Munich has a very interesting history. Germany has faced tough situations for several years. It, among other reasons, has made Germany a powerful country. There are a lot of places that have historical relevance, and you might not even know it.  Therefore, I have gathered information about some of them, to make sure you do not miss it next time you visit:  

1. Altes Rathaus: The Rathaus (city hall) is the old town hall of the city. As can be inferred, it is the center of political life early in the region’s history. Nowadays, it serves as a toy museum and it held events. The Altes Rathaus is used for representative purposes today since it is such an important icon for the city of Munich.
2. Ludwig – Maximilian – Universität: This is the second biggest University in Germany. It was founded in 1472 and its main building has been in operation since 1840. The main building is mainly used as a large auditorium where lectures and events are held.
3. Feldherrnhalle / Odeonsplatz: The Feldherrnhalle is a hall located at the end of Odeonsplatz. It was built on behalf of King Ludwig in 1841. Ludwig wanted the Feldherrnhalle to be a monument to honor the Bavarian army. It became a worship place for the National Socialists. However, some people managed to use the Viscardigasse (street behind the hall) as a detour and avoid worshiping the party. Today, there are golden stones making a path to commemorate this silent protest.
4. Isartor Medieval Gate: It was built between 1285 and 1347 during Ludwig of Bavaria´s kingdom. It was during a major expansion of the city. It is a symbol of the history and strength of Munich.
5. Sendlinger-Tor: Another medieval gate of the city out of the three remaining ones. It dates to the 14th century. Its underground station remains one of the most important ones in the city and it will be modernized by 2020.

Most of these structures have been renovated since they were destroyed after WWII. If you are interested, you can find more information in Muenchen.de.

Blog submitted by Eugenia Sanchez

It is normal to miss home occasionally. I have been six years out of my country, and it still happens very often.  The fact that my whole family still lives there, it is probably the main reason why. Sometimes I tend to feel homesick when I do not feel too comfortable with the weather. However, I realized that life is too short to be complaining all the time. Although it is fine to allow yourself to feel in a certain way, we should not allow it to be all the time.

My hometown is Caracas in Venezuela. It is in South America. There are three things I specifically miss the most from home: The weather, the food, and the people. Venezuela is right on the Equator. Therefore, there are just two seasons. It is either wet or dry, but it is over 20 Celsius degrees the whole year. Venezuela has every type of environment: beaches, forests, deserts, and snow. There are all spread around the country, of course. However, I definitely enjoy the beach the most. Venezuela borders the Caribbean ocean and it has beautiful beaches which you can visit all year long. Venezuela´s main dish is the Arepas. Have you heard about it? It is a type of ´´bread´´ that is cooked with cornflour, and it can be eaten with any type of filling! I love it, I still cook it sometimes and it reminds me of my childhood. People in Venezuela are very warm, they say hi with two cheek kisses and if they know you, they will hug you. Unfortunately, my country is in a good political situation right now. However, that does not stop people from caring for each other. That is one of the first things that comes to my mind when people ask me how my home is.

When I am feeling homesick, I call my family and I cook my favorite meal from back home. It is always a good fuel and it motivates me to keep working in my goals and to keep enjoying the amazing things that Munich has to offer.

Blog entry submitted by Eugenia Sanchez

My German course is coming to an end. Therefore, I decided to dedicate a post to discuss the material used during this course. I believe that it could be helpful to know for future students what exercises we do in class and what interactive material is used through the course.

This is my first course in Deutsch Akademie. I am about to finish the level A2.1. I know, I am still very new in this. Although you might think I do not have enough experience, I can see the difference between now, and the school I was before. It has been an 8-week course, twice a week for 3 hours a day. Initially, I felt I was going to be overwhelmed between that and work. On the contrary, the time has gone extremely fast! I am glad I got to invest time in it as much as I wanted.

There are different exercises to reinforce your writing, speaking, and reading skills when you are learning a language. As of right now, my favorite exercises are in reading. For some reason, it is the area where I feel a lot more comfortable. We usually read ads or stories in the course and we analyze them while answering questions about its content. My worst area is speaking! I usually feel I have all the words I need in my head, but I cannot find how to put them together. Have that happened to you before? I have seen important progress since I started in Deutsch Akademie. We have done plenty of speaking exercises and the professor is constantly speaking in German. Therefore, we feel that we should be speaking it as well. Lastly, my writing skills are acceptable considering my level, of course. I still struggle with the right positioning of the words but, luckily, there are a variety of exercises in the books that help me with that. My favorites are the ones in which you have to organize sentences. It helps me understand exactly why the worlds should go in that order.

The best way to become better at it is by using the right tools. I am very satisfied with the number of exercises we get from the Menschen books recommended in Deutsch Akademie. I also use Deepl.com as a translator, and der-artikel.de/ to review which are the right articles for the words. You can see below what I called my German-pack of studying. And you? Which tools do you use?

