Everyday life of a MTLS student
Since I arrived in Stockholm, every day has brought me something new. However, some days were just normal as everyone else’s, and some days were too fast that I couldn’t even keep up. In this blog, I want to invite you to a day in my life as a master’s student, a researcher and a beginner ice skate and Swedish learner. Without further ado, let’s see what my ordinary life looks like.
As you know, I am studying in the Master’s programme of Molecular Techniques in Life Science (MTLS for short), a joint programme between Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm University (SU) and KTH. The day I have chosen is also when the second semester (SU) started, but we will come to that.
7.00 – Start of the day-
Not every day starts at 7.00; however, a busy day requires waking up early, so that’s what I did. Stockholm is still quite dark in the early hours (January), but this means I can see the beautiful sunrise, which do not happen mostly in winter in Sweden. After waking up, I attended a meeting at 8.30 at home and ate a nice breakfast afterwards to get energized throughout the day.
10.00 – Research at SciLifeLab-
On top of my studies, I am also working in a lab at SciLifeLab which is located in KI Campus Solna. This day, I didn’t have any experiments, and I had a meeting in the morning so I entered the lab around 10.00 (most days it is 9.00). I spend my time doing data analysis. Since I am also taking programming courses in the master’s programme, it is very nice that I can use my skills that I learn during the courses and apply them to the lab. After the lab, I headed downstairs where the lecture room is.
14.00 – Introduction to our first course in the SU semester-
As I said in the beginning, the second semester at SU started. The first course that we are taking is called Bioinformatics, where we will learn different algorithms that are used in the analysis of sequences and protein structures. Even though the semester is at SU, some courses will be held in SciLifeLab like the first course. For the first lecture, the course leader gave us a short introduction, and we looked through the course page. Got some warnings about plagiarism (it is a big no in academia!) and ended this introduction day.
I am very excited for this semester as the courses are more focused on computational biology which is not my area of expertise but will be very fun to learn about.
17.30 – Swedish Course-
After the introduction course for Bioinformatics, I headed to my Swedish course. I am taking courses from SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) as they are free and easy to follow since it is slow-paced. Learning Swedish is not a must, as almost everyone knows English and speaks it well. However, it is important to learn it to adapt to the city more, and if you want to stay in the country after your studies, most jobs require you to know Swedish.
I am really enjoying learning this language because it is very different from my mother tongue, and speaking Swedish sounds like singing <3.
20.00 – Ice skating –
Introducing my new hobby: Ice skating. After the Swedish course, we decided to ice skate for an hour. Since this ice skate ring is 5 meters from my SFI school, I did not miss the opportunity. I am still in the early stages of learning ice skating, but it is super fun as my friends teach me how to do it. A follow-up blog will come up for this topic, like where to buy ice skates and free ice skate rings around Stockholm.
Like I said in the beginning, not everyday is as busy as this one, but with good planning there is nothing you cannot do. I am very happy that I chose this day to document the things I have done in my life, since it was a sunny, bright and very productive day.
If you have any questions about life in Stockholm and KI, feel free to comment below or e-mail me 🙂
See you in the next blog!
Yagmur - Molecular Techniques in Life Science
My name is Yağmur, and I am from Turkey. I am a student on the Master’s Programme in Molecular Techniques in Life Science. Living in Sweden and studying at KI started as a dream, yet here I am (my life motto “everything is possible” still holds until further notice). In my free time, I like watching movies and listening to music from all around the world. I enjoy sharing my experiences in life. So, if everyone is ready, welcome to my blog and let’s begin the journey…
0 comments