4/8/10

I had another lovely day on guest services. I even had an outdoor picnic in order to earn staff challenge points! Tonight, we are going down to Margeli for Moushira's going away party! I am going to Venice tomorrow and I get to see Alex, horray!

3/8/10

I woke up to the rain this morning, just 25 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off. So, I decided to just get up instead of lay in bed and wait for the bell of my alarm to ring. I was the only one working the early morning breakfast shift, so I went downstairs and had a nice cup of coffee and ate some breakfast. I even got to the kitchen a few minutes early. I put on the coffee and prepared the hot water, drinks, packed lunch table and breakfast table. And then it was 8am.  After breakfast, I mopped, vacuumed and did the bathrooms in Main Chalet, and it took me the full two hours to complete that task. I listened to my ipod while I was working, so it was not that bad. We then had lunch, indoors, since it was still raining. After lunch, the 5-20% sunshine arrived. I got together some things for Venice (I am going there with Alex for 3 days, I leave on Thursday and I am super excited). I even made photo copies of my passport. I had a very relaxing day. Dinner preparation was alot of fun, since Jenny was not here. We even finished at 8:30! It was amazing. It was just another day at the chalet, and 2 more days until I am off to Venice!! Ciao.

2/8/10

It was a beautiful day to begin with at the chalet, but a few hours later it turned wet, cold and dreary. During morning meeting, Megan and I volunteered to give a tour at 10am. After the tour, we had a pinning ceremony and then opened the shop. But, while I was giving the tour, the girls took so much pictures, it was unreal. And total, the tour spent about 2000 CHF in the shop, it was crazy. We even had a minor crisis with the cash register, since it ran out of paper and no one knew how to fix it. But, I eventually figured it out. We then had a nice relaxing lunch. We cleaned up and then Megan and I were off to town with Christoph. We first went to the relaxing station, and it was a torrential downpour when we were driving there. Moushira came along to the actual town, and when we picked her up, we were literally surrounded by a cloud, it was crazy. I went to town to get my train tickets and some day passes for my parents, when they are here. =) Horray, they had the days I needed! The day passes are a much cheaper traveling route and they are sold in the Adelboden tourist center. I wish I would have known about them in June, but oh well. After town, I had an hour to relax before we were back in the kitchen. We cooked goulash tonight, and I helped Jenny make it. We had some many dietary needs as well, so there were about 8 pots, but only 4 burners. We had guests that are lactose free, vegetarian, tomato allergy, pepper and lactose allergy, so cooking for all of our guests was fun. ha. ha. After dinner wash up, I took a nice hot shower and watched the Unit in bed, until I fell asleep. Goodnight =)

1/8/10

It is Swiss National Day! Today, I started work at 11:30am, thank goodness I finally got to sleep in. I was kitchen coordinator for the day, so I woke up to go make lunch for staff. After lunch, I came back and rested some more and watched more of the Unit. It was nice to have a break. We then got back into the kitchen at 3:30, since dinner was early tonight so we could all go to town. We made Rosti and Ratatouille! It was very yummy. It was fun working in the kitchen. Megan, Jane and I were nearly dying laughing when the trays in the oven started to collapse as we were pulling the Rosti dishes out of the oven to be served. It was great fun. We then cleaned up for dinner. I changed and then we set off for town. Koka gave us a lift to town, so we did not have to walk there =). We went to the central stadium ish area, and watched a band perform a few songs and we saw some yodeling. Next, was the town parade, we were carrying lanterns and flags and firecrackers were going off left and right. The smell reminded me of 4th of July. We walked around town and then there was a 10pm firework show. In all of Switzerland, fireworks were displayed at precisely 10pm. After the show, a few vollies all went out to the pub to have a drink in celebration of Swiss Independence. We walked home and it was already way past my bedtime. But, it was a fun day =)!!

