Best Birthday... Ever?

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Today we arrived in Zurich Switzerland via Houston and Newark. We left the Houston airport at 10:30 am and arrived In Newark at 3pm Eastern time. The service in the airports was a lot of what I expected- nonexistent. It was basically a factory and we were just products on a conveyer belt. Honestly I can’t blame them too much. With such an overwhelmingly large volume of daily traffic, trying to please every customer’s needs would probably complicate and lengthen an already complicated and lengthy process. From there we flew to Zurich, arriving at around 9 in the morning. The Zurich airport was a lot different from the Houston airport, in the fact that it was very empty and very quiet. After claiming our baggage, and exchanging our currency, we met Arabella, our travel coordinator. Our first stop was the Zurich train station, where we toured the surrounding area and were given the opportunity to explore parts of the city on our own. Part of this exploring was the first real “culture shocks” for me. The first shock was when I paid 26 dollars for my first meal, a shish kabob. Now I may not be a shish kabob connoisseur, but I’m willing to bet that this price was slightly higher than the price I would have paid for the same thing back home. The next shock was when I went to find a public bathroom, and was required to pay to use it. I had heard of this before and had seen it in movies; however, it was a little weird actually having to pay. After meeting up a few hours later at a designated location, we got on the bus and began our journey to our final destination. This destination was Engleberg, a tiny town in the Swiss Alps, at the foot of Mount Titlus. For the first 30 minutes or so, I was completely overwhelmed by the beautiful scenery. After about 30 minutes, however, I was overwhelmed with exhaustion, and other than the few minutes we spent checking in to our hotel, I spent most of the rest of the day in a state of comatose. I woke up just in time for dinner, which was a surprise birthday party for myself and Mrs. Runnels. Dinner was lasagna, not a traditional Swiss food, but still amazing. Even more amazing than Swiss lasagna? My roach birthday cake. After eating dinner, myself, a few other students, and Arabella went to the Yucatan, which is a local bar/restaurant where I quickly became acquainted with the local beverages. After spending a few hours at the Yucatan, we departed for our rooms, where I immediately passed out for the night.

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