After traveling for 24 hours straight, and coping with my companions’ cruel betrayal, all I wanted to do was sleep.
The sleep I had that night was so soothing, except for the rude wakeup call in the middle of the night from my former comrades. I woke up so refreshed the next morning, that I began thinking about forgiving my friends for their treason. I had a great breakfast at the hotel and left for the train station. The four hour train ride of solitude was a very relaxing trip. I listened to Macklemore, Les Misérables, and whatever other random music I had on my phone while watching the scenery pass by.
Upon arriving in Zurich, I bought my ticket to the suburb of
Richterswil from the kiosks. However, the ticket was completely in
German even though the kiosk spoke English, and there was no indication as to which gate I was to go to. So I set out to locate the
information desk. The lady was very helpful, except for when she told me that the next train left in three minutes and did not seem to be in any rush. So, of course, I ran to the
gate. And as I got to the gate and could see the train, it started moving. I
started sprinting as fast as I could. I got closer and closer to the train
until I was neck and neck with the caboose of the train. I saw bars that I
could hold onto on the end of the train so I jumped and barely caught onto the
bars and got on the train.
After I got on the train and settled down, I remembered that
the next train was only 20 minutes after this one, so there was no point in being as epic, but it was worth it. Half an hour later, I arrived
in Richterswil and finally saw my friends. I was cold at first, because I had
not yet forgiven them. But after they told me how bad their night was after
leaving me, I decided that they had suffered enough.
After dropping off my things at the hostel, we scoured the
town for food. We were soon reminded that everything in Switzerland is pretty
expensive. After searching around for an hour, we went back and ate at the
hostel because it was relatively cheap.
After eating, we decided to go out on Lake Zurich in the
little boats where two people pedal bicycle pedals to row. We pedaled to the
dead center of the lake, which took half an hour, when we sprung a small leak.
We immediately turned around, with the front two people pedaling, and the back
two people scooping water out of the boat. Neal even took off his shirt to soak
up the water. When we were on the home stretch back to the dock, we knew we
could make it so we stopped scooping water out. Neal took his shirt and tied it
around his head, and I truly believe that we survived because Neal embodied the
spirit of Pi from Life of Pi; he even looked like him. We estimated our timing
so well that we made it to land like Jack Sparrow, stepping onto land right as
our boat sank.
Next, began the first of many China vs. India matches,
starting with foosball. India demolished China 8-2 in about five minutes. Next was
ping pong, so we were feeling good. But what I did not account for was the
noob-ness of my partner, Christina. So China lost in its national sport.
Alas, after all these physical events, we were hungry again.
So we started another trek for food. We passed by a take-out place,
but figured we'd find a better place around the corner. Then we
found a gas station with food in it and thought the same thing. We ended up
walking for an hour to the next town, before we saw actual restaurants.
Even after getting to the next town, we kept thinking we would find a better
and cheaper place around the corner. We finally decided on a hole-in-the wall
Mediterranean place. And had to walk another hour back to our hostel from
the neighboring city.
After all this walking and searching for food, we were ready
to go to sleep. And that’s what we did.