Fresh start:Wow, what a day, writes Miroslawa Gorecka. The first of six years studying medicine in NUI Galway. You may remember me from The Irish Times Leaving Cert Diary 2007. Now I'm back to take you through the blood, sweat and tears of a medical degree in Ireland.

I nearly went back to Poland to study - after two years in Ireland studying the Leaving Cert I really missed my friends - but with 575 points in the Leaving I got some offers I really couldn't refuse.

It came down to a choice between Trinity College in Dublin and NUI Galway. I have been to Dublin several times over the last two years and I find it huge, busy and unfriendly. Galway is more relaxed - definitely the place for me.

Another important factor in my decision has been my age. As an "under-18" in Ireland you really can't make a move. You can't take a book out of a public library or a DVD out of Xtra-Vision without your parent's signature. My mum is living and practising as a GP in Galway, so I decided it would make sense to stay close.

But not too close. I found myself a bedsit about 10 minutes walk from the university. For €90 a week I should be able to pay for it with just a few hours' work. Apart from rent I really don't spend a lot of money. I'm here to study - I won't be spending all my money in the bar. Although after today's initiation, it doesn't look like the lecturers are planning to drive us very hard.

In Polish universities, the academic staff are very hard on the students. They push us to succeed academically and they don't credit us with a lot of maturity. We're told what to do and if we don't do it we're treated like idiots.

Today, I got the impression that the university cared more about how we feel than what we learn. We were told about the counsellors and student supports and the people we could talk to if things went wrong. All these services are free - it's not what I'm used to. It feels strange to be treated this way. It's like a partnership - students and lecturers working together. I'm not convinced it's going to work.

The approach to teaching medicine seems to be entirely different too. There was a lot of talk today about patient care. They put much emphasis on the importance of hand-holding, bedside manner and other caring behaviours. According to the people who spoke to us today, they seem to value this aspect of medicine as much as knowing your stuff.

I don't want to hold hands. I don't want to work as a GP, in fact. It's too routine. Too much flu. Too many antibiotics. I see my mother's practice and it's really not for me. I'd prefer to work on the inside, on the science end, if you know what I mean. Diagnostics, hospitals, laboratories. My mother wishes I hadn't gone for medicine at all. She wanted me to do veterinary studies as I've always worked in veterinary clinics. But people aren't all that different from animals. You can learn a lot from cleaning out the corpse of a dog.

The animal autopsies I performed in my teens squashed any squeamishess I might have had and now I can't wait to get going on the cadavers.

So today was spent in orientation, but if I'm honest I feel quite disoriented now. The "international" students were initiated separately from the rest. I suppose they thought we would have something in common with each other. I have no more in common with Malaysians and Singaporeans than I have with Galwegians. By the end of the day I felt cut off from the group. I got lost trying to leave the campus and took the best part of an hour to find my bedsit.

Now I'm home, watching a DVD on my laptop. This is the last night I will have with no study to do. I can't wait to get started on my coursework because the point of being here, away from my homeland and my friends, is to train as a doctor. I don't plan to hang around the student bar or join 13 societies in freshers' week. After today, I don't know how easy it will be to make friends. I know no one. Today, I can't quite convince myself that everything is going to be okay.

It didn't help that I turned up in formal black-and-white clothing today to find everyone else dressed casually. In Poland we always dress formally for these kinds of occasions - first day of college, graduation and other such events. So, as a 17-year-old-Pole in the "international group" and inappropriate clothing, it's no wonder I felt like a fish out of water today. Maybe I'll get my amphibian lungs tomorrow. Perhaps I should have done veterinary after all.