Hello!
My name is Kiki and I am a post-doc in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Transfusion Medicine at Karolinska Institutet (KI). This is my first blog as a KI Digital Ambassador! I’m so excited writing this blog because actually..this is my first blog ever..hehe 🙂
When I accepted my post-doc position in Sweden, I was very happy because I knew that Karolinska Institutet was a great working place. I was also aware that Sweden is a very beautiful and progressive country and also very close -flight duration wise- to my home country, Greece (extra points for that!). An ”amazing health care system”, ”a safe economy” (no euro), ”beautiful people” were phrases I would hear quite often that made me happy for my choice. People were enthusiastic and supporting, especially the ones that had lived or travelled there. However, there was another set of ‘bad’ phrases that slowly started invading my conversations with others: ”North Pole”, ”housing problem”, ”very expensive”, ”very dark” and ”very cold”..Especially the last two words ‘hit’ me and bothered me….”dark”.. and ”cold”… Tell that to a Greek!! 
Of course, I did not expect to find sun and sandy beaches, this would be very nice indeed, but I was dreaming of a mild forecast.
In the beginning I thought:
”oh well, Boston, is also very cold and the weather is not better either”. Boston was the city I did my first post-doc at the time. Even though the comments from all my friends were very positive and encouraging in regards to Karolinska, Sweden in a way was ‘losing ground’..
Then it was something like: ” well, I will be fine!”
In a way I felt sorry I was not going to a warm place …but you can’t have everything.
Then : ” no, no I will be fine..I think…”
Before moving to Sweden I spent a few days in Greece telling everyone the news. I still remember talking to a family friend who visited Sweden for a conference who said:
”Sweden is an ugly place, very humid and dark. Why do you wanna go there? ”
But still I thought:
”I will go there and see for myself!!”
I flew to Sweden with all my belongings and I was ready for the worst case scenario: freeze, be severely depressed and miserable..
….and surprise…surprise….! Soon after, I realized that things were …different…in fact in a good way..!! 
Karolinska Institutet Career Blog 