Blog submitted by Eugenia Sanchez

I had the opportunity to do my first hike in August 2019. I chose, without really knowing what I was getting into, Zugspitze. Zugspitze is the highest mountain in Germany. It is 2962 meters high and it borders with Austria. Although there are five different routes to go to the top, we chose ´´The Austrian Snow Cirque´´. The route´s starting point was at the Eisbee. The goal was to do 8 kilometers in 8 hours which was the estimated ascending time. The ascent was 2015 meters and apparently, it was just a medium to difficult difficultly.

We parked the car in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I admit that it scared me to see the top of the mountain from there. We started walking and I started doubting if I was physically capable of making it for 6 hours more. However, it was easy to get distracted by the views. They were stunning! Once we crossed the German-Austrian border, the route started to change. It started getting way more inclined. I remember feeling very tired, but I was feeling excited about ´´being´´ in Austria for the first time. There were easier parts of the route than others. After 4 hours of walking, the worst part was yet about to come. We had to overpass a big and sharp rock. I had no proper equipment -I was in running shoes while everybody else was in harness and helmets. I needed breaks every 10 minutes trying to minimize any risk.  I thought I was in big trouble. The good news is, we finally made it to our destination after 2 hours of intense climbing. We ended up doing the whole route in 7 hours.

Once you are on the top, there are a few places where you can get food and beverages. I cannot explain how good it felt to drink that hot chocolate after hiking for 7 hours. We came back in the cable car and we rest in the Eisbee. A worth and well-deserved stop before going home. Although I know it sounds intense, I highly recommend this hike if you are in Munich for a couple of months. You will not regret it.

Blog submitted by Eugenia Sanchez

It has been 8 months since I moved to Munich. I used to be completely ignorant of the German language. In fact, it never crossed my mind that I was going to live in Germany one day. However, life has a funny way of working out. I remember that even pronouncing U-Bahn station names was a hard task for me at the beginning. Although I am still a beginner learning the language, it has been interesting to see my progress in learning the German language and its peculiarities. I noticed that, besides the easy words you initially learn, there are some phrases and slangs that help me to be fully engaged with the language. My favorites are:

– Ich glaub’ ich spinne: The actual meaning is ´´I believe I spider´´. In English, it means ´´I believe I am going crazy´´.

– Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof: If you translate word by word it means ´´ I only understand train station´´. This phrase is used if someone is not understanding anything of what is happening.

–Du beleidigte Leberwurst:  It is technically translated as ´´You offended a liver sausage´´. In other words, it means that you are in a mood.

–Du gehst mir auf den keks: Word by word it means something like ´´ You get on the cookies´´. But what it means is that someone is getting in your nerves (for some reason this one is my favorite).

–Ich mach mir vom Acker: This expression is used when someone wants to say ´´I am getting out of here´´.

As you can read, these expressions cannot be translated word by word because they would not make sense. These types of words are called idioms, and these are just a few. Feel free to comment your favorite if it is not listed above 😊

Blog entry submitted by Eugenia Sanchez

Munich is one of the biggest cities in Germany. It has immigrants from all around the world like in every big city. Although Bavarian food is awesome, I have been also impressed by all the different types of cuisines you can find here. I have not been enough time in Munich to be able to try too many restaurants. However, I already know about a few of them that remain in my list of favorites:

• Cochinchina: Cochinchina is a Vietnamese restaurant. Although it is a little bit expensive, its menu is worth the price. It is a good place to go for a special occasion. The ambiance is elegant and cozy. It is vegan friendly, and it has a broad variety of options on its menu. The service was very good in my experience. It is recommended to book a table ahead of time to avoid long waits since it is a very popular place in the city.

• Blue Nile: I just discovered the Blue Nile a couple of months ago. The Blue Nile is a restaurant of Ethiopian food -yes, Ethiopian. I had my first experience trying African food in the Blue Nile and I got absolutely obsessed with it. I have been to two different ones in Munich. As far as I am concerned, they are not from the same owner. However, I particularly recommend the one in Siegesstraße 22a. You can make your own dish by selecting several meals and everyone´s dishes come together on a big plate to share in the table. A great option to go with friends!

• Chopan: Afghani restaurant. It was my first experience trying Afghan food. This has been my most recent discovery. We had to order delivery since the quarantine was already started. The quantity of food was tremendous, but it goes within the price. The food has a lot of condiments, which makes it delicious but heavy to the stomach as well. I totally recommend the vegan plates and ´´The Bolani´´ in the appetizer section. Great pick to try to a new cuisine from the comfortableness of your home.

