May 20 - Reunited at last - Voni Deeds

It's been a long three weeks since GIEU Netherlands was last together, and the group is excited to be together again! We're using this blog, which will have at least one entry from every team member, to share our individual experiences during our time abroad. Today we met at Hotel Hessengüetli in Winterthur, Switzerland for a five o'clock team meeting just before dinner. (The hotel, by the way, is amazing. It's in between a mountain with a stunning view of the area and a river with a walking path where many "sunny patches" and interesting artifacts can be found. The hotel manager, Trudy, is one of the nicest and most helpful people we have met.). Despite stressing about missing my flights and the possibility of being delayed by three days, I was a mere fifteen minutes late for our official start time. I was extremely relieved and excited to stroll down Oberfeldstrasse and see 16 familiar faces after two days of traveling alone. My arrival completed the group and GIEU Netherlands began. At our meeting, everyone shared a few interesting stories about how they arrived here, which included missing flights, losing luggage, being surrounded by Swiss police, and plenty of Europe traveling adventures. Already our group interacts like we've known each other for years, although we've only had a handful of group meetings in Ann Arbor. Our group felt the language barrier right away as we had dinner at the local Italian pizzeria and could barely understand the menu and had several confusing interactions with the staff. Regardless of the new feeling of being unable to speak the native language of a country, the meal was delicious and we enjoyed watching a pick-up cricket game afterwards with colorful commentary and explanation from Niël. After dinner a few jet-lagged travelers went to sleep, while others went on a run up the mountain next to our hotel and on a walk down the cobblestone alleys in Old Town Winterthur. Overall, it was a relaxed and satisfying first evening of GIEU and everyone, including me, is looking forward to future adventures.