Welcome to All About Me!

Hello, My name is Gabrielle Gez but I am much more comfortable with just Gabi. For the most part, only my mother calls me Gabrielle and it is usually used when I am in trouble; so my full name is actually quite intimidating to hear.

What am I?

Whilst being in Munich where I am from and what ethnicity I am has been guessed wrong many many many times, I don’t particularly mind it, as it’s quite fun to keep track of the wrong guesses but this seems like a great place to put a cheat sheet for people! My mother is Nigerian and my Father is a Frenchmen but is also half German! I’m not at all brilliant with math but that makes me a quarter French, a quarter German, half Nigerian and born in the UK phew…

The cities in my life.

So yes, I am from the UK and was born and raised in North West London. Up until the age of 18, London was my only home; one that felt intimate but also unfamiliar as new foods, styles, people and places were constantly found, purely due to its vastness. When I am asked what London is like I say: “It is an exhausting city,” but I’ve never meant that to be taken with pessimism. The constant discovery is one of Londons most exhausting charms.

At 18 I had chosen to study out of London at the University of Leicester which is located in the midlands of Britain. Leicester is a city that imitates London but on a much smaller scale with more of a Northern essence to it; so it was essentially a little brother of Birmingham. Being away from London made me realise how much I adored it in my first year at Leicester. Now that I have been away from Leicester for over a year I can say I also miss it.

Munich is to be the third city I have lived in now and I can say I enjoy it so far. Quite honestly coming to Germany or more generally Europe was a plan B; in 2020 I was planning for my year abroad in the US however due to the pandemic it was cancelled so I took the opportunity of deferring a year to still be able to do a year abroad and at the time I felt my best chance of going abroad would be to stay in Europe. I had a few choices and what drew me to Munich Germany was simply the Architecture around Mariensplatz and that it would be a new European country I hadn’t been to.

Expectations and Me

What I want to get out of this year abroad is utilising all the resources I would not have otherwise. Things like no ocean surrounding the land I live in hence making it a lot easier to road trip through other countries. I want to explore new cultures and get more intertwined with histories I may have just heard of in passing and see all the arts in all its forms in every place I go! Finally, I want to see how the study of media differs from the UK here in Munich; having different perspectives/frameworks to work with is so important when engaged with media but also a great approach in general.

So yes this is a little bit about me I look forward to many more blog posts in the future.
Thanksx