Reserapport - KI-student
Lärosäte: University of Dublin - Trinity College Dublin
Utbildningsprogram: Biomedicin
Utbytesprogram: Erasmus
Termin: Vårtermin 13/14

Innan avresa

The best part of the bachelor's programme in biomedicine at KI is the extensive opportunities to go on exchange: during the third semester, 10 students have the chance to go to Leiden University in the Netherlands and take the corresponding courses in immunology and physiology and during the sixth semester, basically everyone who wants to can write the bachelor thesis abroad. The biomedicine programme has partner univerisites all over the world: Australia, Singapore, USA, Canada and several places around Europe.

This time around, I really wanted to go to a native english speaking country to improve my english as much as possible. My first choise was London, but that happened to be quite a popular choise so I was nominated for Trinity College in Dublin which, in hindsight, I am really happy about. Trinity College is the oldest and thehighest ranked university in Ireland, located in the heart of Dublin.

As a european student it is really easy to go on exchange within Europe, as you don't need to apply for a visa or anything like that. You can just go. The only thing you need to do is apply to the college, which in the case of Trinity was really easy: you just fill in a form with help from the KI international student coordinator, who took care of sending it to the university. The deadline for the application was 30th september so from the point when everyone recieves their nominations (in the middle of march) you have plenty of time to worry about paper work. When you're accepted, Trinity sends you your student number and password so you can register online. But since you're doing your bachelor's thesis and not taking any courses, this is also really easy. The best part is that the international student coordinator at Trinity helps you find a research group, so you don't have to look for one yourself. I just told the coordinator what field(s) I am interested in and later on he sent me a list of groups with descriptions of the projects that I could choose from. Very smooth.

Ankomst och registrering

One problem with the spring exchange is that the semester starts earlier at several universities, Trinity College being one of them and thus collide with the end of the molecular medicine course at KI.  Since you're writing your thesis and not taking any courses this doesn't really matter since you can work out with your research group when to start, but unfortunaletly this means that you miss the introduction week. I was also assigned mentors (older students) who were organizing meetings with the new students they were responsible for, but they also started meeting 2 weeks before I arrived and then they didn't meet as frequently. Since I lived in a student house at another college I hanged out with people studying there, but otherwise it might be a good idea to try to join whatever they arrange at Trinity to meet people. Otherwise there might be other students in the research group you'll be working in.

Go and get your student card as soon as possible after you have arrived, it comes in handy since you get student discounts on several places, i.e. Guinness storehouse, Jamesone distillery, Dublin zoo etc. Best of all though, you get FREE access (YES, FREE!) to the gym located on campus. They even have a swimming pool that you can use for free during certain hours. There are also classes, but you have to pay for them and several other sport societies. Check out this link: http://www.tcd.ie/Sport/facilities/centre/
Liffey River

Ekonomi

A lot of the other international students thought Dublin was expensive but let's face it: if you've lived in Stockholm, most other places feel cheap (except for Norway of course). Even though you could find cheaper food and drinks, living in Dublin can be quite expensive. Because you're writing your thesis and not taking any courses abroad, you can't apply for a the studying abroad loan from CSN because you're registered as a student at KI and not as an exchange student. This unfortunately means no extra money to cover increased living costs, something you especially need if you go to expensive cities such as London. However you can apparently borrow money to cover the cost of the flight, which I didn't do but probably would have if I'd have gone to Australia or something.

The public transport in Dublin is quite unreliable: the buses come and go as they want and they stop operating around 11 pm. The inner city is quite small so I walked everywhere and thus saved a lot of money. My flatmate had the student travling card and paid around €90 a month, not worth it! From where I lived, it took about 30 minutes to walk to Trinity college (and thus the city centre). Sometimes we shared a taxi home and that was quite cheap, so that's an alternative if you don't want to walk home in the middle of the night.

The cheapest supermarkets are, as in the rest of Europe, LIDL and Aldi. The most common supermarkets are Tesco and SPAR, the latter the most expensive one. They sell alcohol until 10 pm, after that it's illegal to sell in the stores. Expensive alcohol can be found in the pubs in the tourist area Temple Bar, cheap alcohol in the student clubs. A pint of beer around Temple Bar costs around €5, whereas it costs €2.50 at the student places.
Tesco supermarket

Boende

Like in most larger cities, it can be quite difficult to find accomodation in Dublin. The most common site for finding housing is daft.ie. I joined the facebook group "Svenskar i Dublin" (Swedish people in Dublin), where you can ask questions about housing or just anything about living in Dublin. Most people indicate that it's easier to find housing while in Dublin, because many landlords want to meet you and require that you've seen the apartment. This is also a way to avoid being scammed. I found the ad for Griffith Halls of Residence (GHR) on daft. GHR is the student accomodation at Griffith College, located in Dublin 8 about a 30 minute walk from Trinity College. It was quite expensive, about €500 a month for a shared room. If you want a private room you'll have to pay around €800 a month, so that was out of the question. The room was located in a furnished apartment you share with two or three other people. I thought it was worth it to escape the anxiety of not having anywhere to live and I met some really fantastic people. Most of the people I got to know were students at Griffith College and even though you're not a student at there, you were welcome to join their student union parties and other activities. Unfortunately I think, starting this academic year (fall 2014), they only allow Griffith students to rent at GHR. But it can be worth to check out: http://www.ghr.ie/.

