The Land of Bayern, Bier, and Baroque

Servus!

Welcome to the first experiment I've done since all those science fair projects back in grade school. Although I faked all those anyways. Sorry, Ms. Nunez.

For those who don't know me, my name is Steven Montero or Esteban for short. For roughly a year I'm living in Munich, Germany and using all of my extra time (and money) to travel across the continent(s) on a quest to save the world. With grace and style, of course.

My real goal is to dip into the details. I'll talk about interesting things that happen to me as the days past, who I meet along the way, lessons learned and yes, absolutely, without a single doubt, I'll write about all the BIER. So without further ado, Prost!

Week 1 (and a bit more): die Party-Löwen

There comes a time in your life where you're riding a train to Dachau and you realize you're drinking on that said train, that it's perfectly alright because open beverages are legal, and you've also drank every single day since stepping off an airplane. Well actually, no. That doesn't happen to just anybody. But I hope you've enjoyed my Friday night. That night I decided to start this blog and I hope you imagine how that came into my thought process.

As for my everyday life, it's going very well so far. Except the fact that the lean, mean, pink machine T-Mobile is still haunting me, despite cancelling my American contract and moving across the Atlantic Ocean. I live in der Studentenstadt, the largest student community in Germany. Maybe Europe? Who knows. I attend class at the Institute (sounds fancy, huh?), but really it's as simple as taking classes in German to prepare me for the real semester at Ludwig Maximilians University. Try saying that five times fast. Now do it in German.

And if you can believe it Northwestern students, LMU actually starts LATER than NU. Take that, Morty. Around the middle of October I start my first Semester and although I'm frightened at the words "term paper auf Deutsch", my German is improving every day. It helps that I'm working on my newest dream to become the shortest professional volleyball player in history (don't fact check me on that). You see there's a court right behind my building and I attempt to speak German to the other students as we play. If there are words I don't know in German, it's how to encourage teammates when you're down by eleven. Thomas Edison tried 1,000 times though, so I have time.

What is phenomenal about classes at the institute? The location. The Bavarian Museum of Paleontology. So yes, I do see dinosaur bones outside my classroom door. NU < Germany. Literally I'm obsessed.


Now to this blog's namesake: So far in Munich I've learned that my whole life I was drinking the wrong beverage. I've now grown used to drinking bier, unlike the beer I despised. I don't think I can ever go back to the US and take the smallest swig of Busch Light. I'm going to be that guy. Yet as long as I have Franziskaner, Paulaner, and my personal friend Augustiner to keep me company, I will hold true to this prediction.

Thanks for reading!

Until another spin of the globe,

Steven