December 13th, 2012
Shortly after arriving in Munich, I auditioned for the UniveristätsChor München (University Choir of Munich) and made it in! We are two-hundred-odd college students from university’s around Munich, though the lion’s share attend LMU and the Technische Universität (Technical University – and yes that means we have a disproportionate number of engineers…). Most of us don’t study music, but enjoy performing high-quality classical repertoire for fun. The time commitment is reasonable: one night a week for two and a half hours.
Definitely a good decision; I have befriended more Germans in UniChoir than anywhere else, as I am one of the only foreigners. This is much easier said than done. Unlike the campus-centric life of American universities, filled with sports, extracurricular clubs and activities, that of German universities is de-centralized and difficult to find. The Univiersities do not own any housing, so the only semblance of “dorm” life is coordinated by the “Munich Student Union” which carries no official relationship to any specific university in Munich. Many Germans do not stray far from home to attend University, and many friend circles all end up at the local university without coordinating it. This means tracking down Germans who want to be friends with an (in their eyes) eccentric American sometimes feels like part time job. Despite LMU being the largest university in Germany, with almost 50,000 students, there is no “Student Activities Commission Fair”, or “Student Activities Commission” at all, for that matter. If you want to get involved with something outside of classes, whether run through the university or not, you must research what opportunities exist and make that happen yourself.
This is really the theme of the German style of university. Self-motivation and responsibility are key. The system is there for you to use, but will most definitely not spoon-feed you anything along the way. From the bureaucracy, attendance and course readings, to housing, food and student life, it’s up to you as the student to grab your college experience by the horns and make it into what you want it to be. There’s no one else here to do it for you.
So how did I find out about UniChoir? The I had to go searching myself, only with ideas of what opportunities might exist in Munich, and the worldwide web, of course. Thankfully I was curious enough this summer one day to pop “choirs in Munich” into Google to see what popped out!
