The journey to find myself still goes on!

Time flies so fast.

Almost 5 months has been passed since I started the new life in Munich and at LMU. Most of you would come up with the word “Time flies really fast” in your mind. I’m thinking the same as well. Looking back at those months, everything was new, fun and interesting. Sometimes I was faced with the challenging and hard problems, but at the end, everything turned to be unforgettable memories for me.

At the end of August, I said good bye to my family and friends in Japan and my journey to Munich has begun. I could say I was excited, but honestly much more worried about the beginning of the new life. Could I live a life in Germany alone? Could I make new friends there? What if they speak only German to me? In the sky of the Eurasian continent, my heart was always beating so fast and full of anxious. I couldn’t sleep at all in the airplane despite my flight had taken for more than 14 hours. But eventually, I could arrive in Munich safety and went to my new place by taxi. I could see the beautiful scenery on my way to the center of Munich, which made me feel really relaxed and ease my anxious. When I arrived at my new flat, I felt “Here I was, my new life started just now”. I was a bit more confident.

It didn’t take a lot of time to get used to the new life style. I don’t know how others feel, but for me, time passed by more slowly here in Munich and I was amazed at the nice summer weather, beautiful nature and classical building in the center. Additionally, things were slowly starting to return to normal in Munich. We didn’t have to wear face mask in the outside and there’s not any strict rules for us. On the other hand, when I left from my home country Japan, the situation was the worst ever. I was always careful not to get covid-19 and I couldn’t enjoy the last time with my friends and family although I couldn’t see them until next August. All of the different environments gave me unexpected feeling.

However, they did not always work well for me. I’ve never been discriminated against my nationality or something, but I faced with many problems and suffered from culture shocking from time to time. I needed to open the bank account, apply for German insurance and residence permit, buy SIM card and so on. There’s a bunch of stuffs because I’m not from Europe. I learned how hard it was to figure out everything by myself and missed Japan and my family. But when I had some difficulties, I told myself “You can do it, Yoshika! that’s your decision!” and tried to overcome any obstacles. After many twists and turns, I got a stronger mind and could live with a room in my mind and challenge lots of new things in October.

if there would be no covid…

However, the situation of covid-19 got worse again in November. The number of new cases increased rapidly and the German government issued more strict rules to us. But I was still looking forward to Christmas market in Munich. Most of you would have the same feeling, wouldn’t you? From the mid of November, Munich was decorated with Christmas trees, lights, and stars and they prepared the stands of Christmas markets everywhere. It was already in Christmas mood. But, suddenly all of the Christmas events were disappeared from Munich. If we could enjoy glühwein at the Christmas market in the beautiful Marienplatz with magical snow, how amazing it would be. (I’ll promise to be back to Munich during Christmas, again)

Moreover, as the corona virus was going around, I sometimes felt flustered, stressful because of the cultural difference toward corona-19 and many of questions and thoughts raced inside my head. Why do they take off the face mask at the moment they went outside, they don’t refrain from having a party, they don’t care about covid? Do I care about it too much?… It is said that a person’s true character was revealed in a crisis though, this pandemic would be also one of the examples exactly. But I could be fine, I could accept it as cultural difference already. In a sense, that would be good? memories in my life (I know it’s a bit positive expression.) Because I’ve never had experiences like that if there were no covid.

I’m trying to find myself.

When my thoughts are going back to the exchange life by looking at lovely photos in my phone, I’ve realized I spent the time to reflect on myself the most in my life. To be honest, I’m still not sure if what I decided to go study abroad during the hard time is the best and thinking unconsciously about what if we were not affected by covid. But I can say everything was memorable, and I’m really grateful for everyone who gave me the opportunity to go study abroad in Munich.

Thank you so much for giving me precious memories, thank you LMU, Thank you Munich. Vielen Dank für Alles.

I really hope I could get out of the darkness and find some good answers at the end of my exchange.

★Life is a journey, not destination. The journey to find myself still goes on.