Feeling Lucky, Punk?

Armed with the answers we had found on the first part of our Geocache hunt yesterday, Karin and I tried to work out the final coordinates. We weren't sure where we were going wrong, but the coordinates we were getting didn't seem to be quite right. Yes, it was for a location in Adelboden, but it looked like the middle of a field. Regardless, we decided we would go have a look today, and on the way stop off at another cache location. Off we went and our first stop was to pay a visit to some goats and find out their birthday to solve the cache puzzle; we'll return to that one another day to find the last location.

Next we attempted to find the position that our coordinates had sent us, but as we'd expected there was nothing there. We decided to take a walk into town, going up a different path than usual. Now, we had a clue for the cache which was "stone wall" and logically we also thought it wouldn't be too far away from where we'd solved our last clue. So, when walking along the path to town through the trees, alongside a stone wall, I jokingly said it might be in there somewhere. We'd been walking no more than a minute or so when Karin suddenly runs to the wall and says, "I've found it!". I seriously thought she was joking, but no! There it was! That girl is a cache-machine! Hahaha.

There was more luck to be had in town. Stopping at the co-op, I happened to be browsing by the the iced tea shelves, when what should my eye spy? ARIZONA ICED TEA! Unbelievable. Now if you know me, you might know how much I love the stuff. I thought you could only buy it in America, yet here it is in the Adelboden co-op! There were only 3 flavours though; but one of them happened to be my favourite.

Astounded by the luck of the day, Karin and I decided to treat ourselves to some tasty cinnamon ice cream cones from the cart outside, and then we contentedly walked back to the Chalet.

Hiding Places

Yesterday was a lot of fun! It was our 'Staff Hike Adventure Day', and Katie and Rihanna took us Vollies up to Engstligen to try out some cross-country skiing. Never having tried this before, I was very eager to learn. After some initial stumbling about, getting used to the longer narrower skis, and running along the grooves on the track, I picked it up quite quickly. To me, it felt similar to ice skating. I still fell over a couple of times, but had good fun doing it! The sun was out and strong that day, and despite having suncream on, nearly all of us got burnt. Ouch! I was no exception and now I'm looking a little red and sore! :(

Back at the Chalet that evening, we were surprised to learn that a little Easter Egg hunt had been set up for us! We were given a collection of photos showing the locations where the little chocolate eggs were hidden, but they were very close up and it was difficult to tell where anything was. We had great fun running all over the buildings searching, and we did eventually find them all (and then eat them).

To follow that craziness, we then decided to play a game of sardines in the dark in Main Chalet (since there are no guests at the moment). Sardines is like hide and seek, but only one person hides and everyone else searches. If you find the hider, you have to join them in their hiding place! Main chalet is pretty big, and there are lots of beds and cupboards and other places to check, and it's also very spooky in the dark. Stef had one of the best hiding places; in the old fireplace. It took everyone ages to find her!

Today I was off with Karin and Putri. Karin had told us all about 'Geocaching', an activity that she does at home. To find out what it is go read this. She explained that there was a cache hidden at Our Chalet, and it sounded like a fun little treasure hunt, so we both went along to help her search. Sure enough, after a bit of looking we found it! The satisfaction of discovering this box that someone else had hidden was pretty cool, and I knew I was now a fan of the sport! Eager to find another one, Karin and I set off into town on the trail of another cache hidden in Adelboden. This one was a bit more complex, as we had to find answers within the town by visiting certain locations, in order to work out the final coordinates of the cache. All we were able to do that afternoon was collect the answers (such as: what date was this sculpture created?) and bring them back to work out the final location...

But first! Putri, Stef and I got a good night's sleep by spending the night in the eaves of Main Chalet - yet another of our staff challenge missions.

Icing on the Cake

The big clean-up commenced today as our weekend guests had departed. After stripping beds, cleaning guest rooms and polishing glass doors all morning, I went to the kitchen as I was in charge of preparing lunch. I decided to spice up the reheated bolognese by turning it into chilli, and I also transformed last night's leftover boiled potatoes into a yummy potato salad. Genius.
The afternoon was fairly quiet as we'd finished our jobs, so I had a little nap. Eve was cooking on her own that night, as part of her staff challenge, so she made us her special dish of tuna pasta surprise, and indeed we were very pleasantly surprised that the sauce made up of tuna, ketchup, mayo and bbq sauce could taste so good! Even more exciting, was that she'd made pancakes and ice cream floats for dessert. Tomorrow is Stef's turn to cook alone, and it's Indian food so I can't wait. I need to decide what meal I can cook for everyone...

