BRETZEL, RACKS AND ROCK N’ ROLL

My name is Giada, or, like all Germans say, Giana.

Many people think of the Erasmus year as a year of fun, going to parties and getting drunk. In my case, to give you an idea, the most sensational party I have been to until now was the Sunday Free Brunch at my student flat complex.

When I told my friends that I was going to spend an Erasmus year in Munich, I got different reactions. Some asked me if I was going to gamble, having mixed up this Munich with the French one, which has the same name in Italian. The ones who don’t know me well, asked me if I was doing it to enjoy bier and sausages, whereas the ones who actually know me were perplexed about my choice, since they now I am vegetarian, and I have never been drunk in my whole life. At least I can take advantage of Bretzel as big as my face, really love them!

My 99 years old grand-grandmother was the least enthusiastic. Coming from Calabria, she can’t picture a place where you don’t have at least 20 degrees.

However, here I am. Coming from Italy, I am traumatized by the 0 degrees of the beginning of November, by the price of coffee and by the Bavarian dialect.

The last one is actually almost funny to hear, except for when I am working as waitress or hostess and a bossy supervisor decides to have some fun talking to me in Bavarian and complaining about me not understanding a word, looking at me like I am a freak. But apart from that, all people I met until now, Germans and non, have been really nice to me. I really love the place so far and I am thinking about taking my Master here in the future.

What am I doing exactly here? Well, one of my worst flaws is overcommitting. At the beginning of this academic year, I told my self this time I would try to not engage in too many activities. I ended up with two jobs, a subscription to the gym near my house, participation in the group Students for future, a Spanish course, extra-exams to do at my home university in February and other minor commitments. Same old story.

In all this mess, I am trying to improve my German as much as possible; In this sense, I am really like to glad with either Germans or German speaking people. Work as well had helped very much, if I wanted to know all different names of boxes to store different types of glasses. So yeah, now I know that in Racks you can insert red or white wine glasses, but water glasses fit better in a Bäkereikiste, and plates in a Fleischkiste. Alles klar, wunderbar.

Thank you for reading! Hoping I will manage everything, fingers crossed.