My original attempt at a first blog post should’ve been written around two weeks ago, but here I am now, three weeks into my exchange here in Munich, Germany, with about a million things to share!
I arrived here in Munich two weeks ago today, September 2 to be exact! My actual school semester doesn’t start until October 15, but I decided to take this language course that runs through September, and I must say that it was one of the best decisions I’ve made! As far as settling into life here in Munich, this course has guided me through the necessary paperwork required to stay here for the full exchange term, as well as help me meet some amazing exchange students from all over the world!
But more of that information later. I have to say that getting to Munich and setting up the first few days was immensely stressful for me. I was lucky that I had a friend from Carleton come a day earlier than I did, otherwise I don’t know what I would have done!
The first mistake I made was arriving on Sunday and not Saturday. When I booked my flight, I didn’t know that we were able to move in to our residences on Saturday, as it said on the website that we could only pick up the keys on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.! So unlike my friend, who was able to smoothly move in on Saturday and turn up for the start of the language program on Monday morning, I had to figure out how to be in two places at once! It was hectic.
I must say though that I was very well acquainted with the U-Bahn system here in Munich after that morning, so there was a good thing that came out of that hectic time.
I managed to survive the being in two places at once scenario, and successfully started this month-long language course!
My fellow exchange students from my language class and I bonded over a nice Maß after our first day of classes, and from that point we became very close! (By the way, a Maß is a litre of beer) Fast forward a week or so, and work in the German class has started to get harder, so less socializing and more working was required! We did have an excursion or two on the weekends to see some historical sights such as Dachau, Nuremberg and Neuschwanstein Castle!
Now we get to the fun stuff; Oktoberfest! I have never seen so many people in one tent before. It was the most hilarious thing I have seen in a long time. Imagine walking up to a door and opening it to see a room heaving with people from all over the world in Lederhosen and Dirndls!!!! There is no such thing as personal space during Oktoberfest!
The gang and I decided to be there for the first day, opening day, on September 22, 2018. The opening day is apparently the busiest day of Oktoberfest, and I can believe that! It was nearly impossible to find somewhere to buy a beer at OKTOBERFEST! That is how busy it was!
I hope you enjoyed my first post of many! I am looking forward to letting you all experience my year abroad in Munich through my writing!
Jasmine is a third-year BIB student studying abroad in Germany.