Dear future exchange students,

If anyone of you asks me whether you should go to Estonia for an exchange practice, I definitely say ˝yes, yes, yes, go, go, go˝. I have to say that, with only 4-week there, I have ˝fell in love˝ with Estonia and its people and had so much memorable moments with amazing people from many countries all over the world. To be honest, it will take many hours for me to explain to you why you should choose Estonia as your exchange practice.  Within this summary, I would like to share you three main reasons.

First of all, Tartu University Hospital is a perfect place for our primary goal: an exchange clinical practice. Tartu University Hospital is a modern well-equipped hospital with state of the art facilities. Moreover, because most medical workers there can speak English really well exchange students can ask questions and discuss issues easily. However since Estonian is their official language, we still found difficult to communicate with senior patients. Moreover, students are allowed to do many things under supervision, we had change to practice and gain invaluable hands-on experiences. For example, as I was assigned to the Department of General Surgery, my friends and I were allowed to scrub in and assist simple operations and put on sutures when finish. Besides that, we were also allowed to change vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) and drain abscesses, wound management, and changing patient’s bandages every day.

Secondly, hospitality, kindness and professionalism of local hosting organization are the second reason. Not only the National Exchange Officer (NEO) but also our Contact Person (CPs) look after us really well. They picked up us when we arrived, showed us to many different interesting places and give many great recommendations about how to explore Estonia with reasonable prices. Moreover whenever we need any help, they are always available which I personally really appreciate. Thanks to them,  I had opportunities to travel to Helsinki, Riga, and Stockholm during the weekends of my exchange practice. Together, we had so many amazing memories about boat house trip to Lake Pepsis, walking on Tejvaskoja, playing beer-pong game, playing Kiiking, having Estonian sauna and jumping into ˝freezing˝ crazy cold water right after this. Thank you, LEO Elina, our CPs: Anna-Lissa, Lisa, Silver, Marija,.... Thank you for treating us so well and help us have an amazing exchange practice. 

Last but not least, proactive, environmentally friendly lifestyle and time punctualities of the Estonian impressed me so much. Lisa, a CP told me that the Estonian really loves and respect the nature. They always want to keep it clean. When she told me that if she find and trash on the street, she will definitely pick it up and take it to the nearest trash bin. When I just heard that, I could not believe 100% but after eye-witnessing two other CPs pick up an empty beer can, put it into their bag until they found a trash bin during our trip to Tajvekova walk. I completely admire. For the time punctuality, I did have a small cultural shock when “being on time” in Estonia means “being 5 minutes earlier than meeting time”. This punctuality is not only for work but also for casual appointment.

In conclusion, I totally agree with a description about Estonia in the famous traveling website “Lonely Planet. Estonia is unique! It is a beautifully mysterious country which definitely worth to be explore.