Although I already knew about Switzerland's mountains and lakes, I didn't know about their castles, chalets and museums. Before I went to Switzerland, I was nervous that I wouldn't enjoy the cold, and while I didn't exactly come to love the climate, I did learn that there was too much beauty in Switzerland to let a little thing like temperature affect my time there! Changing my mindset before I embarked on my journey was really important because I had decided that I would embrace every difference and each new experience. And this attitude made all the difference.
As a black American, I thought Switzerland would be a country where people wouldn't look like me. I was so worried that I wouldn't fit in anywhere that I went. I was surprised, though, when I saw people of every color and background on my buses in Geneva. In my lectures and briefings, I met with professionals from every part of the world-- from Mexico to Yemen to Germany and France. Peru, Venezuela, and Algeria, too. The host families were also diverse. For instance, my host family was Swiss-Brazilian, a girl in my program had a Vietnamese host mother. Another student had a host mother originally from Africa. The friends that I made in the program also had come from different parts of America and the world, and growing and learning together turned out to be such an amazing experience.
Having the chance to fly to Morocco from Switzerland through my program was also interesting. Coming from an American background, I had many assumptions about what Morocco would be like. I imagined that everything would be desert and that there would be camels everywhere. I imagined that the country would be strict toward women, and I wondered if I would have anything in common with the people there.
