Lituania. Mi segundo hogar

This adventure began in 2017 when I was in my seventh semester of the Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at UNAM’s Faculty of Higher Education (FES) Iztacala. I found out that there was a call for international mobility to universities in Europe, so I decided to apply for the scholarship without knowing what I would face later. I was guided by the desire to travel abroad for the first time and grow as a student. And, of course, it was not an unpleasant experience; on the contrary, it was a series of challenges: leaving what was familiar and comfortable and getting into an environment that was different from what I was used to in Mexico.

All these changes helped me grow and stand up for myself in a completely unknown country and learn about different cultures. This broadened my horizons in the outside world and taught me to be grateful, because out of many students who applied, I was one of the privileged to be accepted. In addition to having a scholarship from UNAM, I received special financial support from Fresnillo Mining Company on account of my grades. I will be eternally grateful to my university and the company since they gave me the opportunity to make the trip of my dreams.

The big day to leave for Lithuania arrived. My family came to the airport to say goodbye; they were proud of me and I was expectant because I didn’t know how I was going to fend for myself in a country I didn’t know and whose native language is not English. Still, I was very excited to start this adventure. In Paris I boarded a small plane that took me to Lithuania. When I arrived at Vilnius airport, it was dark and raining. I met Jovilé at the airport, the tutor in charge of my induction that Vilnius University assigned to welcome me. She greeted me with a warm hug and welcomed me to her country. People often think that Europeans are cold and distant, but I can assure you from my own experience that, just like Latinos, they are warm and open to other cultures; they just express it in a different way.

Once in my room on campus, Jovilé introduced me to my roommates, Elona, from Albania, and Desiré, from Italy. A beautiful friendship grew between us, we learned to share a room, and we had unique experiences together. The kitchen and refrigerator were shared with even more exchange students, such as Yuki from Hong Kong, Gladys from the Dominican Republic, Dusan from Serbia, Carlos from Spain, Sultan from Jordan, and my dear friend Iryna from Ukraine, with whom we organized dinners where other exchange students prepared typical dishes from their countries and everyone in the dorm was invited, so that we could get to know each other and learn about different traditions around the world. Everything there was shared, and we also shared our life and the fun moments with each other.

I learned to adapt to my new situation; I bought thermal clothes, a good jacket, and snow boots because cold was unbearable, as it was 28 degrees Celsius below zero. I learned to walk down a frozen slope to get to the supermarket, how to move around the city, how to prepare my food, how to find the hospitals where I had to rotate, how to study for the exams and the subjects I took there—neurology and neurosurgery, cardiology, gynecology, infectious diseases, nephrology, and urology—how to prepare for presentations, and I even learnt basic Lithuanian. At the time, I was getting to know my new colleagues, students from other countries, such as Norway, Sweden, Israel, England, Italy, Slovenia, and India, who were pursuing their bachelor’s degrees in Lithuania. They also welcomed me, and we interacted a lot because we had to work in teams to present clinical cases, and that made it easier to make friends, as it happened with my friend Sebastian from Sweden.

The doctors and nurses in the hospitals are very kind to the students, which contrasts with medical education in Mexico. Of the many things I learned during my stay in the hospitals, the experiences that marked me the most were being able to learn in-depth about the clinical manifestation and treatment of acute myocardial infarction, thanks to the classes with doctors in charge of us, but also thanks to simulators with very advanced mannequins that represented the clinical picture of a person with this condition, so that we as students could provide the treatment. That kind of practice gives you a better preparation for the moment when you face an actual situation.

In the gynecology rotation, I also had labor practice with mannequins and classes on surgical techniques for cesarean sections through a live transmission of a surgery that was in progress in the hospital’s operating room. I had contact with Lithuanian patients during hospital visits while following an infectious diseases subject. Although Lithuanian patients rarely spoke English, they were willing to be examined by foreign students and, with the help of the doctors in charge of the subject, answered the medical questions we asked them. In the urology and neurology classes, we also visited patients. Since workload was not as heavy as it is in Mexico, the doctors cleared up all our questions, and we participated together in solving clinical cases.

These professional experiences helped me contrast different teaching methods taught in very different parts of the world. In Mexico, medical education does not usually provide so many facilities for study because the workload is heavy, and although the doctors in charge of training new doctors do their best to make learning as good as it can be, it is often not possible, and you end up self-teaching and learning on your own. In Vilnius I experienced the opposite: there is more time to interact with the teachers, who are more than willing to pass on their knowledge and guide you through the process.

The trip brought me not only a lot of medical knowledge but also very funny moments, walks along the small river in the center of Vilnius, trips to provinces and touristic places in Lithuania (once the weather improved), and more travels in Europe: friendships that I still cherish, culture and traditions from Lithuania and other countries I was in contact with, such as the cultures from Italy, Spain, Arabia, Ukraine, Germany, Greece, the Nordic countries and the Balkans. I was also able to transmit part of the Mexican culture and traditions to them, but, beyond everything, the exchange made me grow since the insecure and a bit fearful girl who left for Lithuania was not the same independent and courageous girl who returned to Mexico.

I was certainly in a place far away from home where I knew no one. When I arrived, the cold was extreme, and yet Lithuania became my second home; it warmed my heart, and I will never be able to take its presence away from me. I hope my experience will help other students appreciate and make the most of this type of opportunities that our alma mater offers, so that we can become part of this globalized world and complement our academic training in the best possible way.

---