15/8/10

I woke up to rain beating on the window, oh joy I can't wait to go hiking today. I am a bit tired from going out with some of the vollies for Emma's last night; but I had a lot of fun at the dance club, especially since they were playing great American (english) dance club music. I got up later than usual, but I still managed to get ready, pack my lunch and eat my breakfast before morning meeting. Agus and I were on the high road together with guests from Montana, New York and Japan. It was a lot of fun, the weather was cool and a little rainy, but we made it to the alp in 2.5hrs. It is about an 8 mile hike to Elsigenalp, but it was a good hike. I then put on gloves, 2 jackets, my rainjacket and a head warmer and ate lunch by the lake. I tend to cool down very rapidly after hiking, so I knew in advance I was going to freeze. After about an hour outside, I was so cold that Koka, Agus and I went to the restaurant. There was some kind of mini festival going on, so a cheesemakers hut was open, there was a petting zoo, and there was constant music -- yodelling, alpine horn players or some sort of Swiss music with musical instruments of course. We had 5 hours on the alp, but it was so cold outside, and I was tired, that I did not want to do anything. I sat in the restaurant, enjoyed a nice large cup of coffee, socialized with guests and made a friendship bracelet. It felt like a very long day, and I am not quite sure how I kept myself occupied without going crazy. It was about 4:30 and we headed to the gondola station. We road the gondola down to Elsigbach, and the bus was waiting for us, horray! Thank goodness we did not have to wait in the cold. We made it back to the chalet in about 20 minutes and I changed into clean clothes and began blogging. For evening program, it is games night and we are playing indoor Clue, I am excited. AND, my parents are coming in 4 days!!!!!! I can not wait. Bye for now readers.

14/8/10

Weather forecast: Rain. Final destination: Oberhofen Castle. I woke up earlier than I expected, so I decided to take a shower so I could be more awake for the morning. After my shower, I made my lunch and got some coffee from the kitchen. It is not the best coffee in the world, but I drink it. My mom sent me some instant Starbucks coffee which has been wonderful, I only have a few left so I use them when I really need a morning boost. I then sat at the Stockli table, watched many vollies go to and from, and quietly ate my breakfast and drank my coffee. Mornings are normally quiet and loud, quiet because everyone is too tired to speak and loud because we are frantically slamming doors, showering and busily preparing for the day. It was almost 8:30am and so I headed over to Spycher for the morning meeting. We discussed the happenings of the day, received sign-out sheets, programme phones, maps, scavenger hunts and the infamous motion-sickness bucket. We have the motion-sickness bucket just in case a guest may need to use it, hmm. The bell rang just 5 minutes before nine. I dropped off my dirty mug in the kitchen so it could be cleaned. We then gathered in a large circle, told the guests the plan of the day and then we were ready to head down the hill. On town days, we only have to walk down the driveway, because that is where the bus picks us up and drops us off. Our first stop was Neisen; we rode the funicular train for 30 minutes until we reached the top. It was about 7C at the top and raining, so staff decided to head inside to the restaurant. I enjoyed a hot cup of coffee and ate my lunch. We chatted and observed guests to kill time. By then, it was noon and it was time to head back down the mountain. We next went to Spiez to catch a boat that we would ride all the way to the castle. It was not raining in Spiez and the weather was warmer than the top of the mountain, thank goodness. After our boat ride, we landed at Oberhofen Castle. I had not been inside the castle since training, so I decided to have one more look. I discovered another room on a floor I had not been before and I discovered some more rooms as well. I saw an old 'barn' room as well as the chapel and sacristy. There was a wedding reception in the courtyard, so that was fun to watch from the windows. After the quick castle tour, Jackie and I sat out in the courtyard gardens, chatted and listened to the music that was playing for the reception. It was nice to hear some live music and just relax, enjoy the flowers and the beautiful view. After sitting for about an hour, we decided to wander into the other gardens. My favorite garden, viney arch now had sunflowers which was very cool. I enjoyed the nice serene walk through the gardens. It was then time to leave the castle, we met the guests at the entrance at 3:45. At the same time, the wedding reception had come to a close and they were all walking out. We seemed to be in the way as they kept inching closer so we moved to the park just across the street. The wedding paraded to the end of the dock all carrying red balloons. The bride and groom were carrying a heart-shaped 'Just Married' balloon, and then they all let the balloons go together. It was kind of funny watching it happen, I took a photo of the balloons as they were in the sky. Our bus finally arrived, we then departed to Thun to pick up the other guests and we were on our way back to the chalet. It was Emma's last day of work and there was a cake made in celebration (we bake for every occasion). It was a good day in the office =).

