HelMSIC Exchanges

Well... if I would describe my trip to Greece in one word, I would say WONDERFUL!!!

And I am gonna ask for more words to say and describe this amazing trip!!!...

It all started back in my city Mansoura when I decided to go for exchange and applied for the exchange just two hours before the deadline... I put Greece and Netherland as my only options and I didn't realize how I was so lucky ot get Greece until I went there.

My first days there were so hard actually, it was the new year's time and everybody was back home and busy with their family and I was the only exchange student, so I was a complete stranger and in a strange country who can't find a single shop in the street opened to buy something to eat, so I spent my first night with an empty stomach and I was just feeling homesick, I stayed alone for the first five days until my lovely friend Olympia invited me to her birthday party and that was my first time to meet with everybody, I was amazed how everyone was so welcoming, so friendly and so warm in the very first meeting... Well, I was just being myself!

So after this day, everything was suddenly changing, I started to meet with lots of Greeks and by the 10th of January, I made great friends and had a wonderful time with them... they were having their exams, but that actually didn't keep them from taking me to every place they go, and organize me lots of nice stuff and lots of times in the library and watching them studying while me just writing down some stories.

This month was actually one of the bet in my life, and not just because of the nice time I spent there, but also because of my friends there, I met very special people there that I will never forget about them for the rest of my life. It is amazing how the Greeks are so so so frinedly, so warm and so humorous that you wouldn't miss your home...

The things that really took my breath away while I was in Greece were the nature, the pretty girls :) and the FOOD!!! It's the most delicious food I have ever tasted in my life, I gained about 8 kgs when I was there and then when I left Greece to Hungary for spending antother two weeks with my friends there, I lost the 8kgs as I coudn't eat anything other than greek food, I was actually addicted to it :)

If I was in earlier year of Medicine, definitely I would go in exchange to Thessaloniki again, really it's amazing and not just the city which is amazing, but it's so amazing just because og its people, because of the lovely friends who are volunteering back there in HelMSIC... so if you are an exchange student needing an advice where to go for a summer exchange, I would tell you for sure that you don't even have to think... cause you should go to Thessaloniki, otherwise you' re gonna miss a lot of things, a lot of really nice caring people.

My greeting and all my love to every friend I know back in Greece just searching for a stronger word other than "Thank You" to express my deep gratitude to them.

Now, though am back home, but sometimes I feel homesick and I would like to return to Greece, I just feel that it's actually my home!!!

Abdalla E. Mossad
Medical Student,
Mansoura Univerity, Egypt