Day 5: Today we woke up early as we had to check out of our hotel in Amsterdam, get some breakfast, and hit the road for Enschede. The trip from Enschede was about two hours long, of which I caught up on some much needed sleep and played a game with Aleks. On our way there, we got to see a couple of the wildlife brights that crossed over the main highway! We finally arrived at the University of Twente where we jumped right into the campus tour. On this tour, we visited academic buildings, their version of a “quad”, athletic facilities, student housing, and pieces of art around the campus.

After our tour, we ate lunch and learned about Kristalbad, a natural water reserve and buffer for the surrounding areas. Kristalbad is a post purification for the water after it goes through the sewage removal upstream. Furthermore, it serves as a home for amphibians, birds, plants, and others. Kristalbad also prevents floods and droughts by storing water in the different filtration basins. Once the lesson concluded, we took a hike to go see it in person! Kristalbad is very interesting, especially as it adds biodiversity to the area. We did a ton of walking this day, and I personally had over 24,000 steps and almost 10 miles walked! Walking through the luscious environment with beautiful clean air truly made this hike seem shorter.

The hike concluded, and we went back to the hotel to rest for a bit before joining some Twente students for pizza and soft drinks. It was fascinating getting to hear their engineering stories and what their student life is like! My highlight of this day was seeing all the ducklings and goslings with their parents, as well as, all the wildflowers along our route!