Spent the evening practising the Single Ladies dance with Stef again, with Eve watching over us as official director. We revised the first part that we'd learned the other night - again and again and again. It looks much better now. That's a third of the dance learned, so lots more to go. We're determined to master this. Maybe there will be a video in future if you're lucky!

Finally, to end the day, we iced Stef's 'Black Magic Cake' in preparation for her meal tomorrow. I was very happy to help out with this, as it meant I got to eat the leftover icing on the spoon. I'm stealing the recipe from her because it tastes amazing!

Feiern wir! (Let's Party!)

So we didn't end up going out on Friday night as everyone was really tired, but instead we hung out in the living room with a drink or two, and then Stef and I decided we were going to learn the routine to the 'Single Ladies' dance! It is very fast and quite tricky, but we made a good start thanks to a tutorial video we found online. Maybe after a few weeks practice we'll look like professionals!

On Saturday, I was on Guest Services with Karin whilst everyone else was running Programme activities with the Girl Scouts Overseas group we had staying. The girls were all ages, from very cute Daisies (Rainbows!) up to 14 year old Guides.
After working very hard all morning, Karin and I were in for a treat. The Chalet had been given a free ski pass for being loyal customers of a local company (or something like that), but it had to be used that very day. Soooo they gave the pass to the two of us, to go spend the afternoon skiing! There was only one pass, so we purchased a second and split the cost; a brilliant deal if you ask me. We took the cable car up Tchentenalp, and spent a few hours zooming down the blue and red runs. Well, I say blue and red, but I spent most of my time on the blue. I worked on improving my technique as I've been stuck in the stage of taking corners in a 'V' shape; which doesn't look very cool, and also puts a lot of stress on my ankle and leg muscles, tiring me quickly. It was a bit awkward at first, but I started to get the hang of keeping my skis parallel on the corners, and definite progress was made! At end of all my effort, and before we headed back down the mountain on the cable car, I skied one last slope with Karin, taking on one of the red runs. YAY!

We returned to work for the evening and made dinner, then later on some of us headed out to town for a rescheduled night out at Bernabar. Putri, Stef and I had a good night making friends with locals and laughing with them at some of the sentences in my German phrase book that I took along!! Can anyone tell me what "Der Wind könnte mir die Ohren wegblasen!" means?? :D

On Sunday morning I was on Programme, which involved me playing games with some of the Daisies and then setting them off on a Scavenger hunt around the Chalet grounds. The girls really enjoyed it.
It was the last working day of our wonderful kitchen co-ordinator Jenny, so that evening, we christened the new fondue sets we got last week. It was alright, but I can't say I'm a huge fan of fondue as the cheese tastes a bit too strong for my liking. Dessert was much better though, as we had a lovely honey and almond cream cake!
I'll really miss Jenny; now we have a week or so before our new co-ordinator arrives, which means Vollies in charge! Uhoh, haha.
After a quick Skype with my gorgeous friend Katie, then my parents and Duncan, we had a wee games night in Stöckli. We played Cranium, which I think is fast becoming a favourite of ours. My team won!!

Birthday Girl

Today is my birthday!! I had the day off, so the morning began by having breakfast with Duncan on Skype. Found and bought some Crunchy Nut cereal in the Co-op yesterday; it's my alltime favourite cereal ever so I was very happy to have that for my tasty birthday breakfast.
After lunch, Putri and I walked to Boden, me with my snowboard and her with her skis. We went to the baby slope over there and spent the afternoon sliding/falling down the hill. The sun was very warm and the snow is starting to get pretty slushy, so not ideal practising conditions. We still had lots of fun though!
Back at the chalet for dinner, we had a delicious BBQ outside in last of the evening sun. Then the girls brought out my beautiful cake and sang 'Happy Birthday' to me in no less than seven different languages: english, spanish, swedish, mandarin, japanese, german, hindi; Wow!
The plan for this evening is to head into town for a drink together at one of the bars. Looking forward to it!

