Our group was split up en route to Kenya on Thursday, June 19th. This is the story of those left behind....
Yesterday our group split up because our flight from D.C. arrived in Zurich about five hours later than expected due to a cracked windshield, thus causing us to miss our connection to Nairobi. Everyone except David, Chris, and I (Matt Sheeks) was put on a 5:30PM flight to Nairobi, while we had to remain in Zurich for the day. Oh darn!
Unfortunately, it took about 3 hours for us just to get out of the airport, mainly due to the snooty French airline worker who was checking me in (yes, the French still hate us, I have confirmed). We flew KLM, who was partnered with Air France. For some reason it took five separate phone calls to get the ok to accept my two 
pieces of luggage, even though Chris had just completed the exact same transaction 5 minutes before me. Seriously though, the Zurich airport is like nothing you have ever seen. It is so clean and well organized, and practically deserted when we were there.
Upon arriving at our hotel (the hotel shuttle left exactly on time of course), 
I asked our fat receptionist (the only overweight person in Switzerland, it seems) where to go running, and was pleasantly surprised when he directed me to the "woods," only a 5 minute run from the the hotel. Chris and David were weenies and stayed back at the hotel and watched the Dauphine Libere. They missed out on an exceptional run. The trails there reminded me of home. Basically the foliage is exactly the same - blackberry bushes, salal, evergreen trees, stinging nettles, maple, and so on. I ended up going 1 hour 45 minutes because I got crazy lost on the way back; fortunately a Swiss guy with a GPS showed me the way back. I was on sweet trails almost the entire time, and the park was so close to downtown. The Swiss know how to live!
After the run we used our meal vouchers from United at the hotel's restaurant. I asked what type of fish they had and the waitress told me it was "white." That narrows it down. When the server brought it out he said, "Here is your fish. It is dead, no?"
We took a 
10km train ride into downtown Zurich; it was really happening there as the European Championships for soccer was going on (though the game was actually being played in Basel). The train station has a crazy statue of about 10 soccer players that are about 80 feet tall. We bumbled into a huge street party along the river in downtown. We walked through throngs of people smoking, drinking Heineken, or consuming energy drinks on the street (no open container laws here!). A bunch of German fans started dancing around, singing and waving their flags around when 
Germany ended up winning the game 3-2. David McCary, the Irish member of our group, was unimpressed with their shenanigans, and yelled out, "You call that a soccer riot, let's take 'em to school boys!" He then proceeded to dance an Irish jig on top of a picnic table in the middle of the crowd. I'd post a couple videos here of the craziness at the street party, but you wouldn't be able to see David because of his Leprechaun-like stature.
So there you have it. From my perception Switzerland is much like the U.S. They 
even drive on the right side of the road. But there are subtle differences- like their openness to prostitution, large-scale smoking, and a big concern for quality of life. The police are also quite different, as they tend to walk around much more, usually in packs of two or three, which may explain why they are all in good shape compared to their American counterparts. Everything is outrageously priced, so be careful if you come here: for example, you are likely to spend a good $20 on a simple meal.