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 :)