Swimsuit Angels

Last night the Vollies went a bit crazy. In order to earn more points for our staff challenge we decided to don our swimsuits and rush out into the snow to make snow angels! Yes, you heard me right: our swimsuits. It was hilarious, there's no doubt about that, but it was freeeeeeezing on the skin! It didn't take long to warm up afterwards though, and I'm glad we had that moment of madness. Great memories being made here!

Had the day off with Karin and Carly today, so we went skiing on Silleren. Katie knows the runs well, so she came with us and showed us the good places to ski. There were lots of challenging and diverse trails to follow. I was the least experienced skier there, which made it difficult for me to keep up at times, but I tried my best and by the end of the day I'd managed a few red runs, including one particularly steep one. The views were breathtaking up there; skiing amongst the mountain tops and evergreen trees, with blue skies above. Just awesome. It was a really good day.

In the evening, Carly left as she's heading back to the states for a few days to attend a wedding. We won't see her for almost a week!

Midnight Toboggans

Last night there was fresh snowfall, so Stef and I decided to use the opportunity to tick off another part of our staff challenges! At midnight, we got the toboggans out and set off on the steep walk up to the top of Holiebeweg (the street which Our Chalet is on). It's a long road, and it took us about 20 minutes to reach the top. Excited to begin our descent, we hopped onto our toboganns and pushed off.......but we didn't budge! The snow was so fresh and fluffy that the toboganns didn't slide through it, they just stuck. Undeterred, Stef and I formulated a new plan. One of us would sit on the toboggan, while the other pulled it along the road! "Mush!"
It worked!! It was really fun too, and we took turns in the role of the husky dog!

St. Patrick's Day

Ah, St. Patrick's Day! The day commenced with the usual Guest Services tasks of laundry, common areas and bathrooms, and then kitchen duties. We made Sweet and Sour Chicken for dinner, but as the Seminar events ran late, we ended up waiting in the kitchen with nothing to do for a while....SO we invented a game of Toss the Tape, where we threw a roll of masking tape to each other. Some of us were better at this than others, and we even progressed to one-handed catches 'cause we are just that good. We were getting very into it and laughing quite a bit - until Katie came through to ask us if we could keep it down as they were watching a serious video next door but they could all hear us laughing!! Whoops! Haha!
Instead of throwing tape, we did some quiet Zumba, now known as Shhhumba. We sure know how to pass the time in style! ;)

That evening, as it was St. Paddy's, a lot of the Helen Storrow partipants (Including 2 Irish girls adorned in crazy hats and flags) and most of us Vollies went for a moonlit hike into town to go to Bernabar - Adelboden's most jumpin' nightspot. When we got there it was basically empty, but that didn't bother us as we were about 20 people strong and we'd brought the party with us! We had a great night dancing together, and in fact the bar became very busy later on. It was a good chance to get to know some of the participants - who are from all over the world - as we don't get to spend much time with them other than at meals. I imagine I'll be back at Bernabar again sometime, it was a lot of fun!

Walking Uphill

Oh nooo. I'm falling behind with my blog posts. Lets catch up!
So... On Tuesday I had another day off, and as I'd been very busy travelling all the way to Germany the day before, I decided to take it easy. After a wonderful lie-in, watching Pocahontas and some lunch, Carly and I began the trek into town. We had to go all the way down the hill to the bottom of the valley, and then all the way back up the other side on one of the steepest paths I have ever walked on in my life!! We had to stop for several breaks, it was that strenuous! Still, it was a glorious day to be outside. We've been having some amazing weather here. It feels more like summer than spring, but yet there is still a lot of snow around. I imagine it won't last long if the temperature continues like this though. I'm in two minds about that - on one hand, I love the snow and want it to stick around so I can play in it some more, but on the other side I love the sunshine a lot! Oh well, I'm being spoilt with the best of both worlds at the moment.
So, in town Carly and I explored some of the shops and the local church; which was very beautiful and peaceful inside, such stunning stained glass windows; and we climbed the fountain in town for a photo (This is another mission on our Staff Challenge).

Before we headed back we stopped by one of the little taverns in the town as well, so that I could have a look for a certain beverage that I discovered a few years previously in Switzerland and have never been able to find in the UK. They had it! It's named 'Eve' and it's delicious. I introduced Carly to it, and she was also won over.

The past few days I have been working hard doing Guest Services. There has been a lot of cleaning, laundry folding, washing up and cooking.

