Week 5: Prost to UCSD Visitors and Munich

I can’t believe I have been abroad for five weeks! Time is going by so fast here, and I really want it to slow down. I’m still absolutely loving my time here. My classes are going super well too. They are much less structured than my classes at UCSD, and so far I haven’t had any assignments, but overall I really enjoy them. I take two classes by the same professor and they are really similar except one is taught in Spanish and the other in English and I enjoy those the most. My professor is so funny and entertaining. They are my last two classes (out of four) of the day so it really helps keep my energy up.

This week, I had a bunch of my friends from UCSD in town. It was so fun spending time with them. On Tuesday, I had dinner with four of them and then we all went to the club, Opium, with my abroad friends. It was a really random group of people from UCSD all together, but it was such a fun night. One of my friends also spent the night at my apartment so she was technically my first visitor! The next night, another friend of mine from UCSD came to Barcelona so we had dinner with one of our friends who was also there on Tuesday night. They each brought a friend so I met some new people. One of them goes to school in Barcelona so I’ll probably see him again and the other also goes to UCSD. We went to this super fun bar called Espit Chupitos. They have really crazy shots you can order that are like a performance and a shot all in one. My favorite was called the Harry Potter shot and they basically caramelized an orange on top of a shot with cinnamon and other ingredients. The orange was so delicious I want to learn how to make that shot at home. There were some other really crazy shots that included erotic toys and blindfolding. I didn’t do any of those but my two friends from Mexico tricked the other boys to do one and it was quite the performance.

Oktoberfest

On Friday I was off to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest! The trip was off to a pretty great start. I headed to my Airbnb with two of my roommates from Barcelona, Soraya and Rashmi, and we met my two best friends from San Diego, Lauren and Taylor. My Barcelona roommates and I went into town to buy our dirndls. I was really nervous because I’d read online that they are normally 150 euros or more and I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to find a cheap one. Luckily, I found one for only 50 euros which was a relief. Upon going into town to find dirndls, we also came across this market called the Viktualienmarkt. There were so many wonderful smells of all the typical German foods filling the air. We stopped and got sandwiches from Luigi’s and they were absolutely delicious.

Next, we headed off to Oktoberfest! This is where things started to go downhill for me. We had to wait outside in the cold rain for over an hour. I was struggling to stay positive. When we finally got inside, we were at a table with a group of German men who were really nice and we had a good time. Eventually, we saw some younger people we knew and hung out with them for a while. At the end of the night, we walked home and it was freezing. I did get a free meal though!

The next day we headed back to Oktoberfest and we didn’t have to wait in the cold but we did wait in a really long line and by the end of the line, we realized that we didn’t have to wait in it at all. There were people walking straight in without waiting in line. And when we walked through the line nothing even happened. There was no security, nothing. But we made it into the tent we wanted to and had a good day. Lauren and I even made it on stage which was super cool. When leaving the park, we stopped to watch this attraction where people had to try to get up this moving ramp without falling and most people would wipe out which was absolutely hilarious. At the end, there was a group of older men in kilts and one wiped out and, well, let’s just say he wasn’t wearing anything under the kilt…

All in all, I would give Oktoberfest a B-.

What I Learned

I’d say that the main thing I took away from Oktoberfest was to not set such high and specific expectations on my future plans. Looking back, I know that I didn’t have the worst time and nothing super bad even happened. I was just upset at the moment because things weren’t going as I had hoped. One of my main expectations was to meet a lot of people that would leave a lasting impression on me. I think because I went to Croatia and met so many people every day I was there that I still am connected with through social media, I was expecting something like that. I mean how could you go to a giant tent filled with people and not meet a thousand new people? At least that was what I was thinking before I got to Oktoberfest. But, I didn’t really meet anyone there. Which was overall the biggest letdown for me and led me to look at Oktoberfest as a failure of a trip. But had I not had those expectations, I would have had a much better weekend. I was surrounded by all of my best friends from San Diego and Barcelona and all of their friends from home and their study abroad programs. I was in Munich!

I also learned that I really should have just enjoyed what was right in front of me instead of trying to force meeting people. I am a believer in the force of attraction and when you’re not seeking something, things will find you naturally. I realize I have to let things run their course and these exciting moments and new people will find me.