Hey Everyone!

It has been a while! But I have been busy...So fortunately for you, two friday posts this time! Yay!

1. Last week I was lucky enough to be picked to go along with the white water rafting group! Every week on program one vollie gets to accompany whichever guests signed up to go white water rafting. It is during the Interlaken day, so we go see the chocolate show in the morning and then we quickly have lunch and then one group goes to see waterfalls, the other to rafting! I have been rafting once before in NC. It was with Girl Scouts of course! Now my water trips with Girl Scouts have sometimes left me wanting. For example when I was in sixth grade I went on a tubing trip down the James River in Virginia. Rather than the water doing all the work, I specifically remember having to paddle my way down the James. Not enjoyable. Though there were a few rapids we went down which was fun. Then the rafting trip I was talking about before in NC, was good, except a college student group of about 100 people accompanied us. Their boats kept getting stuck on rocks and we were almost always waiting on getting them unstuck, enjoyable but not as exciting. This rafting trip though, was perfect! Our guide seemed British, but I later found out he was born and raised, and owned his own rafting company in Uganda. In my boat there were a few swiss German guys there for a bachelor party, an English girl of 12 and her father. The rapids were great, the water was really cold. We got to practice rescuing each other out of the water. This was the first of the many adventures this girl and her father were about to do that week, the others include, but are not limited to, 1. sky diving 2. bungee jumping 3. paragliding 4. canyoning 6. ice climbing. I checked later that day, yep no age restrictions on any of this in Switzerland. No big deal. When we got back to the rafting place all the girls and leaders were telling my what a fabulous time they had and how great their guides had been. We got cheese and bread and a free drink when we got back. Really great I'll post a link to the place we use here in case y'all are ever in Switzerland.
http://alpinraft.ch/

2. That week I also got another chance at the adventure park! I did not do the pendulum swing like last time, but I have gotten pretty good at abseiling down from the bridge! This time because it was not raining we got to rock climb on real rock. I have to say after doing it both ways, I much prefer the real rock. This time after the girls had climbed for a bit I got Betsy (another vollie) to belay while I climbed. Rock climbing is an activity I could really see myself trying to do more of when I get home. Maybe get a pair of rock climbing shoes, they really help, and see what North Carolina has to offer! I have been to hanging rock to climb before (yep with Girl Scouts!). Which was a lot of fun. So I guess I will have to look into it more.

3. This week I got to climb up Bunderspitz! Again! Except this time instead of going during the day, I got to hike up there at night! There was only a girl from Northern Ireland and a mother and daughter from Washington. We normally take up to 18 girls up bunderspitz, but this time the interest was really low. That's okay though, it was better with a smaller group! We started the hike at 7:30 pm and stopped at a cheese hut at about 9:30 there we met a very cool atmosphere. There were several other hiking groups there having drinks. We settled in above were the cows stay, yes it smelled. Then we went back downstairs to have hot chocolate. Then to bed! For four hours... cause we got back up at two. When got up at two you cannot imagine the stars. They were so pretty it was incredible. After working at the Planetarium for so long my fascination with stars, planets, and space has really grown. So it was really great to see the stars so bright. Then we made our way up to the top of the peak, hiking until 6:00 am. Then we settled down to watch the sunrise right there. I ate toblerone mountains on a mountain. The sunrise was beautiful coming up a lot quicker than I imagined. Once we had our full of the sun we headed down to arrive back at the Chalet at 10:30.

4. This week I have been really working on my staff challenge! So I went swimming in a lake. A glacier lake! It was very cold, but also refreshing. I swam for a good while then got a cappuccino, then hiked to another lake, only entered up to my stomach couldn't take it so I didn't swim in that one. Oh well next time. Then I also before going up bundersptiz went to the local swimming pool in Adelboden. This pool is really really nice. It is also really really freeee! It had a trampoline that you jumped of into the water, as an alternative to a diving board. Which I was all over, I love diving boards! Then we just sat out by the pool, I read David Sedaris. It started to rain. So we had to go!

5. I had one more day off before my week of guest services. So me and Betsy went to a valley that was only open to the public around 1913. This was because it was really hard to get to the valley and the three towns until they started to build the rail way through the valley in 1903. The best part about this is that most of the houses and buildings look so different than the rest of Switzerland. They look older and more rudimentary. Another great aspect of this valley was that they have a festival and tradition that have to do with wooden masks. Now they put on a festival to scare non-locals once a year in February. It's great! I will put up some pictures and links below!!!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%B6tschental







6. Like I said this week I am on guest services! Pros: This American life podcast listening time, quite cleaning, afternoon breaks, giving tours. Cons: People, cooking, cleaning up after cooking, and getting up to fix breakfast. Like anything both pros and cons. It is teaching me a lot about how I think working in the hotel business would be. So that is cool.

7. So new developments for the year! I was talking to my roommate here, Alison, about how cool it would be to visit Our Chalet in the winter! All the snow the skiing! It would be a winter wonderland! So we started to look at programs for which we could attend. Then I skype with my friend Arlee, who has grown close with a girl from Manchester while at camp. Arlee says "I want to come visit you and Manchester in England". So I am like "I might go back to Our Chalet in the winter" Arlee "OMGIWANNAGOTOO!!" and I am like "OMGYESSSS!" so now I am scheduled to fly home from Zurich coming full circle this year!
http://www.ourchalet.ch/en/events/20828

8. This week I did the amazing! I finished a book! I started the book because the movie that the book is based off looks amazing, and I really want to see it. So to help with the impatience I decided to read the book and now it was AMAZING. The main character just had a great voice. There are a few things I would like the movie to do differently, the main girl was kinda whiny and annoying in the book so I  hope she is a more likable character in the movie and the ending was really open. But the main character, I don't know how they will do him justice. I think it will come all down to the acting and writing. It always does. I am really hopeful though because the guys who wrote 500 days of Summer also wrote this movie!! And the clips and trailers I have watched seem pretty good, links to both below!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wceaLzbtuDY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItJr9dtRon4

9. Today I went with Alison, and then last minute, one of the vollies friends who is visiting her while she is at Our Chalet had nothing to do, so he came along... Scootering!!!!!!!!! I know what you are thinking what do I mean by this. Well we took a gondola up a mountain, longest gondola ride evvverrr, and then at the top of this mountain we rented scooters and then we rode them all the way down! Multiple times!! It was so much fun, we rode into town and got ice cream and then kept taking the gondola up. Unfortunately I forgot my camera because the views were unbelievable. But there were a view photos captured and I will put those up here!




10. If you have been keeping up with my blog you know that I really miss watching movies. So me and Betsy have decided that we are going to an international film festival in Locano Switzerland, which is in the Italian part of Switzerland. Here is the movie we are going to see!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP562PeToBQ