Everyday after lunch clean-up, I have just over an hour of free time, so I've been taking the snowboard up to Baby Chalet hill and practising my boarding. I've watched a few YouTube videos on how to snowboard as there is nobody here who can teach me, and I think I'm doing okay. Learning isn't exactly a speedy process, but slowly I think I'm getting more confident. There is still a lot of falling down involved, but I'm enjoying it and I'm really determined to get better. Snowboarding is something I've always wanted to be able to do.

Visiting Germany

So on Saturday and Sunday I was a busy bee as there was plenty of work to be done! I quite like doing the housework if I've got my iPod on; Saturday I mopped while listened to songs beginning with 'A', and yesterday I hoovered to Fleetwood Mac. It makes it much more fun! There were other jobs, like setting up bedrooms for the Helen Storrow seminar participants who will be arriving on Tuesday. Also, on Saturday I helped lead a Snowshoe Hike with some of the Centre Team guests to the Magic Tree, finishing at Baby Chalet where the guests had Gluvine (mulled wine) and snacks. In the evening, after dinner, a lady named Diane gave us all a talk about Helen Storrow and Juliette Gordon Low. She told us the fascinating story of how Juliette Gordon Low came to be living in England, how she met Lord Baden-Powell and went on to found Girl Scouts USA. During the evening, us Spring Vollies were finally presented with our official staff neckies. This was an exciting moment for us that we'd all been waiting impatiently for!
The 12th March 2012 is the official 100th birthday of Girl Scouts USA - we had our UK centenary in 2010 - which is why on Sunday we had a special 'Scouts Own' evening which Stef put together to mark the event.



Today I had a day off, and together with Carly and Karin, we went with the Grounds Assistant, Christoph, all the way up to Germany! He likes to go shopping for certain things over the border as it's a lot cheaper there, and so we went along for the ride. We drove through into the southern part of the Black Forest (The setting of Grimm fairytales like Hansel and Gretel) and went to Titisee in Baden-Württemberg. We walked down by the lake there, and looked through the souvenir shops at cuckoo clocks and lederhosen-wearing teddy bears.

Then we found a cafe and had lunch outside in the sun, each ordering something traditionally German. Carly went for Schnitzel, Karin had German Sausage, and I chose Spaetzle with pork and a mushroom sauce. For dessert, as we were in the Black Forest, we ordered a few slices of Black Forest Gateaux! Nomnomnom.

Next it was time for some shopping, so off we went to Lydl. Us girls stocked up on cheap chocolate and helped Christoph find meat and food for the barbecue we were planning to have later on. Not content with our shop at Lydl, we then drove 15 minutes over the Rhine river and across the border into France to another supermarket to get a few more things, including a "cheap sheep" for Karin. Although spending your time in foreign supermarkets doesn't sound like a lot of fun, it kind of was! There was a lot of laughing :) Plus, we saw a chariot of leeks and got to drive through French countryside and see pastel coloured houses and the sun setting behind the mountains in the south. Pretty.

It took a few hours to drive all the way back to Adelboden, and it was about 9.30pm when we arrived. Obviously we were planning to have our barbecue (Really late I know!) so we quickly unloaded the food and went on up to the campfire area to get a fire going. We sizzled some sausages, steak and some spaetzle over the fire. It took a while, but I told a ghost story while it cooked and when it was eventually ready it was worth the wait it as it tasted so good!! All in all, it was a really cool day.

Cat Fights and Cakes

This morning at 6.45am I woke up and heard a strange sound coming from outside... It sounded like an angry cat, and I tried to ignore it at first but it was unrelenting. Eventually I opened my curtain and peered bleary-eyed out of the window, to see a ginger cat and a black cat down below. They were squaring up to each other in the snow, eye to eye. Every so often they would pounce at each other snarling, yowling and scratching in a blur of fur!! I opened the window and tried to shoo them, but they weren't interested in anything but their fight. I gave up and got up for my shower instead. When Stef and I went over to Main Chalet at 7.30am to set up breakfast, the cats were gone, but there was black fur all over the snow at the scene of the crime. Crazy cats.

