For my first SEP I went to Romania for two weeks. Since I am a student of laboratory diagnostics, I chose research in my program. I ended up in the beautiful city of Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania. We did our internships at the MedFuture Institute, which was located next to their pharmacy school complex. Each day a different staff member took us in and showed us their job description. In total we went through 4 departments and each time we were able to see something new.

The first department was bionanoscopy, which focuses on the visualization and analysis of biological structures at the level of individual molecules and nanoparticles. Here we were introduced to the instruments they use, so we could see, for example, an electron microscope, a molecular microscope, a Raman spectrometer or a histological microtome.

The second department dealt with clinical trials and cell therapies. Here I was most interested in the cultivation of cancer cells. For example, I tried my hand at preparing a medium for melanocytes.

The third department focused on proteomics and metabolomics.

The most interesting program for me was the newborn screening, which is done by taking blood from the baby's heel. I was surprised that in Romania there are state-paid screenings for only 3 congenital or hereditary diseases. In the Czech Republic, on the other hand, screening is standard for 18 diseases. With our consent, blood was drawn from our finger so we could test the levels of amino acids in our bodies.

The last department was the biobase, where they performed experiments on laboratory mice. We also had the opportunity to see a surgical procedure where the spleen and femur were removed from a mouse with leukemia. The experience was very rewarding and all the lab technicians tried to give us interesting experiences from their practice.

Every day after practice we had a rich program planned. We tasted some traditional food and drinks, visited important monuments of the city, the pharmaceutical museum, the botanical garden and the zoo.

A great experience for me was the evening when the cinema was to be on the program. We were supposed to go to a movie in English with Romanian subtitles, but at the last minute someone chose another movie and unfortunately overlooked that the movie was not in English but in Danish. We laughed for the whole hall and left the cinema after ten minutes. However, we made up for the time by sitting in the park by the beautiful lake and discussing interesting facts about our countries. So we were enriched with funny stories from the cinema and still enjoyed the evening. Another very interesting evening was game night. We ordered a Romanian specialty - sarmale - at the college and played monopoly while we played. 

In the middle of two weeks we went to Brasov for SEP weekend. All participants and organizers of SEP in Romania gathered here. I was staying in a room with three other female students, to whom I started speaking English... but within moments I was confused. Two of them were from the Czech Republic and one from Slovakia. After a week I could finally speak my mother tongue and had a lot of fun with them. We even went hiking on our free time on Tampa, which was a high mountain with a beautiful view of Brasov. We even met a doe and a fawn along the way. Together with the others, we had an international night this weekend, where everyone prepared a specialty from their country and the others could taste new flavors. We could taste Egyptian tea, chocolate from Slovenia, homemade wine from Romania or sweets from Algeria and Turkey. We also took a minibus to see the most famous castle in Romania - Bran, also known as Dracula's castle. 

The whole two weeks were packed with adventure. All the organizers took great care of us and we could contact them anytime. I greatly appreciated the experience and would recommend it to anyone. Thank you to everyone who made it possible for me to travel and have such an unforgettable two weeks.

Pavla Požárová