(Re)Discovering Your Passion: How I Went from Pub Quiz Explorer to Quiz Master

I moved to Munich over two years ago, and despite having a great experience, I have missed the pub culture that is a staple of British social life. Pop into a local pub in Britain or Ireland and chances are it will have a quiz night, my specialty, with seasoned regulars and teams competing for prizes. This past year, my co-Consul and fellow expat Elena and I have rediscovered our passion for pub quizzes, while acquiring some uniquely non-useful knowledge and lots of new friends along the way.

A Trivial Adventure

The quiz in its first incarnation was a way to have fun with colleagues during our lunch break. Each week one person would prepare several rounds of questions, testing each other’s trivia skills. It soon dawned on us that a pub quiz would be ideal for the InterNations platform, not least because it’s a great group activity, but also because InterNations members come from every corner of the globe, are very well travelled, and are likely to have acquired a lot of knowledge along the way! The Munich Pub Quiz Explorers Group was born.

We boldly set out to discover Munich’s pub quizzes, and after a few forays to the city’s Irish bars, realized we could put something on especially for InterNations members. With the soccer world cup around the corner in July 2018, we staged our first self-organized quiz, wrote our own questions and hosted exclusively for InterNations members.

The feedback was uncompromising. “We want more,” said the participants. Now, the format has grown to seven rounds of random topics, with six to seven teams competing for prizes.

Let’s Get Quizzical

We now have our own seasoned regulars, who make it through thick and thin each month, and the quiz has become so competitive we seed regular participants based on their previous achievements and decide the teams, to ensure a level playing field each month. This also ensures participants get to know new people each week, and indeed, the conversation always flows.

Here’s a few questions to give you an idea (answers at the bottom).

1. Who was second man to walk on the moon? (Easy)
2. Which species of bird has the longest wingspan? (Medium)
3. From which Shakespeare play is the following line taken: “Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.” (Hard).

Why I Love It

Being a quiz master has been a revelation. It means I can share my rediscovered passion with like-minded people, make new friends, and stockpile precious trivia for other pub quizzes. As InterNations employees, it gives us insight into how members experience the platform, and I like to think, lends a human face to the company. Many of us at InterNations HQ are expats, too, and making expat life a great experience is, of course, our chief concern.

If anyone out there would like to organize their own InterNations quizzes, I’ll be happy to share my growing store of questions and give tips to organizing a great evening. You can find me on the platform through the Munich Pub Quiz Explorers.

1. Buzz Aldrin 2. The Albatross (of course) 3. The Tempest