MUNICH: FULL OF SADNESS FULL OF JOY

My exchange program in Munich has been the most wonderful experience I’ve had in my life. It was full of first times, everything was new, almost a challenge, and I can not be more grateful.

Being a student at LMU

Studying at the LMU has been a break from the excessive academic pressure I had in my homecountry. The German education system is very different from the one in  Colombia. In Colombia I had a fixed weekly schedule, the same classes, the same hours, the same teachers from the first week of class to the last. In the LMU it is different, I do not have fixed classes every week and in some of my classes I have up to three different teachers, although I suppose this is very influenced by the fact that I am an exchange student.

My classes at the LMU are very interesting, entertaining and as most are with only exchange students, so they are full of opinions, stories and laughs because almost nobody has english as a first language. Something that I had to do here in class was, after each presentation, give a handout to my colleagues about my subject, we never do that in Colombia, we always expect students to take independent notes of the presentations.

Being a student at LMU is fun. really, it is fun, you have incredibly interesting classes and also a bunch of different events that take part depending on the semester you are in. Okay, let me change that a bit, being an exchange student at LMU is awesome. Is exactly what you need when you are not sure what your doing with your academic life, that point of the career when you don’t remember why you are studying what you choose. LMU helped me with my career crisis, it was a “remember why you love this” . Because here studying is not about exams every week, it’s about learning even if you just have to present one exam at the end.

Living alone

This was hard, really hard, but not only because it was my first time doing everything on my own but also because I was doing it in another country. It took me a while to get used to doing grocery shopping and realizing how much I actually ate, which was a lot. Doing the dishes, taking out the trash, doing laundry, remembering to always carry the house keys because there’s no one to open the door…  Adulthood is hard. On the other hand living all alone is fun, setting your routine however you like, organizing everything the best way for you, watching as many netflix series in one day nonstop without being judged, buying the most expensive and childish cereal in edeka without having to share… yeah, the perks of living alone. I also realized that some house things make me happy, like organizing and going to bed with a clean appartment.To be honest, opening the new set of sponges for doing the dishes is the most satisfying feeling i think i’ve ever had.

The exchange student crisis

As most of you know, it is pretty common to have a crisis while you’re in your exchange. It’s a part of it. I had it and it lasted a lot of time, i was not only sad because i missed my family but also because I didn’t find my “exchange gang”. I use to spend a lot of time alone, i don’t really like drinking and partying but i found that that was a huge part of being an exchange student here. those were the plans, those were most of the events where people were supposed to meet. I usually never have problems “making friends” but in Munich it was a real challenge because i didn’t fit in that “exchange student profile”. That profile being a student who loves to party, knows a bunch of drinking games and just wants to have fun. Another thing was, I didn’t know how to speak german, so trying to meet new people that were not interested in drinking, partying and spending money all the time was hard. As a Colombian girl, a lot of people expected that I was going to be a wild, fun party girl. But even though I am fun (I think), I’m not the rest, and that let down the hopes of a lot of people.

The crisis went away after I started to get to people more people outside of the classroom, not only exchange students. And also when my family started to call more often and I got to see my little brother every other week.

Another one for the bucket list

Now, just to add something a little bit more personal, I have a boyfriend back home. He’s from Colombia and studies in the same university as me. I love him very very much, and saying goodbye was really hard. As a surprise, he bought tickets from Bogota to Munich in december, he wanted to spend christmas and new years with me, and he did. Just imagine, being madly in love with an amazing man, traveling to the city of your dreams and having him come and share some of that experience with you. We always said we wanted to travel, so we did. We celebrated christmas in Prague and days later, we kissed another year goodbye in front of the Arc of Triomphe in Paris. My bucket list was literally screaming. And we got to be roomies, I mean, who gets to live with her boyfriend for a while in Munich while traveling Europe…  

Some friends from my home university were also doing an exchange program this semester, and we got together here in Munich for a couple of days, it was a really nice experience. We even did a little sleepover and talked about how funny it was to meet so far away from Colombia, and just by speaking spanish for a while and being together, we all felt a little bit closer to home. 

Thank you, Munich

Munich is magical, and i came in the most magical season of all, the snow makes everything more romantic and memorable, and I was visiting castles and sharing the most amazing experiences with the person I love So thank you, thank you for being in an excellent geographical position so that traveling is easy and fun, thank you for having such amazing destinations an hour away. Thank you for having delicious food and amazing beer, thank you for having one of the best football stadiums in Europe, thank you for being full of castles and history. Thank you, for being the greatest host ever.