Hey guys!

Here are the Saturday 10 points I promised!

1. Our first official guests for the summer was a Troop of girls from the Chicago area. My mom sometimes talks about the Chicago accent she ran into while at collage. However, I had no idea the accent was that strong until I heard some of these girls speak, whoa. If you don't know what I am talking about I would definitely YouTube Chicago accent. We had a really nice dinner for the first official day of summer season, raclette, which is an extremely famous Swiss dish. You take raclette cheese and use a raclette grill to cook both the cheese and the veggies/meat. Here is a pic to help explain:

Nice right?

The Chicago group was impressed anyway. Which was good because they were a great group of girls, very kind, respectful and helpful! They made all the staff bracelets and by the end asked to take a picture with us! They also were sporting the new Girl Scout tie which I am posting a link to cause I think it's so cool! 

http://www.girlscoutshop.com/OFFICIAL-SENIOR-AND-AMBASSADOR-SCARF

Yay! Girl Scouts is finally getting with the necker movement! 

2. Here in Switzerland, along with mountains, there are a ton of waterfalls! The couple I have been to have been really awesome because it is just starting to get warmer so a lot of the snow is melting off the alps and streaming off the mountains. I went with another vollie, Angie from Vancouver Canada, to one of the tallest waterfalls in Switzerland, Engstligen falls right here in our Valley! 

And here is a pic from when I went! 

As you can see it was very misty from all the water coming off the falls! 

Another famous falls I have visited are called the trummelbach falls. These are super cool because there are 10 of them falling from/off/and through the Mountain. You take a lift up to about waterfall 7 and walk the rest of the way up. Then you walk down, in and out of caves and looking at all the falls. Here are some pics! Not my pics, but some pictures I found on google images!

a

And finally the last fall that is famous that other vollies have gone to, not me yet, are the Reichenbach falls that Sherlock Homes falls off during his "final" battle with Moriarty in the books. He doesn't die supposedly in the books because Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brought Sherlock back to life because Doyle needed more money? That is the story I have been told before at least. Anyway there is a little Sherlock Museum and everything, it sounds really fun! 

3. Here at Our Chalet we have nightly programs during the week. A very popular one is called Swiss night. First Fritz, a very old Alpine horn player, comes and plays the alpine horn. Fritz is so old that he, as a boy, used to run errands for Falk. If you remember Falk was the first Center Manager for the first 20 years after the Chalet opened in 1932. An Alpine horn looks like: 

And here are the Vollies with Fritz! 

After Fritz plays his horn we listen to the Vogellisi a Swiss folk song that is sung by children all around Switzerland here it is: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA-nhE2heuo

It is about a girl named Lisa and because vogel means bird they believe Lisa had a pet bird that was always on her shoulder as she walked around. In the story all the village boys thought Lisa was so beautiful, so they wrote her a song. In the actual song it not only describes how beautiful Lisa is, but also the village of Adelboden and the Berner Oberland, which is the canton that Adelboden is in! Fritz told us that Lisa used to live behind the Chalet, but I don't know how much I believe him...

The girls then play Swiss jeopardy which is really just facts about Switzerland. The prize is....

Yum!

4. For a day program one of my favorites is the hike to the woodcarvers. The hike is not long and usually we repel in the morning. However, I personally really enjoy going into the woodcarvers shop and I especially, especially enjoy the cafe next door. The Woodcarvers is really just one room filled with wooden trinkets. It is geared toward the scouts and guides that visit so there is a lot of Our Chalet and Kandersteg themed items. It is all really expensive, but it is also all handmade. The whole family is in to the business. There is a mom, dad, and two brothers. They are all really nice, the mother a particularly good saleswomen. The cafe next door is not so much a cafe, but the woodcarvers neighbor who decided to take advantage of all the traffic the woodcarvers bring. Her coffee is so good, but her apple cake is TO DIE FOR! Oh my gosh, it's so good! 

