teaching, I could not make comparison of teaching between KI and our university, however, I found that students at KI were more active than those in our university and there were more interactions in the classes at KI.

The two lectures/seminars I gave were 3 hours and one and a half hours, accounting for 67% and 33% respectively. Time spent for other activities was about 12 hours.