Our next day in Switzerland was a professional day, and visited a nuts and bolts company called Bossard, which was absolutely amazing, and a concrete company called Holcim.
While nothing about these companies probably seems appealing to you, they definitely impacted the way I think. Both are top producers in the world in their field of work, strive to be not just the best, but the best company in their work area known for their productivity and customer service. Bossard used the term "Glocal" to describe their company, which meant that the roots of the company were meant to deliver and produce locally and globally.
What does any of this mean to you? Well I'll tell you what it means to me.
Visiting professional venues could be boring at times, but it did the following:
What does any of this mean to you? Well I'll tell you what it means to me.
Visiting professional venues could be boring at times, but it did the following:
- It got me beyond excited, ready, and aware of what lies ahead in my future, as an undergrad student and as someone who is seeking to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. To every one who has told me I can't, watch me.
- It gave me perspective -- I as a person need to be known as the best Ana, who delivers things in a style where productivity matters, where I can handle being local global, and where I can make a difference by being the best Ana I can be.
- Lastly, it gave me hope. The people who gave the presentations, CEO's, Vice President's etc. were so passionate about their job. The saying that if you do something you love, you'll never work a day in your life goes a long way for me because I WILL be doing something I love, and whatever that may be, I will be passionate about it every step of the way.
We made it to dinner at this AWESOME but ridiculously expensive fondue restaurant, but nonetheless the food was phenomenal. Just in case you were wondering, fondue is one of my favorite foods in the entire worrrrllldddd. So I was in heaven.
After dinner, we just walked around, did a little shopping while we tried to figure out what our plans were for the night.
We then ended up at the Central Train Station, where we did a failed attempt at the Harlem Shake (it's on my Vine -- You can find me under Ana Romero) and THEN decided to get on a train and jump off at a random stop. ADVENTURE AWAITS, right?!
Welllllll, that was a failed attempt too. We ended up right where we started. But this time, with a much more beautiful sight. The center of Zurich with a lit-up bridge. Simply amazing.
We walked around for about an hour and a half, just taking random turns, yelling left or right to see who would be the one getting to make the decision on where to go, and just having fun by going with the flow! At one point, we even stopped and hit some ballin CrossFit at a bridge that overlooked Zurich! #HOLLLLAAA
Where did we end up? At a random Swiss Art and Book Opening, where there was a bumpin party with free alcohol where we sat around for hours, talking and bonding, people watching, looking at art, reading books in German, and just having the time of our life!
We made it back to the hotel, exhausted from walking all over the place, and ready to hit the hay.
The next morning, we met downstairs for breakfast, split up into about 3 groups and were ready to conquer our free day! Which, after I tell you about ours, you'll agree that it was the best day ever.
We took a tram that led us to a mountain trail that we hiked up for about 20 minutes. When we reached the top, words can't even describe what I felt or what I saw. Literally gave me goosebumps, both then and now as I'm writing this. I'll stop talking and just show you what I'm all hyped up about.
After dinner, we just walked around, did a little shopping while we tried to figure out what our plans were for the night.
We then ended up at the Central Train Station, where we did a failed attempt at the Harlem Shake (it's on my Vine -- You can find me under Ana Romero) and THEN decided to get on a train and jump off at a random stop. ADVENTURE AWAITS, right?!
Welllllll, that was a failed attempt too. We ended up right where we started. But this time, with a much more beautiful sight. The center of Zurich with a lit-up bridge. Simply amazing.
We walked around for about an hour and a half, just taking random turns, yelling left or right to see who would be the one getting to make the decision on where to go, and just having fun by going with the flow! At one point, we even stopped and hit some ballin CrossFit at a bridge that overlooked Zurich! #HOLLLLAAA
Where did we end up? At a random Swiss Art and Book Opening, where there was a bumpin party with free alcohol where we sat around for hours, talking and bonding, people watching, looking at art, reading books in German, and just having the time of our life!
We made it back to the hotel, exhausted from walking all over the place, and ready to hit the hay.
The next morning, we met downstairs for breakfast, split up into about 3 groups and were ready to conquer our free day! Which, after I tell you about ours, you'll agree that it was the best day ever.
We took a tram that led us to a mountain trail that we hiked up for about 20 minutes. When we reached the top, words can't even describe what I felt or what I saw. Literally gave me goosebumps, both then and now as I'm writing this. I'll stop talking and just show you what I'm all hyped up about.