Blog entry submitted by Eugenia Sanchez

Munich has broad gastronomy. I was surprised by all the different types of food I could find when I first got here. From Pakistani food to Ethiopian: You can find plenty of places where to try these uncommon meals.

I have several favorite places to go to. I choose where to go depending on my budget and my cravings that day – that is a determinant variable. However, I have decided to tell you a little bit about one of my to-go places when I just want something filling, kind of healthy and price-friendly: My Indigo.

My Indigo is in Münchner Freiheit. It is a very small spot next to the U-Bahn station. To be honest, it looks like another train station type of place from outside. On the contrary, the place is super cozy, and it has a very beautiful decoration. It is small and it usually has a lot of people -because the food is so good. But it is a nice place where to have a pleasant meal. I have had a hard time finding middle price places where to eat in Munich. There are either very cheap places to eat street food or there are too fancy and expensive. Therefore, that is precisely my favorite thing about My Indigo. I am convinced it is standing in the middle of both worlds.

My Indigo bowls are the reason why I keep coming back. They have so many options for bowls! For vegans, non-vegans, with different types of bases or without bases at all. My favorite is the Vegane Erdnuss Bowl -with extra peanut butter of course. I am a peanut butter addict, and I just found a meal that goes perfectly with it. My Indigo has a very broad menu for all its clients from salads to noodles. The prices go from 8€ to 15€ depending on what you add in your bowl. However, the quantity of food in the bowl makes it all worth it. I recommend it to you if you are feeling like trying something different. And, if you are in the same mood as me, try practicing your skills ordering in German 😉

Blog Post submitted by Eugenia Sanchez

We have been experiencing ´´high´´ temperatures the last week although it is not officially summer. Anyway, 25°C is worth celebrating, isn’t it? I cannot help but to think about all the things I want to do in summer.

I enjoy doing a lot of outdoor activities during the summer. There are many plans to do: Barbecues, hiking, trail running or camping. One of the things I enjoy the most is eating in terraces. It is quite relaxing, and you can take advantage of the nice temperature.  However, warm weather is better handled when there is water around. That is why the Isar is my favorite place to go. I like more the beach than the river. But since we do not have beaches close to Munich, the Isar is a great alternative. The Isar is crossing Bavaria and Tyrol in Austria. It is not very clear the meaning of its name. There are plenty of theories about possible explanations.

However, most of them summarized one idea in particular: flowing water. The Isar water is fed by the Alps. Therefore, its water is cold most of the time. The river represents a major attraction for tourists the whole year because of the broad amount of activities that can be done. It offers fishing, rafting, sunbathing and plenty of shorelines. The Eisbach is the most known stretch of the Isar. It is a two-kilometer journey that passes through the famous Englisch Garten.  This path of the river forms small waves that surfers use to practice their skills -all year long. The best thing is that people get in there and swim, allowing themselves to be guided by the river´s strength. I had the experience of doing it last year. I thought it was going to be easy. Unfortunately, it was harsher than I expected it. The whole point is to allow your body to float on the river´s surface until you can get out. Otherwise, you get stressed and you are afraid of getting drowned like I did -but without need. There is plenty of people doing it with you, and everybody seems to enjoy it. Summer is a really good time to experience new things and enjoy Munich. If you are new in town, I recommend you check out the Isar and get the best out of it in this great time of the year.

It has become very common online -everything, in the last couple of weeks. From Webinars, meetings, yoga sessions to a meditation retreat, this pandemic crisis has affected every single one of us. Unfortunately, it was very hard to predict this unprecedented scenario. However, it has been a wonderful relief to explore the unlimited sources that exist online nowadays.

Although the first week of my online course was face to face, I was not able to attend. Therefore, every single one of my classes has been online. It has been three or four so far – and I am loving it. I must admit, I was a little bit skeptical about the whole process at the beginning. I had so many questions as: How are we going to practice pronunciation? Am I going to have direct conversations with other students? Is my Wi-Fi going to be efficient enough for three hours?

I was unaware of how the application ´´Zoom´´ works. It has so many tools I never thought about and that I have been learning through the course. My favorite three tools you can use are:

The professor can share her screen, and she can make corrections or add texts to it. Therefore, she can correct grammar exercises that way. Moreover, she can also add a ´´white page´´ she can use as a board.

The students can be separated by the host into ´´break out groups´´ to practice speaking exercises (I found this very cool). The professor can jump in and out to answer questions.

Lastly, we can even have reactions and virtually raise our hands to answer specific questions! It often happens that we are all in mute while listening to some explanation. If you have any questions, you can click the raise-hand button, and the professor will call you out to speak. Isn’t it great?

The more classes we have, the easier it gets. Fortunately, I have not had any problems with my Wi-Fi neither.  

If you are in an online course and you did not know about any of these tools, feel free to explore it or discuss it with your professor!

😊