12/8/10 - 13/8/10

Today I had the day off! Thank goodness, because it has been ages since I have slept in. Alex departed this morning for France, but I am sure glad she got to visit me! We camped in a tent for 4 nights, it was alot of fun. I slept in until 2pm, it was wonderful. Then, I made myself some Ravioli for lunch, well I just heated it up on the stove since it came in a can. I then packed my backpack for Bunderspitz, hoping that the rainy weather would clear and we would be able to reach the peak. I watched some episodes of the unit and just relaxed all day until dinner. After dinner, we started out our hike for the cheesemakers. We arrived at the cheesemakers just after nine pm. The plan for the Bunderspitz overnight hike is we sleep at the cheesemakers then get up at 2:30am and start hiking to reach the peak by sunrise. So, once we arrived we enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate and then headed for bed. I did not get much sleep as there was the sound of constant cow bell ringing in the distance, and sleeping in close quarters with people made it difficult for me to fall asleep. We then woke up at 2:30am, the sky was somewhat clear and somewhat cloudy, but we decided to give hiking a go. We made it all the way to the cow hut, which is half way to the peak. Some of the girls were really exhausted, sick, scared of heights or whatever and wanted to turn back. This made it difficult for staff to decide what to do next. We took about a 15 minute break and another thick cloud came rolling in and we couldn't see anything. We then decided that we should head back. I was really disappointed that we couldn't go all the way to the top, because I really wanted to see the sun rise. But, I guess the weather conditions were not right for hiking. And, Friday the 13th brings bad luck. It was about 6am by the time we reached the cheesemakers hut. We made our beds and gathered the rest of our stuff. The owner of the cheesemakers wanted to play his alpine horn for us, so we enjoyed the sound of an early morning horn. We heard cow bells ring all the way down until we reached the chalet. It was a little after 8am when we finally made it home. I finally became really tired, I went straight to bed and slept until 3pm. I woke up and I was still tired. I made myself maccroni and cheese for lunch and then hung out in my bed all day. We had a staff night in, movie watching spree as well. It was a good 2ish days off. I did lots of sleeping which is good, since my 6 day working streak begins tomorrow. Yippee.

11/8/10

Adeventure day, destination: woodcarvers and abseiling in the gorge. We had a lovely walk to the woodcarvers. I took lots of photographs of the flowers around the woodcarvers and around Cafe Blatti. There were so many, it was unreal. The weather was nice, it was sunny, but not too hot. We hiked with a group of girls from Montana (US) and Tokyo (Japan). They were lots of fun, and I was teaching the Japanese girls a few campfire songs. We sang a song about a moose, they did not know what a moose was, so one of the girls drew a picture so they could understand. It was neat. We then hiked to the river to have lunch. It was very crowded by the river and I sat on a rock, listened to the river rush down and heard children play and splash rocks in the creek. Next stop, was abseiling. I brought my camera into the gorge and took tons and tons of pictures. I even discovered new options to my camera, so I was having fun. We finally finished repelling and then it was time to head back to the chalet. On our hike back, the sun came out and it was alot warmer than the morning. I took a nice refreshing shower, uploaded my blog and some photos and then it was dinner time. It is Alex's last night in Switzerland, she went to Basel for the day to go to lots of art museums, but we are going out in Adelboden tonight. She will get a taste of my nightlife scene I have been experiencing this summer. Emma, Alex, Elaine and I all went out and it was tons of fun! Ciao. (I am pre-posting my adventure out, but none the less, this blog post is done!!!) I am finally caught up on all of my blogging.

10/8/10

I woke up around 8am in the tent with Alex. I was on guest services for the day since it was on-site day. I am on program for this event. We had the opening ceremony this morning by the flagpole, then we finished in the kitchen and then it was morning meeting time. I helped out with the BBQ lunch and I even helped Christoph with the actual barbequeing of the bratwurst. We had a staff lunch together to gather to say goodbye to Megan, since she is leaving in the morning. After lunch I had a break to hang out with Alex and catch up on my blog updating. I finally completed all of my blogs from the last five days. I have been on the go and very busy since I left for Venice and I have a visitor at the chalet which is tons of fun! Renee and I made a cake for Megan during/after dinner and we had a miniature party in the Music room to say goodbye again. It is becoming more of a reality to me that I am leaving soon since she is leaving tomorrow. It is crazy to think that this summer has flown by and I am leaving in 15 days! After our gathering, I was off to bed in our tent with Vietti!

9/8/10-Evian/Geneva!