With breakfast done, we received our Guest Services tasks for the day at morning meeting and so began our first day on the rota. I tidied the T-Bar, mopped all the floors in both Spycher and Main chalet, as well as cleaning some of the windows and folding some laundry. After lunch, Eve and I loaded all the wheelie bins into the back of the van and went with Christoph to the recycling centre in Adelboden town. It was kind of fun tipping the different types of rubbish into the huge containers, and we learned some new Swiss-German words...*ahem* Rot=Red, Spraydosen=Aerosol cans, Electroschott-Scrap metal, Kleider und schuche-Clothes and shoes!
As a special treat later on, we had an Afternoon Tea together with the World Centre team taking a break from their meeting. There was tea and two types of cake; chocolate with a wild berry filling and chocolatey frosting, and a vanilla sponge with strawberry and cream filling. Mmmmmmmmmmmm! They were delicious! I might have had a slice of both... ;) They were baked by Jenny, and beautifully decorated by Putri and Sammie. Well done girls!
The team went back to their meeting leaving us Vollies to clear up, and then, as we had finished all our housework tasks for the day, a few of us decided to take on another of the special staff challenges: 'Climb around a table'. The aim is to start on top of the table, climb all the way under and up again from the other side, without touching the floor. Easier said than done! Always eager to meet a challenge, I'm proud to say I managed the feat first time! OH YEAH! Putri took a video as we need to show proof to a long-term staff member to get it signed off. As soon as she puts it online, I will add the video to this post so you can all enjoy a good laugh at me! :)

Training... Done!

Woke to find a blizzard going on outside! I guess it will be a little while longer until Spring really arrives, not that I mind having lots of new snow to play in! Today marked the end of our training at last. Our final lessons were in Guest Services, and we began with some grounds maintenance with Christoph.... so out we went into the still falling snow and tried to shovel snow off the pathways. the best part was learning how to drive 'Boris', the little snowplough we have onsite. Returning to the warmth of the indoors for lunch was a relief though, and Eve and I had a great time after the meal clearing up and washing dishes with the Moulin Rouge soundtrack playing in the kitchen! We are inspired to change the lyrics of the songs to make Our Chalet 'The Musical'! We've already got some brilliant ideas so watch this space!
Afternoon, we had a session in office training with Suzanne and then a talk about WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) with our World Centre manager Sally.
At dinner some interesting guests arrived, as there will be a World Centre Team meeting over the next few days. I had a nice chat with Sally Elkes, the World Centres Director, who oversees all four (soon to be five!) Guiding World Centres.
After dinner we had a free evening and as we were all pretty shattered, we stayed in Stockli and had a girlie movie night. We watched the movie that I have named my blog for!

No picture for today, but look how pretty the Chalet is!

Frozen Falls

Today we went on our first hike. Katie went over hiking protocol, equipment checks, route cards and all the things we need to be able to explain to the guests. Ready for anything in our waterproofs, sturdy boots, woolly hats and a packed lunch, off we went to the frozen Engstligen Falls. It was a beautiful day and the walk itself was very pretty, following a half frozen river with snowy scenery all around. Occasionally we saw a cross-country skier, although the funniest encounter we had was a group of youths strutting 'coolly' down the alpine pathway, one of them carrying an iPod speaker system which was blasting out some dance beats. Woah...

A two hour walk later, we reached the falls and climbed up onto a big boulder to eat lunch. The falls looked gorgeous; half frozen and water spilling down over the ice.

After lunch we backtracked to the cable car station, and took a ride on it high up to the top of Engstligen. There were a lot of ski runs up there, but we were headed to the snow tubing runs. Rhianna explained how to do it, and then we all grabbed ourselves a tube and got ourselves clipped on to the line that would pull us to the top of the hill. We had a ticket for two runs, and there were four routes to choose from. On Rihanna's advice, most of us chose the supposedly calmer route for our first tubing experience. NONE of them are in any way calm!! You pick up so much speed and you zoom right up the embankments every time you take a corner!! Pretty scary stuff. On my second go, I braved the wildest and twistiest route. Bad idea. I ended up falling out of my tube on a particularly steep bend - fortunately I had a helmet on or it might have really hurt. I ended up having a third go as Eve very kindly lent me the 2CHF for the run. This time I went down the straight route. Although it is straight, that doesn't make it any less scary because if anything you pick up even more speed going down! Three times was definitely enough for me.