5. Speaking of Kandersteg I know I have mentioned it before when I was writing about places Falk and Storrow were thinking of putting the Chalet, but on one of my days off I went and visited! As a reminder Kandersteg is where the Scout Center is. I am part of WAGGGS, the scout center is WOSM. Boy scouts are a part of WOSM, however around the world scouting is a lot more Co-ed. Anyway the scout center is HUGE! They can host for about 1200 people! At our fullest we can host 150 people. They also have a much larger staff which was cool because it was so diverse! Ours with ten though, is a bit more intimate. Their campsite is ginormous. Their valley is a lot different too, very flat with sharp cliffs. The boy who showed us around was from the UK. Apparently Kandersteg is the end all be all for UK scouts. We saw a few boy scouts from Florida too. It is a part of our staff challenge to hike to Kandersteg. We did not this time because of the snow, but maybe when we go to have our free meal and stay over? The staff from Kandersteg also can come to Our Chalet for free as part of the agreement. I would definitely go back, and would recommend it to anyone who is a scout!

6. On a different off day me and a few of the other vollies went to Gruyere. Yes this is where they make Gruyere cheese! We saw them making it and took a very informative tour about the Gruyere cheese making process. A cow was our tour guide through this listening tour we took around the factory. We also got to sample Gruyere cheese which was quite good. The way they make cheese is kinda weird because it is the curdles that are the cheese product. It takes a lot of time and the cheese must sit for a long time for it to be any good. We also went to a Castle which was quite pretty 

and the little town was very cute

But the Giger museum was very interesting, but creepy, but interesting. Giger is a Swiss artist who did all of the art design for the Aliens movies. His museum was so cool, but also very gruesome. Here are some of his pieces: (warned probably not for kids you do not want watching Aliens...)

https://www.google.com/search?q=giger+art&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS506US506&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=JGPPUa3TA-es4ASexoHYAg&biw=1366&bih=667&sei=J2PPUdv0KcX64QSVgoHAAw

BUT, the best part was the Nestle Chocolate factory. The tour was ok, but the all you can eat Chocolate section left all of us feeling sick. We tried to go around and sample all the different kinds of Chocolate pieces and we were not even half way around when I started to think that I would never eat Chocolate again. But I carried through and tried them all, felt sick the rest of the night, drank a lot of water and was fine the next morning! 

7. So I have already touched on a few of the Swiss food specialties. From what I have gathered there is a lot of cheese and chocolate. There is a lot of potatoes, and creme, coffee and dairy. The food is extremely heavy and is meant to warm you up. The Swiss invented fondue, and consume 59% of the Gruyere cheese they produce. The rest of the 41% is consumed by the rest of the world (America 10.3%). I have not eaten many meals out, a few pizzas which were good. What I have sampled most is ice cream and coffee. Cappuccinos are fantastic I highly recommend them! There are two things I have found that are cheap in Switzerland compared to back home: Gelato and Swiss arm knifes. The Gelato is fantastic, Swiss army knifes I have yet to try...

8. One of my favorite night programs is international night! This last event was girls from all over the US, so it was not that international. However, what made this event special was that their was a troop from NC! They were from High Point. I have only been to High Point either for soccer, or when I was younger I went against my will for *shutter* furniture shopping with my parents. Furniture shopping with my parents is a type of torture no child should be put through. They endless couches. The hours of discussion. The miles of fabric to choose from.The never ending indecision! It is a total nightmare.Whoever decided to put the furniture capital of the world so close to my house has a special place in hell. So my memories of high point may not be so fond. However, the girls were lovely and their leader reminded me scarily of my own girl scout leader. Two of the girls in the group were going to UNC in the fall and one leader had just graduated from State. It was nice to talk about NC barbecue and have someone know exactly what you were talking about! Felt like home :)

9. On my most recent off day I went to Luzern with two other vollies. The day did not start off well due to the fact that I was not four minutes away from the bus stop going to meet a bus that was coming in nine minutes when I realized I had left my wallet up at Our Chalet. Which was up a Mountain. At least a 15 minute walk up let alone back down again. So I just caught a later bus which was whatever, except we had not really made a meeting place in Luzern... But! We seemed to have telepathy because I found the other vollies straight away coming into Luzern. Luzern is very beautiful you just want to sit at a restaurant all day and stare at the water. That of course is not what we did because we had places to see, but if I had more time that is what I would have done. We went to the first Barque Church in Switzerland:

We visited an ice age museum and we walked along the historic district looking at shops and buildings! Finally we crossed the historic bridge that was built in like the 1300s and it was still pretty sturdy looking.

