Zurich 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th     

Hi, I am Matthew Reed, an american college student who studied abroad in Italy studying civil engineering. I unfortunately hit some snags that limited my ability to post daily from the 20^th to the 24^th. Thankfully despite fever, allergies, and a pesky internet connection I am now able to communicate my experiences.

     I arrived on the 20^th to Melligen, Switzerland. The journey over was quite easy, despite Melligen not being an ending destination and bad prior planning. I simple went to the information desk, they gave me the information in less than a minute and I was on my way.

    I met Anja at the train station went a distance that was less than a five minute walk over to their apartment. I met her husband Benno and their son Gabriel as well as their two cats. They quickly and in a friendly manner welcomed me into their home.

The meal we had for that night was quite good and authentic. My expectations for good food than home were exceeded, despite prior travels. To better clarify the food was both of a healthiness of fresh produce and cooked meats, as well as delicious as to put to shame even the best meals I manage to obtain for myself back home.

I went Saturday to a soccer game with Benno, Gabriel, and family friends. I drank a beer had the equivalent to a hotdog, but unlike its American counterpart, the sausage and bread was far superior in both texture, taste, and I imagine it being the healthier of the two. Benno bought me a Lucerne hat since we both had connections back to Lucerne, being I had family there and he grew up there. Our Lucerne team, the underdog, scored a point through a good showing of skill and made it quite an interesting watch despite the end score of 1 to 1 against Zurich. It has been in the past reasonable to me to see soccer as a boring sport, but as with most sports actually seeing and just by beginning to recognize the strategy, the interconnectivity, the implications that shots at goal represent, recognizing the decisions being made and reasoning for them. That soccer game did much to convert me to be a soccer fan despite my lack of interest in soccer in sports in general that I had in the past.

Coming home the Saturday was ok, but I was feeling my sickness coming over to me, and my previous plans that day would be cancelled. I went to sleep early and had a coughing fit the entire night. During this time I was offered everything necessary for me to get better and I slowly improved during the course of Monday.

That night I got to play the game Buurejahr with Benno and Gabriel. Now as being a person who has invested significant amount of my time studying how games I expected a 1970’s game a time when the community of game makers, the technique of game design, and so on were being developed to not be as good as the top board games of this millennium that I have played. Yet my openness to this game showed me otherwise, this game challenges so many of the concepts of traditional design I have seen. It was a great opportunity for me, though despite my lost from benno and his precocious son.

Tuesday I went to Bern. There I walked an enjoyable twenty minute walk to get the necessary information for my stay here, which was handled in less than five minutes. Now when I go places I tend to like the explore method to get to know a place, I walk. I got to see the cool architecture of a bridge that a crossed over. I got to see some brown bears when I journeyed down to walk by the river. Walking by the river gave the illusion I was in the wilderness, only to be dispelled if I looked away from the forested rise of earth that I had descended on my right. Walking back and around I stumbled upon a market where I was able to buy a jelly donut for 1 CHF which I considered a deal for a fresh and succulent desert.

I walked past a hotel, in front a globe with water running underneath the globe. Having just taken a fluid dynamics class and read as an example the principles that the globe was designed with. I gave that globe, probably a one ton stone behemoth a spin which was quite amusing. Continuing along I was also lucky to stumble upon a local musician, another market which I was able to buy a nice affordable present, a chess set that had pieces the size of small traffic cones, and lastly a clock tower. Now by that clock tower an amusing man with covered in a yellow blanket with a duck face attached to a stick was making noise, having never seen such a thing it caught me off-guard and gave me a laugh.

That night I watched Bayern versus Barcelona. Barcelona being the best team of the last three years, but Benno told me yeah but Bayern is probably going to win.  Four points to zero and a vast multitude of failed shots on goal Bayern won despite having possession of the ball for only thirty percent of the game. Having watched the champions of this sport was a great experience.

Now it is Wednesday, of which I spent the day with this catch up as well as relaxing at the house. Despite what I have seen of this country, what actually drew me was the culture. Through the conversations I have had, I now have a greater understanding for the Swiss government system. I was used to Politics as being rarely talk about, and I had been stifled in the past for trying explore the possibilities of alternate forms of government. Having both a shameful domestic mess and terrible foreign policy, glossed by the face of politicians and its depths muddled by hyper aggressive media, it was such a relief to have an opportunity to improve my point of view by contrasting them against those of my intelligent host family.