Before I begin my story, let me ask you something – Do you believe that some of the greatest things are frequent to happen unexpectedly and spontaneously? I am, personally, a strong believer into this theory, as it proves itself again and again, small or big time. My winter semester of 2025-2026 was one of those spontaneously-planned decisions and oh boy, what an adventure it was…
It has been around two days since my official return back to Tampere by car, all the way from Munich – A capital of Free State of Bavaria in Germany, and I’m happy to share my reflections and impressions here today. Hope you enjoy!
Right, where should I begin? I guess, from a bit about myself and reasoning for my choice of exchange destination. I’m right now on my third year of studies in Entrepreneurship and Team Leadership. You may also know this degree as Proakatemia. I didn’t know anything about business studies and studying in Germany beforehand – Is it bad, is it good or is it just like in TAMK. Rather, I made a choice based on the wish to properly visit Germany (and Munich specifically) and get a taste of what this country is exactly. Second factor for decision-making is a funny one – As a car enthusiast, I built a priority list mostly based off the car brands, and even though I’m not a big fan of BMW, Munich in my eyes was a destination with a very developed car culture 😀
With all those thoughts and considerations, I submitted my application, mentally ready to see a rejection letter from every destination and forgot about it, until… I got into the first University in the list, in Munich!
In Munich, there are two most well-known abbreviations for Universities – TUM (Munich Technical University) and LMU (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität). I went to a hidden, third one, HM or Hoschshule München. In English – Munich University of Applied Sciences. If it doesn’t have the same recognition as the former names, does it mean that it is bad? Absolutely not! First of all, it is also a rather big university, with three campuses scattered around center and some other areas, and it both technical and humane degrees on offer. Secondly, despite being a rather local university with limited “Internationality” (Many English-speaking full-time students from all over the world, many English-taught degrees on offer etc.), it was still possible to freely interact and communicate with students and staff in English. There’s more to what I liked about my studies here. To start with, my professors were superb! They are super friendly, kind and chatty, all are masters of their subjects, with years of work experience in related fields. It’s a different kind of joy and pleasure to be lectured by passionate experts! Moving on, the subjects themselves were different. I like the Proakatemia style of learning, but sometimes, the urge for instinctively-familiar classical style of lecturing hits. Hoschschule München covered it for me. Here, I arranged for myself a few so-called “block courses” and law-related subjects, and they were always interactive, sometimes with smaller groups for a closer cooperation and interaction and meaningful. Thankfully, we didn’t go into the casuistry of local German law, rather, we all had equal opportunity to get to know common EU law better. Everything in a form of a so familiar seminar! Lastly, I really liked the freedom of choice of courses. We were not limited in our “English Only” corner, rather we were allowed to select courses in German too! Adding up, enrollment and de-enrollment was very liberal, as the courses could be easily joined and/or abandoned any time on a notice to the lecturer.
In the sea of positives, I need to highlight a crucial negative – Course selection process. In my opinion, it was unnecessarily complicated and confusing. All the registration and lottery procedure with multiple learning portals and systems collapses under a legal possibility to email lecturer with a request to join the course of your choice. Moreover, you’re expected to enroll, for example, on language courses, only this way!
Forget the studies now, I will reveal you a bit of my routine here, and there’s something to share here too, trust me!
Believe it or not, my exchange in Munich was the first longest time away from my relatives! It will be an understatement to say I was so insufficient and so incompetent to exist without relatives before that point, but, well, it has brought certain correctives and sense of freedom. Only in Munich I finally decided to establish my gym routine, and continued an old routine – Going to Uni by bike. Hard studies were neatly coexisting with hard parties and intensive traveling. I finally had a chance to visit my dream spots I’ve dreamed as a kid of, hassle-free! I’ve also gone to two world-class concerts of the bands I listen to frequently – One in Munich and one in Stuttgart. New connections and friends are going to the list without any questions – I met people from almost all over the world, almost all continents and even saw some previously unimaginable friendships between people (How naive I was to believe that Taiwanese and Chinese cannot be friends due to their axiomatic political tensions!). Having had stayed in Munich granted me access to many points of central Europe, all in a very reasonable remoteness from Munich and sometimes for an adequate price.
We’re now transitioning to a last point of the story – Comparison. Personally, I don’t see much difference in between Finnish and German working and studying culture in broad. Both nations are European, which indicates of a common foundation, moreover, Finns historically have connected quite well with Germans and that further erases the subtle differences. Maaaybe, just maybe,German people have a passion for what I would call “overcomplicated perfectionism” – When a thing or a task is purposefully being made in a more hardcore fashion than is being required. For the record, pure technicality – Some of the written assignments for courses were super confusing due to very complex grammatical structure and vocabulary. Let me tell you, it was quite a problem to get to understand the assignment correctly sometimes, but no other option was left, other than do it XD
So, we made it to the end! My last words? Fabulous. Simply fabulous. Every day of studies and pretty much any day off were full of emotions and memories. A workshop on EU’s Digital Services Act? I remember that. A New Year party with flatmates? Sure I do! As I’m wrapping up with this lengthy postcard, above I’ve described only a very small fraction, showed a subtle preview of what I’ve experienced during my exchange semester in Munich. So many details and stories I wish I could’ve shared, but this text won’t ever even remotely give you an impression I had in that moment… From now on, I want to a written promise here, that I will return to Munich one day, as soon as I can, to again, re-visit newly familiar places and try to catch echoes of a glorious past, to remind of it.
Thank you, and Auf widersehen!
P.S. Enjoy some of my personal favorite snaps of some of the places with a short description. Maybe it will interest you to visit it too 😀
Schloss Blutemburg. Summer residence of Bavarian Kings.
Olympic Park area. View on BMW Welt and TV Tower in Olympiapark.
Donnersbergerbrücke station view from the bridge
Lake Isar. View from Großhesseloher Brücke
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