Just before we got the cable car back down, we had a look inside the Igloo-Fondu restaurant. It was very pretty inside the igloo, with roses frozen inside polished blocks of ice, and tables set with fake animal furs on the seats, but it absolutely reeked of cheese!!
Very tired after the long walk back, we (particularly Eve and I) were overjoyed to be greeted on our return with a hot dinner of Cottage Pie. Total comfort food!
That evening we practiced the crafts on offer to guests on Craft Nights. There was wood burning, woggle making, Scherensnitte (traditional Swiss paper cutting) and snowflake/flower making. I was so tired by this point I could hardly keep my eyes open. Extremely glad to finally go to bed.

Magic Trees and Igloos

This morning we commenced a full day of Programme training - and what better way to learn than to do! First up I set off with the group on my very first Snowshoe Hike. It took a minute of two to get used to the feel of walking in the shoes but then it was fairly easy, and a whole lot of fun! We hiked over to the Magic Tree, which is a 500 year old tree that's now all hollowed out inside. You climb inside the tree and make a wish. A few of us even scrambled up the inside of the tree to get up among the branches. We then continued on through the forest and down the hill to get back to the Chalet. It's official: I really love snowshoeing! It's a much more effective way of walking over deep snow, my feet have disappeared through it countless times already, so I know!

(L-R) Eve, Karin, Rachael, Putri, Stef, Carly
After a rest and some lunch we went right back out into the snow, this time with buckets in hand and waterproof gloves on, ready for a lesson in Igloo Building! We picked our spot, drew out a circle and off we went. I took up the role of sitting on the inside of the igloo as we built it, so that I could plug all the gaps and strengthen the sides as we made the roof right over my head. After an hour of determined hard work, our beautiful igloo was complete! There was just enough space that we managed to squeeze FIVE of us inside at once; it was like a crazy game of Twister in there, with legs and arms everywhere!

Proud of our building work, we took a well earned break in the sunshine and made ourselves some yummy snowcones. First scoop some fresh snow into a cup, drizzle over cordial of your choice of flavour (Mine was lemon!) et voila! Your very own delicious icy treat! Mine tasted like a really, really nice lemon sorbet.
Refreshed and ready for our next slice of Programme action, we all grabbed a different kind of sledge and took them to Baby Chalet hill to give them all a go. We'd already tried most of them a few days earlier, but that didn't mean we weren't keen for another go!

At dinner we laughed A LOT; when comparing some of the different meanings for words in the UK and America; and when Eve did a wonderful impression of a football manager shouting at the side of the pitch!! Actually nearly cried with laughter. That evening we learned how to give the official Our Chalet guest tour. The best part of this was the bomb shelter room....but that's top secret. ;)

Moving House and a Day Off

My first day off began as it should: with a lie in of course! At 9.30am I got up and had a nice shower without having to rush, and then I was able to dress in my own clothes!!! YAY! It was awesome. Then I got some breakfast with everyone before returning to the attic room to pack up all my stuff and move home across to Stockli. It took me 2 journeys and then I was very content to start unpacking and settling in immediately. Now my room feels like a proper bedroom; I have photos on the wall, a desk, a chest of drawers for my clothes and even a lovely snuggly pink blanket on my bed. The staff house is so nice. There's a kitchenette, nice bathrooms with great showers (very important), and a small living room area with a tv, and a bookcase full of books and dvds that have been left behind by previous vollies who stayed here. In the hallway there is a magic cupboard, and in the magic cupboard is every toiletry you might possibly need: collections of sun cream, shampoo, moisturiser, bug spray, cotton wool etc. again, all left behind by past staff. Brilliant! I can really feel at home now.

Once unpacked and changed into our ski gear, our next move was to grab our skis and start walking over to the village of Boden, about a half hour walk away. There we found the baby ski slope, which we had decided to visit today so that we could teach the newbie skiers a little, as well as have a bit of a ski ourselves. Stefanie and I taught Eve, whilst Carly helped Putri. Karin knew a bit already so she set off to practice alone. Sammi was out on her snowboard again, and when she took a break I had another little run on it, just from a quarter of a way up the hill. I did okay, though I did take my first fall and landed right on my bum which really hurt! After doing that for a while, I returned to skiing for the rest of the afternoon. As if my legs weren't tired enough, we then had to walk all the way back to the Chalet, carrying our skis again and this time uphill. Yowch. We made it back in the end though and sat down for a nice cup of tea and a rest. :)
We had thought of going into Adelboden town in the evening after dinner, to check it out and maybe visit the pub for a drink, but we were way too tired after our active day. Instead I'm sitting writing this blog in my new bedroom with my slippers on mmmm. :)

