Although the only effect Munich’s glorious sunshine has had on be in Brit-abroad-red shoulders and slightly pink legs, this weekend couldn’t have been better. I’m beginning to understand the ‘ERASMUS as a massive holiday’ vibe – the only reading I’ve done this weekend was during a sunbathing session in the engischer Garten, and my only exposure to German outside classes was discovering that whoever the Germans have hired to dub over JD on Scrubs is hilarious. I’ve made a pact with myself to pretty much live in the library half the time so that I can make the most of the weekends – hopefully it’ll work out, otherwise there will be a bit of an ECTS Credits drama at the end of the year.

This weekend has been more or less exclusively used for lazing around in the sun. The most useful part of Saturday was discovering rather excellent strawberry yoghurt ice cream with Verity, and English girl from my halls and the rest of the day was spent relaxing with some friends in the park. Unfortunately, it seemed that the 50,000 members of the German Nudist Society (it’s real, promise) were also of the opinion that the weather was worth taking advantage of, and were keen to congregate in the englischer Garten. There’s a nudist area in eG, but it’s casual, so a lot of them hang out wherever the wind takes them. It’s nice to see all aspects of the German culture, and another one of those interesting cultural differences between my host nation and the UK – just means you have to navigate your way through a lot of naked sunbathers to avoid getting to know the locals a bit better that you would have liked.

A lot of last semester’s ERASMUS students who have now returned to their home universities reckoned that their years abroad had completely changed them as a person. Although I’m yet to permanently move back to Scotland (when I suppose I’ll feel the full effect, if any, of my time in Munich), it doesn’t feel like I’ve changed all that much – asides from a few obvious traits like becoming more independent and keener to travel. However, I have enjoyed being able to do things that would be out of character in Scotland. This week I booked festival tickets, even though the dates might clash with the weekend I’m might have to do a presentation on an essay (the Scots law in German hell-fest I mentioned last week). My exact reasoning was that if I’m lucky, the professor will decide on a different date anyway, and even if he doesn’t, which will I regret more – losing a couple of credits, or missing the opportunity for the first festival I’ll visit to be in Germany and include most of my favourite bands? In Edinburgh, you’d need to drag me from my laptop kicking and screaming if I hadn’t finished a case list, but here people seem more likely to so things out of character (like blow off essays for the Eels). It makes life interesting.

Today was slightly more productive that the rest of the weekend – I took part in the Munich 10km, around the old Olympic complex, with a few friends. Healthy living and keeping fit comes quite easily in Germany, so I managed a decent time and it was a good day out. We spent the afternoon resting tired muscles at a ‘Freibad’/ outdoor pool. There’s no place I’d rather be right now that Munich:)