Day 2 for GIEU Netherlands in Switzerland! (Jessica)

Day 2 of our GIEU adventure hardly seemed like only the second day. Our group started the day off with a united energy and excitement. I woke up and met everyone in the breakfast 'nook' where an amazing breakfast of fresh european bread, jam, eggs, meat, tea, coffee, yogurt, juice, and more awaited our group. We all ate well and then packed our lunches to head off on a day tour of Zurich. We walked to the train station, took the train from Winterthur to Zurich and started a tour of the city in a trolley bus. Everyone had their cameras ready to capture numerous gorgeous views of the city. We saw the old, immaculately maintained architecture of the city, hundreds of upscale big city stores, a beautiful lake surrounded by the city and mountains of zurich, and of course the diversity of Swiss people. On the final stage of our tour we took a metro into the mountains and climbed up to one of the highest city points where we were able to look out over the city and see all of Zurich. Zurich is almost unbelievably beautiful! Everyone in our group couldn't help but get excited about all there was to see and do in one day. Afterwards our team leaders left for a meeting while all of the students stayed at the top of the mountain overlooking the city where we spent time just talking, and getting to know each other more. I really admired the determination of our group to stick together and keep up with one another throughout the day. Even as we went our seperate ways we all came together again before continuing on to stores, dinner, and the ride back home. After dinner we all hung out in the bus station and we were just really able to laugh and have fun kicking around the soccer ball. We made it back to the B&B just in time for reflection where we shared our first day experiences talking about the differences between tourists and visitors, being aware of ourselves and our surroundings, and appreciating each thing that happens at that specific moment. Overall it was such a relaxing day--The best part for me was just seeing the beauty of the places we went to and getting to know group members--including the team leaders more just through small conversations. I think we are all excited about seeing what will happen throughout the rest of our trip and how the group dynamic will change and grow.