Sledges and Snowboards

This morning our training was on the cleaning of bathrooms and common areas. First we went around the chalets to collect the recycling and rubbish. The Chalet is very big on recycling and so there are different receptacles for paper, metal, glass, PET plastic and other rubbish. Next up was the bit everyone was looking forward to - bathrooms! I'm glad to say that I already know how to clean a sink, a toilet and a shower, so for me it was more just learning which chemicals and cloths were for each task, and where to get them. After being shown how, it was then up to us to clean ALL the bathrooms in both chalets. This didn't take too long thankfully as there are quite a few of us. Then to finish off we hoovered and mopped all the non-wooden floors in both buildings.

After lunch we had about an hour and a half free before our next training session, so we decided to make the most of it by putting on our snow gear and getting out the sledges! We took them to the little hill by Baby chalet and had a wild time zooming down it! Sammie had brought the snowboard with her, and after she's had a few goes she agreed to let me try it out and give me a bit of help. We swapped boots and excitedly I got strapped in, and then with her help I went down the hill a couple of times, and I don't think I did too badly. Unfortunately as the snow wasn't very compacted I kept boarding down into the snow and getting stuck. I think on a suitable slope I could get the hang of it though!

After all the fun, we changed into dry clothes and met up with Koka to find out which rooms we would have over in Stockli, the staff chalet. Up until this point we've all been together in the attic bedroom of Spycher chalet, but now we will be moving to our more permanent accomodation. To make it fair we each threw a big foam dice and the number it landed on corresponded to our bedroom. We then went over to Stockli for the first time to check out our new rooms! After a bit of discussion, a couple of us agreed to switching rooms. I am very pleased to be sharing a very cute and spacious room with Eve. I cannot wait to move in tomorrow and finally be able to unpack my big suitcase.
Next up we headed to the kitchen for some further training with Jenny. We watched a video made by some previous vollies about proper kitchen procedures, and then we made ourselves very familiar with where everything in the kitchen lives, from where to find the garlic crusher to the home of the carrots. We then had a pop quiz on all our new knowledge and won a piece of Toblerone for every correct answer. Lots of fun!
Fish and chips for dinner. A taste of home! Except....there was no vinegar available? Sad times, but it still tasted great. I even tried out the fried Calamari and quite enjoyed it. Interesting conversations over dinner about Japan with Eve, and talks about travel and holidays with Jenny.
That evening we had free time so we all went over to Stockli to watch a movie with Sammie. In the mood for a feelgood chickflick, we settled on 27 Dresses. I've seen it before but it's a good wee movie and it was a nice way to relax.
Tomorrow is our first day off and we're thinking of going to the slopes to use our new skis... hope the weather's nice!

Through The Oven We Go

This morning we learned all about the activities on offer around Adelboden and Switzerland. There is a huge variety of cool things to do, from skiing to canyoning and cheese-tasting! I hope I have the time and money to try some of these amazing things whilst I am here. We also watched some funny videos that previous Vollies had made in the past.
Next we learned about Programme, which is the activities that we will be running for our guests. There are many hikes and other fun activities like Igloo Building, Snow Shoeing and trips to the Woodcarver. We were taught how to use the Duty Phone - a mobile we are assigned to carry overnight in case a guest needs to call in a crisis. Feeling pretty comfortable with all the information, we were suddenly put to the test when the duty phone began to ring right there on the table. I bravely picked it up and answered it and found myself talking to a 'Guider' (Clearly someone in the office upstairs!!) who had arrived to check in very late and although they had missed dinner her guides were very hungry and wanted food! She was very insistent about wanting the food and I really didn't know what to say! It was pretty funny and all part of the learning exercise. This was followed by a session on Health and Safety around the Chalet, and we received our own personal first aid kits. All was calm... until Koka burst into the room to say there was "an injured girl outside in the snow"! So we all rushed out and found Cat laying on the pathway in full Ski gear moaning about feeling dizzy and sick. We tried to act out how we would respond to this situation. It was a really fun method of learning! Later on Cat 'fell down the stairs' too, and we had to help again!

