Saturday, April 1, 2017

Two months into med school

I really can't believe  that it has already been two moths since I left Finland. I have studied quite much and also learned so many new things! It's amazing how much a person can learn in such a short period of time. After being stuck in the Finnish med school application process for over two years it feels so good to actually learn new information and to not just bang your head against the wall with the same entrance exam material over and over again..

The last month has been quite eventful. I visited Finland for a weekend, then my best friend from Finland came to visit me for a week and after that my parents came to visit me for almost a week. I have made many new friends and Latvia really starts to feel like home :) I really loved having my best friend and my parents here. It felt good showing them my favorite places and hanging out with them. Before it felt like Riga was in another dimension. It was hard to connect Finland and Riga because everything was new and different: people, places, furniture... After having friends and family here, it feels like a can finally make the connection between the two places. This really is happening and this is my life.

In four days we have our spring break for two weeks and everybody is going home, including me :) really excited to get to spend some time with my Finnish friends and to see my family and of course, our cat 😍 Also, I am very happy to have a break from school so I can catch up.. I have studied a lot but I reaaaaaaally want to get good grades so I try my best to study as much as I can.

Today we had the first day of our Baltic conference for Finnish students. Tonight we have a party and tomorrow the conference continues. The speakers today were very interesting: Lääkäriliitto, Duodecim, a gynecologist and a dentist. The opening speech almost made me cry. A representative from a Finnish organization Lääkäriliitto, referred to us as her colleagues and talked to us about the importance of teamwork and collegiality. It feels so weird to being referred as a colleague and to be part of this big community that seems to take care of each other. Deep down I still can't believe that I am entitled to study this field.