On my first day in Stockholm, I was incredibly nervous. I didn't know a single person and had just arrived at the airport in a foreign country. Thankfully, Karolinska organised a KI pick up service in which a student picked me up from the bus station and took me to my accommodation. She helped me buy my first train ticket and showed me the easiest way to get around Stockholm and back to my accommodation. Unfortunately on the day I had arrived, there was a snow storm and it was incredibly dark. I honestly dont know that I would have done without my KI Buddy picking me up and helping me with my bags!
Stockholm is renowned for being lonely at times, especially with the cold and the darkness during the winter. To my delight, on my first day i was already proved wrong by having a KI buddy pick me up and a warm welcome at my new accommodation.
A few days after my arrival, I had my official first day as an erasmus student. I was invited to the Solna Campus for an induction day, an oppurtunity to meet fellow erasmus students from all across the world and to learn more about the three months to come. It was fantastic to meet other students not necessarily from Dentistry, but from other subjects too. To this day, some of my closest friends from my erasmus are actually the students i met at the induction day. We were all in the same position, not knowing anyone in a country we were not familiar with, but all with the same aim to make friends and to learn. After the induction day, we arranged to meet at a bar to get to know eachother better and from that day on, we kept in contact and continued to meet, regardless of what campus or accommodation we were in.
For those who were not able to make it to the induction day, there were still opportunities to meet other Erasmus students at other occasions. Global friends organised days out to visit parts of the city, or activities, where we could all meet eachother in an exciting environment.