 

10. So I have talked a lot about what I have done. Now time to talk about the next plans! Me and another vollie have bought tickets to go to the eurockeennes festival in... Belfort FRANCE!!! Yay new country! There I will be seeing both Two Door Cinema Club and Phoenix!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!............... I am only a bit excited..... nope totally excited, can't wait!!!!So more on that front once I actually go to the festival. Speaking of which next week it will also be an update on Saturday because I will not be near my computer Friday because I will be jamming out to Two Door Cinema Club and Phoenix!!! yayayay! 

Have a great week everybody!!!

Hey Everyone!

So I know two weeks no post... so bad. But I will post a Saturday 10 tomorrow to make up for it, I promise!

Have a great weekend! and chapel hill people look out for those t-storms, and be safe!

The Bling Ring clip doesn't work... Here is one that does! (I think, if not there is always copy and paste)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkQrqwWr9zI

:) 

Hello all!

This has been a very intense week as we have been training for program. Here are my Friday Five!

1. One of the programs we offer is a trip to the adventure park. This is just your regular run of the mill high ropes and zip line courses that everyone should do at least once. I was first introduced to the idea at Earth Shine, a lodge in the NC Mountains that my family visited. Their high ropes and zip lines are very similar to the ones at this adventure park, however the one main huge difference being that while the instructors for the Earth Shine lodge always handled your equipment, here in Switzerland they believe that you can handle un-clipping a carabiner So we (and soon the girls) handle all of the getting on and off the zip lines while the instructors stay at either end of the course. Apparently law suits are not as big a thing in Switzerland as they are in the states. The most challenging bit I did was the pendulum swing off a bridge. I could describe it… but I think I will just give y’all a link to a video on YouTube:

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

2. On my day off me and a few other vollies visited Bern, the capital city of Switzerland. Bern is famous for fountains and Bears. There is literally a fountain on almost every street/corner of the city and you can (and I did) drink from them. Bern also has bears in the middle of the city. When I first heard this I thought statues of Bears, Bern means bear is German. BUT, no there are 3 live bears living in the city. They were a gift and they were also stolen and then returned at some point, I think by an animal rights group because their original pen was really small. Now they have a great pen right by the river. Two of the bears were wrestling in the water while we were there! Very exciting. There were also lots of shops and restaurants. We saw parliament, under construction like the rest of Bern, apparently they cannot do construction in winter, maybe all the snow? We saw where Einstein lived for a few years with his wife and two sons. He had a very dramatic life, much more so than I thought. He never knew one illegitimate daughter, renounced his German citizenship in his teens, and he eventually married his cousin.

3. On Friday we (the vollies) climbed Bunderspitz a very tall Mountain behind the Chalet. The hike up was long and at some point scary when the wind picked up near the very top. 8353.02 feet above sea level. However, the views were spectacular! On the way down was great because there were a lot of snow patches still. We all took out our water proof pants and slid down the patches like we were sledding. The vollie from Hong Kong had never seen snow before, but was sledding down this mountain like a pro! It was lots of fun, but by the end everyone's feet hurt and we were all ready for bed.

4. One of the things I miss most in the States is going to the movies. I know the movies are not the most fanciful of places however, especially in the summer when it is all hot outside, stepping into the cool movie theater to see a good show is one of the best things ever. Here in Adelboden there is a movies theater that I plan on going to on one of my days off. It mainly plays in German and French, but I am hoping that there will be a movie where they use subtitles rather than dubbing so that I can see one in English. The movie I really want to see that came out in the states recently was the Bling Ring. Here is a clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkQrqwWr9zI 

(Looks good right?!?) 

5. And finally I just want to tell my Dad, happy Father’s day! I know I kinda missed it by not writing this blog till Tuesday, but I was busy! Kinda. My dad is always super supportive, and he always brings me chocolate after being away on a trip. He helps with all sorts of problems whether these are life, computer, or decision. Though he won’t come visit me in Switzerland (part his dislike of travel, part someone has to stay home and comfort Lacey who misses me dearly) I am excited that next Father’s day I can be there to celebrate with my dad!

Have a great week everyone!

Hey Everyone!

So I am super tired tonight due to hiking up an ALP MOUNTAIN. It is called Bunderspitz if you would like to look it up. So my friday five will be more likely to come on Saturday.

but before I leave you I just wanna do a big shout out to Eliza Salkheld who turned 20 today!!! Happy Birthday Eliza! Hope the skys are blue for you in carolina :)))

Update tomorrow!

Hey guys!

