Official Erasmus Promoter?

February 18^th of 2021: The day I decided to choose Munich as my Erasmus destination. To be completely honest, it was an impulse decision. I did not think it through enough and as a result, I was very anxious on whether I made the right choice or not. I knew no German, not much about the culture and not much about LMU. This is an example of why I strongly believe that things happen for a reason.

Fast forward to October 7^th of the same year, I found myself at an Airbnb in Ismaning, a municipality located near Bavaria. Very far from my university and staying with a family that barely knew English or how to help me. I felt very lost for a couple days. I survived on protein bars for a little a bit and I had my fair share of bottles of sparkling water because I didn’t know how to say “without gas” in German.

After a couple days, I finally got the hang of how to use the bus 231 and the U6 and made my way to my first class of the semester: “Online surveys”. There, I met my first friend, who I hung out with multiple times after. But the real fun for me started when I decided to join an ESN Mesa event at a Biergarten. There, two random people approached me and for some reason they decided they wanted to be my friends. Those were the ones that a couple days later, introduced me to some of the people I’m closest to here. 

Everything came so effortlessly after that, meeting new people was fun and easy, moving around was not hard at all, classes were going good, professors were nice. Life became good, which was a very big change from what I was feeling before coming here. Though things were a bit different to what they were supposed to be (because of Covid), and even when I was going through some personal issues, I found myself being stable and easily finding a way to express how I felt to turn my mood around. I also managed to go on some trips (not that many) but being someone who only knew one country in Europe, I consider that I’ve still come a long way.

“Unexpected” is a word I would use to describe this whole experience. Munich was completely different from what me and my family/friends imagined. I cannot imagine a better place in the world to have lived this phase of my life. I met friends that I intend on keeping for life and made memories that I’ll never forget.

What I ultimately want to express through this post is gratitude. I’m so thankful for everything that has entered and exited my life this year. This city has given me so much and all the people I’ve met have taught me a lot. I can’t wait to visit Munich when I’m older to get to see all these places to reminisce and relive everything that happened to me in these crazy months.

Even though I could write about this for hours, it’s probably time to say goodbye; 

to whoever is reading, thank you so much for being part of this experience even if it was just through a zoom call or through my cheesy blog posts. 

Wish you all the best. <3