I woke up at 7 a.m. to the sound of loud bells ringing throughout Richterswil. It was National Switzerland Day, or whatever their equivalent to July 4th was called. For the national holiday, we were informed of a fireworks show that would take place that night in the neighboring town of Rapperswil. So, we decided to go there for the day. 

Before heading out, we needed to find an ATM and we also wanted to find a bridge that was supposed to be famous in Richterswil. One thing to know about Switzerland is that they don't just speak German there, they mostly speak Swiss German, which sounds completely different from German, and most locals do not know English. In most western languages, you can understand some of the simple words, because they sound like something you know in English, especially German, because English is a Germanic language. Swiss German is peculiar in that there are no equivalencies that transfer over, or at least we could not hear them. Asking around for an ATM was a nightmare. People would keep talking to us in Swiss German even though we had no idea what they were saying, and different people told us different things. Eventually, we found ATM and got cash for food. 

After the struggle to find a place to eat the previous night, we decided to buy our lunch at a local convenience store. We bought bread, cheese and salami and had our own picnic by Lake Zurich. After this, we took a ferry to the neighboring town of Rapperswil (Rapper’s ville). There was a castle in Rapperswil that we were told to go see, so we set out for that. The most important part of the castle that we were told to find was the Rosengarten (Rose Garden). After exploring around the castle for a couple hours, and finding that there wasn't much to look at, we stumbled upon one of those giant chessboards at the top of the castle. And, thus, began China vs. India, part three: Wizard’s Chess Edition. 

Because some of us were huge Harry Potterfans (Krishna), we each took the place of a piece on the board and moved like the piece did in the movie. The chess match was intense and lasted an hour. There were many twists and turns. The match started out neck and neck, but China made a fatal mistake and India was ahead for most of the match. However, towards the end, India fell for China’s trap, and overlooked a crucial move, to lose the lead. China ended up prevailing in this wizard’s chess match that took place on the castle rooftop. I was so absorbed and focused on the match that I didn't notice the 30 people that took pictures of us playing wizard’s chess. 

After this epic match, we walked down towards Lake Zurich to cool off. We sat on a bench by the lake and had a philosophical life talk for a couple hours and I took a 20-minute nap, at one point. After this, we had kebabs for dinner because it was the only thing that wasn't overly expensive. A burger at the McDonald’s was about $12. 

While we were waiting for it to get dark enough for the fireworks show to start, we found another giant chessboard by the side of the lake. We decided it was time for wizard’s chess, round two. We began the sequel to our epic match, as China quickly took the lead in the beginning. Then, an old man and his friend walked up to us and asked if he could play with us, but we had already started, and there was no turning back. You could tell the old man was experienced in chess, but he refrained from interfering with our private match. 

Then, a young man with his friend came up and watched for a little bit. He started giving advice to India, and eventually moved their pieces for them. China immediately knew that they could not defeat the young prodigy. The old man noticed the great difference in skill and rushed to the aid of China. Thus, the two chess grandmasters intervened in our match. It was the wise, old man versus the young prodigy. 

The old man was experienced. Immediately after the young man would let go of his piece after making his move, the old man would make his move. But he was too arrogant. After a few minutes, he realized that the kid was good. It took him longer and longer to make moves. But he always stayed ahead. You could see it in his face; his eyes would continuously dart around the board. Who knows how many moves ahead he was seeing. Eventually, the old man won, but he was humbled by how good the kid was and realized his arrogance. Even after his 40 years of experience, he still had much to learn. 

Finally, the fireworks started. We very quickly learned that the show wasn't really a show. We expected something like the fireworks shows put on by the city over the lake. But what happened was that the locals would just shoot off fireworks that they had bought from somewhere. So it was a lot of small fireworks, the same fireworks, shot over and over again in a huge circle made by the people. At one point, when I was admiring some of the fireworks in the sky, all of a sudden I felt a punch in my chest. It knocked me back a little bit and I was so confused, I didn't know what had just happened. Then, I saw a firework on the ground around me and realized that I had just been shot by a firework. I don't know where it came from. After that, I was ready to go home. At 11:30,  we got on the train to go back to Richterswil.