After lunch, Christoph took all the vollies into town to visit the Ski Hire shop. Cue a lot of excitement on my part! We were kitted out with our own ski equipment to use during our time here! I now have pretty white boots and skis, and I just can't wait to get out on them! I did consider whether to get a snowboard instead as I really want to learn, but when I heard there was a board that lives at the chalet, I decided I could have a go on that and then still have the option of doing more difficult ski runs if I chose skis.
For dinner we had a very interesting Swiss meal called Raclette that I have never heard of before. It involved a griddle which sat on the table where you both melted your cheese and grilled your choice of veg and meat, before mixing them all together and adding some seasoning. It was tasty!

One of the things staff are encouraged to do whilst here is complete the 'Staff Challenge'. This involves a list of challenges which range in difficulty and sometimes silliness, and you earn a certain amount of points for each one you manage to do. The aim is to earn yourself a total of 80 points! All the Spring Vollies are keen to do this, and so we decided to tackle one of the easier missions after dinner: "Climb through the oven and write a poem about it".
The oven is an old (And importantly, no longer used!!) oven set into the wall, which goes right through from the kitchen to the room behind. It's very narrow but all of us managed to squeeze our way through to the other side. It was a hilarious sight! I went twice and managed to go head first and then feet first. Here is my wonderful poem:

Ode to the Oven
Oh, oven of yester year,
Of your dark insides I had no fear,
Although you are of slimfit size,
I managed to squeeze through my thighs,
I went head first and then first, feet,
I tackled the challenge,
And you I did beat!

Wonderful I know! Finally for the evening, we played/learned the WAGGGS wide game which we play on WAGGGS Night with guests. All in all, a pretty great day. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

PS. Happy anniversary Duncan :)

Chalet Life Begins

So this is a catch up of my first few days...
Thursday 1st March
On our first day we began with an Opening Ceremony, under a glorious blue sky and surrounded by the most breathtaking mountain scenery. We all wore our own national Guiding uniform, and were given our country's flag to place in the centre of our circle around the flagpole. Putri and I were asked to do the flag raising, as we were the first and last to arrive at the Chalet.



Us 'vollies' began our training that morning by spending time getting to know each other and the rest of the staff with some games. We were also given the grand tour of the chalets and the grounds by the lovely Sammie.
A little later we received our uniforms: a fetching navy polo shirt and a cosy gilet. We will earn our red staff neckies eventually, but we have to complete our training first! After dinner that evening, we were shown how to use 'Wendy' (The dishwasher - all the appliances at the Chalet have names, y'see.) and set about cleaning and drying what I'm certain will be the first of many dishes over the next few months!

(L-R) Karin, Eve, Stefanie, Rachael
Friday 2nd March
On our second day we learned all about the Laundry Room, how to work the machines and fold all the different sheets and towels etc. Then we were shown the guest rooms and shown how to clean and reset them correctly. All very exciting! Then we were set loose and given several rooms to clean and set up. I worked on the rooms in the Spycher chalet and we got on fine. I had good fun teaching Putri the 'sheet ghost' method of putting a duvet cover on! I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about!
At lunchtime, there was a real treat to reward us for our hardwork, as Jenny our kitchen coordinator had baked the most delicious banana bread! Mmmmm.
After lunch we were split into teams and given the task of creating a way to protect an egg when thrown from the top window of main chalet. My team named our egg Anita, and Eve drew her a very lovely face. We built a house from cardboard, wrapped the egg in bubble wrap and suspended the egg in the middle of the box using elastic bands. Carly made a parachute from a bin bag. The moment of truth arrived and we took our precious eggs to the top of the building and held them out of the window, with Katie looking on from below to judge our efforts. GO! We released Anita and to our amazement, the parachute worked perfectly and the egg floated safely down in her box! Totally unharmed! The other team's egg sadly didn't fare so well.

We spent a lot more time with Jenny that afternoon, as we began our training in the kitchen. As dinner approached, I agreed to take the lead for the cooking of that evening's meal - Spaghetti Bolognese (A recipe I am particularly familiar with!). All the vollies helped and together we made some pretty yummy Spag Bol and garlic bread, which everyone at dinner seemed to enjoy...even if a little too much pepper did get spilled into the pot! :)