31/7/10

It's the Chalet's 78th birthday!! Wahoo, birthday celebrations all day. It was on-site day, and Jane and I were in charge of the craft activity. In morning meeting, we were also discussing what games we wanted to play throughout the activity and when it was time to change the activity. It was alot of fun talking about international birthday games. But, after morning meeting, we had the opening ceremony at the flag pole. The guests are from the USA, of course, Denmark and Canada. We then split the groups up by playing the birthday game. The guests had to get in birthday order without talking, that game is always fun to watch. After the groups were split, we did an equipment check and played a name game. It is always hard to learn everyones name on on-site day. Then, we headed to the dining hall to start crafts. I even made a miniature green snowflake. During our activity, we had guests sign a chinese lantern thing that we were going to fly for Our Chalet's birthday. We also were making tin lanterns, using hammers and nails to make holes in the tin can. It was a lot of fun to bang through the ice to make the hole in the lantern. And toward the end of our activity, we played a very entertaining outdoor game. We had four wind bottles at one end of the ground and then the girls had to put a belt on with a nail attached to a string. It was great fun watching the different teams relay and race to finish. After the first session it was lunch time, and after lunch I helped the guest services crew fold laundry. Before the guests set off for their next activity, we had them play musical backpacks. It was a lot of fun. During the next craft activity, I wandered about through the guests to make sure they were doing the craft correctly, etc. I even organized the colored paper and tidied up some of the tables. The next session was fun as well, I got to put the finishing touches on the chinese paper lantern and I decorated it for the chalet's birthday. We then helped the guests tidy up the room and prepare it for dinner. We even decorated the dining hall with balloons and flags for the birthday celebration. The evening program was international night, which we could only allow to go on for 45 minutes, because we had a surprise for the guests. At a quarter til 9, we surprised them with a cake for the chalet's birthday, and we sang 'Happy Birthday' in 8 languages =) Wahoo. It was a very good birthday day =).

30/7/10

I worked the infamous changeover day, but I was on guest services this time. I was the laundry-queen for the day and I was excited about that. I worked the late shift for breakfast, but I began by doing a load of laundry. After that, I went upstairs to help in the kitchen. We finished nice and early since there were 5 of us. I even changed over a load of laundry before morning meeting. After morning meeting, I was folding laundry and then I did all of the bathrooms in Main Chalet as the laundry was washing/drying. I was constantly keeping time and looking at my watch. In morning meeting, we decided since Baby Chalet was currently unoccupied we were going to host a tea party! I was going to be in charge of making cookies, so after lunch and in between laundry I made snicker doodles. They were very tasty and all of the cookies were gone within the first 15 minutes of our tea party. I even managed to watch an episode of the unit while I was folding the laundry. =). We had a lovely tea party in baby chalet. We even played the proper guiding Ibbily Wibbily game. I got a lot of my staff challenge points signed off and now I have 52 points! Wahoo! We then went to the kitchen to prepare for dinner. I got to help Jenny prepare chicken carbonara =). After dinner clean up, I relaxed and went to bed!

29/7/10

It was freezing cold and very rainy today. This morning, I was off to the gorge with Katie. I decided to be on the very bottom platform in order to safely help the girls at the end of the repelling run. It rained during the first hour of our hike there, and then the sun came out and then it rained some more. The gorge is already very wet and rainy inside so it did not help that it was rainy outside as well. Therefore, it was very wet inside the gorge. It was raining so much inside that it was hard to look up to see when the girls were coming down. I stood at the bottom for about 2 hours, and I can feel that I was getting wet. After everyone had their turn, it was time to walk up the 200+ stairs to get out of the gorge. We ate lunch under a wooded shelter, since it was still raining. We luckily were able to go to the woodcarvers early. I enjoyed a nice cup of coffee in a heated room at the cafe next door. I was so thankful for the fire! After the hour spent at the woodcarvers and the cafe, it was time to head back to the chalet. I lead the hike. Two guests and I decided to kick back a rock all the way to the chalet. It was a lot of fun playing 'rockcer.' And we managed to only replace one rock, as Pumba Senior (the rock), fell off the side of the mountain. I got back to the chalet relatively early, so I had some time to relax and what not. We had the weekly campfire meeting and then it was dinner time. I was in charge of the fire for campfire again, so I smell like campfire. =) I even had to go collect some more wood during the campfire, and I ran to the tool shed and slipped in the mud on my way there. I know have a huge muddy patch on the back of my rain pants. It was still fun falling in the mud and rain. But, I kept the fire going and the campfire program went well. We even got to making English S'mores after campfire, with English biscuits! It was yummy, yummy. It was a good day, but I am going to bed because I am working guest services tomorrow and it is a change over day. Therefore, I am going to be very busy. (I did not proof-read this post, apologies).