Yep, that's right. Everything you see, is the city of Zurich. Absolutely gorgeous.
Alright, I'm gonna throw another one of my favorite quotes your way.
"I can see it. This one moment when you know you're not a sad story. You are alive. And you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you're listening to that song on that drive with the people you love most in this world. And in this moment, I swear...We are infinite."
-The Perks of Being A Wallflower
It's another one of those realizations where the wind slaps you in the face, and you think, wow. There is so much more out there in the world, than Me. As Francis Chan would put it, this story we're living isn't about us. We're playing a small role in the story of Christ. And by small role, he compares us humans to a coke can floating in the ocean. Eye-opening, huh?
But anywayyyysss. We climbed down the mountain, and hopped back on the tram to take us back to the city. Where I realized, I had a combination of altitude sickness and motion sickness. As much as I tried to ignore it, I LITERALLY thought I was going to die. Here's where my life motto comes into play (My life is a joke). So we get back to the city and decide to rent bikes. My thought process was this: great, I'll probably fall off the bike, break a bone or two, probably throw up while I'm at it, end up in a hospital, not make it through my trip, my parents are gonna kill me.... Etc. You get the idea. But wait, WHAT HAPPENS?! I hop on that bike and I feel like a million bucks! Literally never felt better. Annnnnd then my moment was ruined when I hit a curb, fell off in the middle of the street while the tram was coming. This is where you laugh and say, yep, her life is a joke hahaha.
I hopped back on after having a laughing attack, and our journey began!!
We rode for about an hour and half just seeing everything and taking all the beautiful people and sites in. Then, we rented a motorboat and drove it across the river that cut right through the center of Zurich.
We took turns driving and after an hour landed back at shore, where we continue our Tour de Zurich! We went by the zoo, the Opera House, drove through a gorgeous park, and stopped to run on the world. Literally.
Venturing on, we stopped at a palace then decided to grab some panini's and head down on the opposite side of the river to enjoy a peaceful lunch -- which ended up being right next to a park.
SO. Let me pause for a second and let's talk about the bikes. OKAY. So at this point in the day I was pretty good at keeping my solid rhythm on my bike (after about 50 meters or so....EVERY TIME after stopping...) and then once I thought I was actually getting good, my luck was ruined by our oh-so considerate boys. The two of them would just take off across the street and hop curbs like it was nothing, in the middle of traffic, while Candace and I were faced with two choices: 1.) Go after them and risk getting hit by a car, or stop and wait about 15 minutes for traffic to calm down so we could finally take off and hope that MAYBE the boys had gotten the message that we were not behind them. Needless to say they BOTH happened, the first more than the latter, but it made for funny memories. That was until, I got caught in the middle of traffic almost being hit by a car for like the 50th time and a police office yelled at me in GERMAN. Yes, yes, you read that right....GERMAN. I was terrified, and I nodded in agreement to whatever he said to me, and rode off semi-at ease.
Alright, I'm gonna throw another one of my favorite quotes your way.
"I can see it. This one moment when you know you're not a sad story. You are alive. And you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you're listening to that song on that drive with the people you love most in this world. And in this moment, I swear...We are infinite."
-The Perks of Being A Wallflower
It's another one of those realizations where the wind slaps you in the face, and you think, wow. There is so much more out there in the world, than Me. As Francis Chan would put it, this story we're living isn't about us. We're playing a small role in the story of Christ. And by small role, he compares us humans to a coke can floating in the ocean. Eye-opening, huh?
But anywayyyysss. We climbed down the mountain, and hopped back on the tram to take us back to the city. Where I realized, I had a combination of altitude sickness and motion sickness. As much as I tried to ignore it, I LITERALLY thought I was going to die. Here's where my life motto comes into play (My life is a joke). So we get back to the city and decide to rent bikes. My thought process was this: great, I'll probably fall off the bike, break a bone or two, probably throw up while I'm at it, end up in a hospital, not make it through my trip, my parents are gonna kill me.... Etc. You get the idea. But wait, WHAT HAPPENS?! I hop on that bike and I feel like a million bucks! Literally never felt better. Annnnnd then my moment was ruined when I hit a curb, fell off in the middle of the street while the tram was coming. This is where you laugh and say, yep, her life is a joke hahaha.
I hopped back on after having a laughing attack, and our journey began!!
