So approximately last month, 2nd-16th February 2015, I went to Croatia for an exchange program called Europe Asian Medical Student's Exchange Program (EAMSEP) which is an Intercontinetal student exchange (Twinning project), organized
between AMSA Indonesia (Asian Medical Students' Association) and FOSS MedRi (Fakultetski
Odbor Svih Studenata Medicinskog fakulteta u Rijeci) who is a registered member
of EMSA (European Medical Student's Association).
Unlike the other exchange program which is held by AMSA, the AMSEP (Asian Medical Students' Exchange Program), this one is a bit special because it held between Europe and Asia, so it called EAMSEP and this one with Indonesia is the second EAMSEP after the first one between Malaysia and Lithuania. What also special about this program is that it last for 2 weeks, longer than the regular AMSEP which usually take only for a week.
The activities during those two weeks covered Knowledge, Friendship and Action which is under the philosophy of AMSA. Those including rotations in different wards in the hospital (KBC Rijeka), attend lectures and courses held by the proffesors and students in Medical School, social act with the kindergarten kids and visit cultural sites in Rijeka and several places around Croatia.
Besides the EAMSEP Program, I went for Euro Trip as well since I also had 2 months off for my college holiday (well it's because I didn't take the short semester though). So I decided to extended my trip before and after the Program, and I stayed in Europe for almost a month. I went to Italy (Rome and Venice), Austria (Vienna and Salzburg), Germany (Munich), France (Paris), Belgium (Brussel, Netherland (Amsterdam, Den Haag, Countryside).
From Indonesia, I took a flight to Rome, Italy and spends a day there and then, night train to Venice and bus to Rijeka. You couldn't imagine that I literally just walk all day long because I only have a day in Rome and 6 hours in Venice before going to Rijeka. It was pretty hard to drag my large suitcase along the crappy road in Italy to find our hostel and also to fit into the trenitalia night train, oh well it's a winter after all so I just had to bring lots of thick clothes and the fact that I actually travel quite often, but still as many as I travelled I could never be practical and bring less stuff to put in.
Anyway, the first day we arrived at the bus station in Rijeka, we were welcome by the students to have dinner in Index (Student Cafetaria) and then we could have little bit of rest in our new host family.
I was hosted by the Ahel's family and they were just so nice that I even want to have them host me for a year like I did on my AFS program (well if I could turn back time and choose this host fam). Their family are 'special' compare to other Croatians and typical of European I guess because they don't smoke and rarely drinks alcohol, they eat healthy food that their mom, Sylvia, cook and also live a healthy life. Ema, the girl who goes to University of Rijeka, and will be going to Indonesia for EAMSEP, is the first child of the family and she's just very sweet and friendly. I really enjoyed chatting with Ema and her mom everyday until it past midnight, she even burst into tears a night before we have to leave Rijeka. I like how she appreciated and understand the fact that Indonesia are predominantly Muslim and we don't drink alcohol and keeping sex after marriage. But it's funny when she said "Is there any other country like Indonesia where you guys just have 'fun' watching movie and drink coffee?" Well, I think it's different how they define 'fun', and Ema also don't get it when people having parties all night long, getting drunk and so on, they have to recover from their hangover the next whole day after vomitting and getting a headache. That's why I'm glad that at least there's one Croatian who have the same thought as mine though. His brother, Luca, was a very athletic one, he has a black belt in Karate and also won several swimming competition, he even has gym set inside his bedroom. While his dad, Vlado, looks younger than he suppose to, I looked into their wedding pictures and I don't think he aged at all. Both of them are dentist, and also a family of doctors where Vlado's brother, Jure, is a nephrologist and also his wife, while Sylva's dad was also a doctor. Typical of doctor family, so that may answer why they kinda live a healthy life isn't it? I am just so lucky and glad that Allah always give me a suitable place to stay and keep me around such a nice people who shares similar interest with me. Ema also read The little Prince book and surprisingly she gave me the book in Croatian so that I have collections of that book in several language (Indonesian, German, French, and Croatian! I will buy the English version soon). Then turns out Luka also has asthma and allergy like I do, funny isn't it? Just like Alina (my american host-sister) has asthma too.
Back to the EAMSEP activities, the next day we were welcomed by the presentation from the Dean Rukavina, introducing the University of Rijeka and also the medical faculty. Then we have free time to explore Trsat, the downtown of Rijeka and the castle. In the evening we had a welcome dinner with the vice Dean in Pizza Bracera where the first time I tried Scampi (Shrimp) Risotto and Truffel.