I went to two countries in one day! First, we arrived into Lausann,e which is a city located on Lake Geneva or Lac Leman (French version). We then hopped on an underground metro to take us to the lake so we could take a steamer boat across the lake to France. We went to Evian, which is famous for its mineral water and it also has a famous masters golf course. We walked around and saw many gardens and flowers; we even walked around the centre ville. We were hungry so we decided to stop and have a crepe to eat. I had a banana caramel crepe. We were trying to hurry and pay since we wanted to catch the next boat. But, as we were running to the boat station, we heard the boat’s horn and saw it depart form the port. Darn, we missed that boat. And the next boat was leaving in an hour and a half. So, we decided to lay in the park and sleep/sun bathe. It was actually very nice to sit still and relax. We did make the second boat, thank goodness. And our next destination was Geneva! We arrived in Geneva, got lost around the train station and then finally found the trams. We went to go see the United Nations headquarters. It was closing when we arrived, but it was still cool to see the building and take some photos. Our next stop was the Jardin Botanique (Botanical Gardens.) I really enjoy walking through such pretty gardens, as where I live they are few and far between. I even got to do some reading. I then realized as we were walking that Alex’s jacket that I had 


attached to my purse was gone (it probably fell off somehow). So, we got back on the bus and went back to the last bus stop and walked backwards. Luckily, since we are in Switzerland someone picked it up off the sidewalk and left it hanging in the bushes. Horray, we found it. We even got questioned by a French lady asking, in French, if it was my jacket, it was kind of hard to explain what happened, so we continued walking. We then took the tram over to the old town part of Geneva, the oldest part of the city. The architecture and gray-toned buildings convey Geneva’s history, a severely punitive Calvinist past. It was in 1535 that the Protestant Reformation arrived in Geneva. We also walked down to the lake to see the premier sight of Jet d’Eau, the world’s second largest fountain about 140m, which is Geneva’s premier symbol. We also saw the Flower clock in the Jardin Anglais that has around 6,500 flowers. It was fun to ride the tram around the old town as well as walk the sights. On our way to see the fountain, we even saw a really cool church, with golden domes. Geneva is Switzerland’s second largest city; I read that it is the world’s healthiest city because of the prevailing north winds that blow all the air pollution away. It is also a very international city as it has around 250 international organizations based here. And, the International Red Cross started in Geneva. How cool is that? Well, we then hopped on a bus to take us back to the train station. We did not want to get back to the chalet at midnight, because then I would be tired for the next few days. We actually missed the train stop while we were on the bus, because we couldn’t see the station. We got off at the next bus stop and ran to the train station, and made it to our train just in time. It was a good day =).

8/8/10- Staff day out.

It was staff day out today!!! And, we did not know where we were going until we arrived. We were instructed to bring warm cloths, a swimsuit, water proofs, money, a packed lunch and random stuff like balloons, rubber bands and colored paper. We had staff breakfast and the senior staff made croissant rolls and other fun breakfast treats. We then were transported to Kandersteg. Hooray. We went up the gondola to the Glacier lake, it was very cold outside when we arrived so I was not very interested in actually getting into the lake. But I did lay on the shore, next to the lake. After we relaxed and had lunch by the lake, it started to rain so we went to the restaurant for shelter. After the short rain shower passed, we walked to the alpine toboggan slide. We each had three runs. We sat on a scooter type machine, which lifted you up to the top of the slide and then you rode all the way down. It was so much fun!! After our gondola ride back down, we headed over to the Kandersteg International Scout Center for an official tour. Although I had seen the outside of KISC, it was nice to get a tour and see all of the buildings and facilities. The outdoor campsite was huge, it was very lively and loud, the campfire circle was also very big too. We got the chance to see doors and windows of the top secret Switzerland military base. It is located within the mountain and is best accessed through the tunnel by a train. It was pretty cool spotting a door in the mountain. We then headed back to the chalet, we met up with Alex along the hill up to the chalet. Her phone did not have service and she wanted to get to the chalet before it was dark, thank goodness I ran into her. We then walked up the hill to the chalet. We relaxed for a bit and our surprise dinner was BBQ! We had burgers and spiced chicken that was on a stick, it was so yummy! It was fun relaxing and conversing with everybody. Alex and I are going to stay in a tent for the next 4 nights. Luckily, there are tents at the campsite that are already built! We are sleeping in a red German tent that resembles a tee-pee. Christoph was very nice and drove us over to the campsite, we pulled mattresses from camp house and we had bedding, blankets and pillows galore. It was very high-class camping if you ask me. Christina slept over with us as well, so it was a slumber party! We are traveling on the 9^th so I went to bed after I packed my bag and got clothes ready for the morning! Goodnight all.