Student blogs

Time flies! Since I moved to Sweden, to the time that the first month as a student here is already passed, it feels like such a short time!

The first month in Stockholm and at KI is the more significant introductory step into student life here. You start the courses, explore the campus, meet new people, and make a lot of friends. Further, a lot of activities are happening this month for you to get to know the KI groups and the student union groups. So, let’s see the top 4 milestones of the first 30 days as a Global Health student at KI.

1. Starting the courses

The experience at KI starts usually at the end of August with an in-person introduction to the program and to the first course. During the first days, we also had an introduction to the Department of Public Global Health MSc Programs and some useful seminars. All the above helped us a lot to be informed about the Program and the Department and gain helpful information. The first course of the syllabus “Global Health” is an introductory course covering, most of the topics in this field. The course lasts 5 weeks and it’s full of group projects, assignments, and most importantly super interesting topics to learn about. But we will talk in more detail about this in another blog for the courses overview. Therefore keep yourself updated!

2. Exploring the KI Campus

After one month here, I am still actually exploring the campus because it is huge, but the first days you usually see most of the things around. The best way to do that is to wander around the paths which lead to the dozens of buildings on the campus. Some of these buildings are the Aula Medica, the Biomedicum, the Widerströmska Huset, the Scheele Laboratory, and the KI Library. They are super modern and tastefully decorated. It is amazing how many study places and facilities they provide. Thus, be sure to see them all!

3. Getting to know each other – The first gatherings

One of the most important things during this KI experience: Friends! During the first days of the courses, you meet dozens of people including the whole class of your program. Also, you have the chance to meet many people from other programs as well, throughout campus activities, collaborative classes, parties, etc. Specifically, our class consists of 32 people and the vast majority attended many dinners, Fika, picnics, and many other gatherings we did during this month. All these experiences helped to build beautiful friendships among us.

4. Strolling around Stockholm

The best thing to do in your free time the first days here is to explore the city and the places around. Stockholm has so many amazing places to see and do. When the weather was good we took advantage of that and strolled around Gamla Stan and also did some lovely one-day trips in the Stockholm archipelago. The sunny weather of September also helped us decide to hike in the parks of Stockholm such as Hagaparken and Nackareservatet. However, the autumn rainy weather didn’t stop us either. These sunless weekends we visited museums such as Fotografiska and the Nobel Prize Museum and some amazing restaurants and Fika places in town.

This was a short review of the first month as a Global Health Master’s student at KI!