Exchange experience in Turku

Ever since I started my Master’s studies in the “Lifelong Well-Being and healthy Ageing“ programme, within the Faculty of Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences, I knew that a new adventure was about to begin.

It took me a little while to actually realize that it was going to be one of the best experiences I was going to have, educationally speaking. Under the guidance of Professor Soitu, I chose to take all the necessary steps to benefit from mobility in a city full of stories, full of people you can learn from, in short, Turku. So, at the beginning of January I arrived in Turku, to start my studies at the Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku.

Said and done, I started with the CIDI set of courses “Clinical Instruments for Evaluating Health – Development, Evaluation and Implementation“, where I met colleagues much more experienced than me, but also caring teachers, who made me believe in my own strengths, made me prove that anything is possible, no matter what country, field or experience we have or not.

During my collective activities at university, I had the chance to work with colleagues, to understand how I should relate to the subject, but also to get to know each other to some extent.

Also during the same period I had the opportunity to meet some of the members of the department, professionals in the true sense of the word. I was asked about my academic background, and the main reaction was one of astonishment, surprise, given the fact that I graduated from the Faculty of Letters in Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, and at the same time I am studying at the Faculty of Social Work in the same university. I was welcomed with open arms, I was shown all the necessary aspects, I was answered to all the questions I had, not mattering if they were academic or not.

All the experience I had here in Turku makes me become a better person, I want more and more to bring some of the elements I met here at home, but all this with time. Until then, I will do my best to take examples from people who are important to me, people who have shaped me as a person, be it my teachers, my colleagues, both here and at home, or the friends I have everywhere in this world.

I am writing these words shortly before returning home to Romania, where I will continue my adventure that I have just started. The next pages of this story will be written in Germany, for the next semester, and in Portugal, for the last semester of the Master program.

Thank you to everyone who has been with me during this semester!

Thank you Turku for all the memories, you will be missed!

Flavius-Andrei Bucuci

Master Student of “Lifelong Well-Being and Healthy Ageing”

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași