Goodbye Munich

Goodbye in Bavarian

Goodbye in German

I still can’t believe it: that the time has come for me to leave Munich. It feels as if I just got here the other day….and that was more than 5 months ago. Every time I said good bye to the people I met and who were here only for a couple of weeks I saw the date of my own departure from Munich too far out in the future. And here I am, with half of my stuff already packed and ready to begin the second part of this adventure: living in Paris for about 3 months. Thank God I haven’t had any problems so far and I can only pray that it continues to be that way. The experience thus far has been fantastic. Probably one of the (if not THE) best things I could’ve done in my life. I’m very grateful for all the things that I have learned, the things I have done, the many places I’ve had the chance to visit and the lots of great people I have met during my time here. I can truly say I feel I have gotten out of my stay in Germany what I wanted to get. I have that sense of accomplishment and feel that it is time for me now to move on the next stage of this adventure and begin living a whole new set of experiences. There are some things I did not get to do but the best news is that Germany and Munich are not going anywhere. I can always come back here on vacation and do them. This just gives me a reason to come back here….as if I needed one..... ja ja ja!!!
So how do I feel about leaving Munich? Just as it happens most of the time when you leave a place I have mixed feelings. In a way I´m sad to leave a place where I´ve felt so good and comfortable since the beginning, to leave a city which I really like. But I leave happy, content and with that sense of accomplishment because of everything I’ve gotten to learn and experience. I’m also excited and looking forward to relocating to a new city, picking-up a new language, start discovering new, interesting and exciting places not only in Paris but in France; start identifying my new favorite coffee shops, eateries, bakeries, and stores; meeting new people and finding out what are the reason why they are in France, and the list just goes on and on. But then I stop to think about it again (the fact that I’m leaving) and I realize how much I will miss Munich: the people who I leave behind and all those things I have gotten to love and enjoy doing in this city, my Munich "routine", and the character of the city itself. But Munich is not perfect and Germany is not the perfect world. There are definitely other things which I won’t miss. For that reason I have decided to compile a list of those things I will miss about Munich…and those I won’t...

What I’ll Miss about Munich

• Jogging at the Nymphemburg Park with its cool air, the peaceful "silence" of its forest, the sound of its water falls and its views.
• The German language: I’m in love with this language and now I won’t have that many opportunities to listen to it, speak it, and learn something new everyday.
• The beer culture: the beer itself (over here beer really has very good taste), the beer gardens.
• The bakeries with all of their variations of breads and pastries and with that smell of fresh baked bread which calls you and tells you to go inside and treat yourself to a carbohydrate overdose.
• The cereal yoghurt from Danon (I hope to find it in Paris)
• The sense of being in a safe place anywhere in the city at any time of the day or night.
  

What I Won’t Miss about Munich

• Writing text messages in German on the cell phone. Some words can be extremely long and I feel like giving up halfway thru the message. Confirming a meeting time and place with someone can easily turn into a 2 page message.
• The fear of being run over… by a bicycle.
• People on the sidewalks who continue walking and do not deviate from their path even if that means they literally bump into you; without apologizing: a very common practice here.