My exchange in Spain was second exchange I participated in. I didn´t have any particular expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised. I chose Spain because I simply love southern culture – their food and their way of living, but I wanted to know more about their healthcare system too.
I got selected in Murcia – a smaller city in southwest of Spain. It is a student city, has a nice historical centre and plenty of cafés, shops, etc. My hospital was Arrixaca – in the department of Gyneacology. The hospital was really new and modern and after a month it felt like home. I got to know a lot of parts of the field – general gynaecology, gyneacological oncology, obstetrics, delivery room. Each week I was at a different part with different doctors, but all of them were always really helpful and trying to teach me as much as they could.
I lived in a flat with another 4 incomings and I had a room for myself, which was really convenient. It was 10 of us alltogether, and I believe everyone is going to agree that exchanges are not about where you are, but who you are with. I got lucky with extremely nice, friendly and funny group of people. We travelled together, laughed, cried and learned how to cook paella!
The downside of the exchange was, that we didn´t have any canteen, so we just cooked or went to restaruants everyday. The social program was nice, we had a great contact person, who was always there for us and made our stay much better, but otherwise it was a bit disorganized.
On the weekends we went together to Granada, Alicante, Cartagena, where we went on a cruise with catamaran, which was probably one of my favourite moments from the exchange. One weekend I also went to Madrid by myself. I was blown away by beauty of the city! Its really nice, clean, cosmopolitian, there is so much to do and it felt really safe. I also went on a short trip to Toledo, which is a beautiful city and I can only recommend going there (but preferably not in the summer as we did, as it is 40 degrees there all the summer!).
For everyone who is hesitating to go on an exchange, I can only say YES is the answer! You get to know new culture, you learn different things in hospital, you get to know amazing people from all around the world and sometimes you get to know the you, you never knew you had in yourself!
Lucia Galbavá