We rode for about an hour and half just seeing everything and taking all the beautiful people and sites in. Then, we rented a motorboat and drove it across the river that cut right through the center of Zurich.
We took turns driving and after an hour landed back at shore, where we continue our Tour de Zurich! We went by the zoo, the Opera House, drove through a gorgeous park, and stopped to run on the world. Literally.
Venturing on, we stopped at a palace then decided to grab some panini's and head down on the opposite side of the river to enjoy a peaceful lunch -- which ended up being right next to a park.
SO. Let me pause for a second and let's talk about the bikes. OKAY. So at this point in the day I was pretty good at keeping my solid rhythm on my bike (after about 50 meters or so....EVERY TIME after stopping...) and then once I thought I was actually getting good, my luck was ruined by our oh-so considerate boys. The two of them would just take off across the street and hop curbs like it was nothing, in the middle of traffic, while Candace and I were faced with two choices: 1.) Go after them and risk getting hit by a car, or stop and wait about 15 minutes for traffic to calm down so we could finally take off and hope that MAYBE the boys had gotten the message that we were not behind them. Needless to say they BOTH happened, the first more than the latter, but it made for funny memories. That was until, I got caught in the middle of traffic almost being hit by a car for like the 50th time and a police office yelled at me in GERMAN. Yes, yes, you read that right....GERMAN. I was terrified, and I nodded in agreement to whatever he said to me, and rode off semi-at ease.
(Okay back at the park now.) We met this super cool guy who stopped and asked us to write down our dreams along with a picture that described them. He was an entrepreneur who dedicated his life to traveling the world, asking people of all ages to write down their dreams, where he then published them on his website for the world to see, and encouraged each and every person to reach their dreams and beyond them.
He was SO rad.
Later, we enjoyed an awesome game of chess on a life size board, still not as cool as the one on Harry Potter, but it was pretty close! Then we met this other guy who was walking across a tight rope. He explained to us that he did this for recreation, but also as a way to get clarity. A mixture of balance, poise, elegance, and serenity, the tight rope was a place to find your center, and walk across. So we decided to give it whirl.
It was a CRAZY awesome experience and I found that clarity is the the counterbalance of confusion and acceptance of what is.
After leaving the park, we headed to a skate park where we watched some rad people doing some crazy tricks while their passion for the sport burned inside of them.
By this time, it was about 6 in the afternoon, and our day had flown by cycling. Talk about great exercise! Too bad it only burned about half of the calories of the food I had eaten the day before. Oops? Haha. As a friend of mine would say, #noregrets.
We walked by an orchestra playing some Frank Sinatra, returned our bikes, walked through a few alleys, and decided to eat dinner at this tight Film restaurant where every meal was named after a movie.
He was SO rad.
Later, we enjoyed an awesome game of chess on a life size board, still not as cool as the one on Harry Potter, but it was pretty close! Then we met this other guy who was walking across a tight rope. He explained to us that he did this for recreation, but also as a way to get clarity. A mixture of balance, poise, elegance, and serenity, the tight rope was a place to find your center, and walk across. So we decided to give it whirl.
It was a CRAZY awesome experience and I found that clarity is the the counterbalance of confusion and acceptance of what is.
After leaving the park, we headed to a skate park where we watched some rad people doing some crazy tricks while their passion for the sport burned inside of them.
By this time, it was about 6 in the afternoon, and our day had flown by cycling. Talk about great exercise! Too bad it only burned about half of the calories of the food I had eaten the day before. Oops? Haha. As a friend of mine would say, #noregrets.
We walked by an orchestra playing some Frank Sinatra, returned our bikes, walked through a few alleys, and decided to eat dinner at this tight Film restaurant where every meal was named after a movie.
My friends and I reminisced on our perfect day (now is the time to jam to Perfect Day by Hoku) and how insane it is to really feel another country's culture in one day. By diverting from all distractions, electronics, and harmful things, and just getting to know somebody else, people watching, seeing the nature, seeing the way people interact and how they may have the same human interactions but can have a totally different meaning. By really letting go, finding your clarity, and opening your eyes to a whole 'nother world that you had no idea was flourishing because you were too caught up in the norm.
It's really a strange and beautiful thing. I dare you to be radical and try it.
Xoxo,
Ana
It's really a strange and beautiful thing. I dare you to be radical and try it.
Xoxo,
Ana