The next day we had lectures in Department of Pathology, having a lab tour and got a chance to see the actual autopsy! It was so cool, it is like the real dissection of human body unlike cadaver that we used to was already kept for several years so they were dried and not fresh unlike the flesh of human body. It was exhilarating when I got a chance to witness the autopsy for the very first time of my life! The patient was died because of progressive breast cancer so she was pretty much in a bad condition. After that we had a looong series of Advanced Life Support (ALS) and Basic Life Support (BLS), it took about 5 hours in total. It's like having an ATLS-ACLS training in a day, quite tiring but so fun because I always like this kind of medical training. The doctors were also fresh and young, three beautiful young lady who currently do the residency (I forgot all of the names and only remember Clara because I met her again in Nephrology Department when I rotate throughout the hospital ward). There were also some different medical equipment that is of course more advanced and modern in here, but the mannequin were pretty much the same.
Then the next activities for three days, we were divided into small groups consist of 2-3 students in each ward, and we did the rotation to visit the hospital ward in Pulmology, Nephrology and Cardiology department (I did it accordingly). I felt being a co-ass who followed the consultant physician and the junior doctor who did the residency around. I learned a lot and watch some pretty cool diagnostic procedure, such as bronchoscopy in Pulmology, dialysis in Nephrology and Stent Surgery in Cardiology. I also learned how the doctor wrote down the medical record of the patient after anamnesis and asking out patient history, although they were talking in Croatian, but then they kindly explained it in English to us.
In between the hospital rotation, because it only last from morning to the afternoon, we also had research lectures from prof. Polić about The role of the innate
immunity
mechanisms in the
development of
chronic inflammation
of visceral fat tissue
and Type 2 Diabetes
Mellitus, it was pretty confusing yet so noteworthy. The boys got a chance to do Friday Prayer because we went to the Rijeka Mosque that is the 2nd largest in Europe, which have an architecture of a space ship and quite surprisingly doesn't have lots of calligraphy or decoration inside and the philosophy behind it is to make us more focus in our prayer, isn't it so thoughtful? And they also have the best food so far! I was really happy they have such a beautiful mosque and hoping the chance that Islam would also grow in that small country (although their neighbouring country which is Serbia were dominated by Muslim as well, so they pretty much have some Islam influence beside The Turkey (after the Ottoman empire occupation). Then in the evening we did some cultural activities such as watching Ballet Theatre "Pour Homme et Femme" in the National Theatre of Rijeka that is just the smaller version as the one in Vienna, it was majestic place and the Ballet was also nice, it is different though because we were expecting traditional-classical-ballet-kinda thing (Tchaikovsky kinda piece of Swan Lake), turns out they perform mix of Ballet and contemporary dance so it was pretty modern and cool. Besides that, we also share our Indonesian food and culture as well in International Dinner in the FOSS room (student council basecamp), the concept was like a potluck, where we cook our own dishes bot Indonesian and Croatian at our own places then we brought it and serve it together in the FOSS room. Then after we were full eating, we did some presentations by singing our traditional folk songs of Indonesia from all over the region and also playing the traditional games together. It was so fun because lots of people coming and join us. They got to taste spicy Indonesian dishes and we got to taste their sweet pastry.
During the weekend we don't have any academic activity around the campus, so we do a city tour to Zagreb, well in Zagreb we still have short academic activities though, we went to the university of applied science where they teach us a little bit about Central Nervous System with high technology of using application in Ipad. It feels way better and easier if only I had these kind of application on my tab when I learned Anatomy. After that we just chill around the Zagreb and playing snow together because the snow was so thick when we went there (surprisingly it all vanished when we go back there next week). Then sadly three of our friend from University of Indonesia had to leave us because they didn't got permissions to stay for two weeks from their campus.
The next day we split, the boys went to Pula while the girls went to Hum and Istria. We were suppose to go together to Pula which is hosted by Matija, but Matija's car only fit for 4 boys and the rest of the girl will be going with Marija's car, bur Marija's car suddenly broke in the middle of the journey, so instead, Dora (Ema Karmelic--the coordinator of this program--sister) and her mom took us to go around Istria and Hum, the smallest town in the world despite that it only consist of 17 people, they manage to fill all the requirement to declare the place as a town. I was little a little bit disappointed that I wasn't be able to go to Pula and when they pick me up, they didn't explained to me directly where we were heading, I thought that we still catch up the boys but then turns out we were heading into different direction. But then when we had several stops and reach the Hum, I was totally grateful that we went to all of those places, because it's a countryside of Croatia that I think was so special and you might not find it anywhere else. I mean it some kind of expression that goes "I-was-in-the-middle-out-of-no-where" kinda places where only the locals would know such places. (I mean Croatia is not really a country where is on the list to go visit kinda thing for tourist, specially Indonesian, where you live faraway and you would rather visit Paris kinda thing when you go to Europe right?), even though I think it actually really beautiful and considered as it's a-must-visit-place though).
And... the first week finally over :(
---to be continued
-NA
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