Trinity College also has student accomodation but as far as I understood, it is near to impossible to get accomodation there if you're only here for one semester. I suppose it's always worth a try though.

Areas in Dublin you want to look for accomodation in: Dublin 1, 2, 4, 6 or 8. South of the river is considered nicer.
Griffith Halls of Residence

Studier allmänt

Since I was in Dublin to write my bachelor thesis and didn't take any courses, I can't say much about the education at Trinity. The lab I worked in wasn't located at the main campus, but at St James's hospital so the only time I spent at the main campus was when taking advantage of the free gym.

I had a really great time working in the lab though, as I was lucky enough to end up in a research group with the most amazing people. My supervisor was very busy but still managed to teach me a lot of things about the life science business and help me with my project. At the same time she let me do a lot of things myself and plan my time, which made the project that much more fun. The best way to learn is to try to do as much as possible yourself but at the same time know that there is always someone to ask when needed. I felt like they treated me more like a colleague than a student. I learned several new lab techniques and I got to submit an abstract and do a poster presentation at a conference. So this was definitely the best learning experience I've ever had and the closest to feel like someone more important than just a student.


Trinity College

Kurser under utbytet

Kurser motsvarande termin 6 på KI
  • Degree project in biomedicine (30 ECTS)

Since you're still registered at KI and not taking any courses abroad, this isn't really relevant for this report.

Språk och kultur

The official languages in the Republic of Ireland are English and Irish. The latter is however a minority language, only about a third of the population master Irish. Even though all the signs are in both languages, very few people in Dublin know any Irish at all. However, if you road trip through the picturesque villages along the west coast (which you should), you might find some people that actually don't know any English and places where all the signs are in Irish only. But since you're studying in Dublin you won't have problems with language barriers except for the wacky accent some Irish people deliver.

Be careful when crossing the streets in the beginning. Since they drive on the wrong side of the road (left-hand side that is), I realized I kept looking the wrong way. Motorists come far higher in the pecking order than pedestrians and cyclists, so don't expect them to stop for you.

The Irish is otherwise mostly famous for their beer and they do live up to their reputation as beer-lovers. If you're in Dublin, it's a must to visit an Irish pub, have a pint of Guinness and enjoy the live Irish music.

Fritid och sociala aktivteter

If you go to Dublin, you have to do some road tripping around Ireland or you'll miss the real Ireland. Dublin is nice, but it's a pretty grey city. The emerald in the emerald isle can be found just outside of Dublin. There are several companies offering day trips to different destinations to reasonable prices. We took a bus trip to Norhern Ireland which included a stop in Belfast where you could choose to either visit the Titanic Museum or go on a black taxi tour. We took the taxi tour and our taxi driver was a charming Irish man who took us to different historical sites and talked about The Troubles. The bus then left for the world heritage site Giant's Causeway.

At another point we also visited Cliff's of Moher on the west coast. If you have a driver's licence, I recommend renting a car and drive along the narrow, winding roads on the wild atlantic way on the west coast. Then you will experience some truly amazing nature. Driving a right-hand driven car in left-hand traffic is an experience in itself that makes it even more fun ;)

But since Dublin is the place where you'll spend most of your time, some tips on what to do:
  • Guinness Storehouse (The brewery. Entrance fee include a "free" pint of Guinness)
  • The Old Jameson Distillery (Whether you like whiskey or not, it's worth a visit)
  • Trinity College Old Library (If you're a star wars fan, you'll want to see the site of the Jedi Archives)
  • Dublin Zoo (Next to phoenix park which is supposedly the biggest park in Europe. Cute elephants)
  • The Porterhouse Pub (Great pub located in Temple Bar. On the more expensive side but brew their own beer and offer some great live irish music)
  • St Patrick's cathedral/Christchurch cathedral (cool cathedrals)
  • St Patrick's day (weekend) - don't miss the weekend-long celebrations when the whole city it lit green
  • Clubs (use bandsintown app to find good events. Button factory and Twisted pepper had some cool DJs delivering)
  • Gym and sports (as previously mentioned, the gym at trinity college is free for students)
Cliffs of Moher

Sammanfattning

Don't hesitate, just go! It will be the best experience of your life. Having been abroad is an advantage when applying for e.g. a master programme or just generally for your future career. Hopefully I will get another opportunity to go abroad and perhaps work somwhere else in the world in the future, thanks to my exchange experiences within the biomedicine programme at KI.
West coast road trip