So it has officially been about a week of me here in Switzerland! The time as flown as they say. At Our Chalet we have mainly been learning about guest services, however I have learned so much about Swiss culture, the background of Our Chalet, and the other guides in my group!  Here are my Friday five!

1. Before I went on this trip a lot of people have asked me what Our Chalet was. It was a hard question to answer because there are only 3 other places in the world like it. It is a girl guide and girl scout world center where anyone can come and stay. There are both day and evening programs which is what I will be helping with! Here are some links that might help:
The Our Chalet website: http://www.ourchalet.ch/en/home
The WAGGGS (world association of girl guides and girl scouts) website: http://www.wagggsworld.org/en/home
The other 3 places are the 3 other world centers Our Cabana, Sangam and Pax Lodge.

 First before this gets confusing let me explain that America has both boy scouts and girl scouts, however around the world there are girl guides (which are like girl scouts) and then scouts which is a co-ed program, and more like boy scouts.

So the history of Our Chalet is actually pretty interesting. In 1929 WAGGGS committee met in The Netherlands and decided that a world center should be built for Girl Guides and Scouts. Helen Storrow, an American Girl Scout, said she would donate the money for the construction and the first five years of operation of the center, on the condition that it was built is Switzerland. So she must have been super rich. The Committee agreed and appointed a Swiss Guide, Ida Von Herrenshwand, commonly referred to as Falk, to help Storrow find a spot for the Chalet.
Here are the places they looked at:
Grindelwald: (haha harry potter reference kinda)



but did not like the way the Chalet smelled like Cheese....

Kandersteg:








But the Scouts Center was already there (look up more pictures though, this town is amazing)

Storrow wanted to build the Chalet in Aeschi



But Falk wanted a more adventures site, higher altitude with better access to hiking and skiing etc.

So when the World Committee met again in 1930 in the UK, Falk told Lord Baden-Powell (creator of scouts) that she wanted to find a more adventures spot for girl guides. So Falk returned to Switzerland and found a hill near the town of Adelboden. Falk instantly fell in love with the place. Our Chalet was built and then opened in 1932, the first World Center of WAGGGS.


2. Okay that first post was a little long apologies. But I now want to talk about Recycling. They LOVE recycling in Switzerland. The main reason being that for every bag or bin you throw away here you are taxed a certain amount. For example if you were to fill up a glad normal sized white trash bag and throw it away it would be 25 Swiss Francs or about 27 dollars. Our Chalet has its own big garbage bin at the end of the drive way and is charged every time the bin is filled. Therefore Our Chalet tries to recycle everything. Used tissue? Paper recycling. Broken glass? Glass recycling. Aluminum foil? Metal Recycling. The only thing they don't recycle well is plastic. They only recycle PET bottles, but all other plastics go into the trash. Now, especially the American Vollies, were asking what prevents the Swiss from just throwing away their trash into public bins with out paying. They have certain trash bags with tax numbers on it to make sure they know whose trash it is. Okay yeah, but what if they use any old trash bag and throw it way in the public bins? Michael, the grounds maintenance guy explained, oh the Swiss just trust each other. You can tell this type of system would go so well in the US.....

3. We went on our first hike this week. It was called the magic tree house hike because of this really old tree vollies are supposed to climb up. The tree was great and everything, but  on the way to the tree we passed by several houses. Outside the house there are several signs with cartoon characters and children's names. For example I saw one that was a painting of Flounder (from Ariel) and then Emily written on it. They hang outside the houses right after the children are born and then stay there till the kids move out. Also we passed a house with a lot of cowbells hanging on the side. Our guide told us that these cowbells can go up to as much as 1500 dollars. This farmer looked like he had bout 15... Our guide said it was to show off the farmers wealth. Then we heard noises from the back of the house. Turns out the front is the house and the back is a barn. It is to keep the cows warm in the winter we were told. Ummm still don't think I would enjoy a barn at the back of my house....



4. On my day off yesterday me and four other vollies took a trip to Frutigen by bike. It was a long trip by bike, about two hours. Which I am pretty sure is the longest I have ever been on a bike... But it was great views. We were told the road was down hill the entire way, which was super not true. There was this one hill that felt strait up for like, forever. Now when your pushing a bike up a steep hill it is not the most fantastic thing. However, the down hill was terrifying, the last part you shot down and yeah there were fences, little barb fences made for keeping cattle off the road, not girls on bikes flying off the side of the mountain. So these fences along the path were really no comfort. I was on my brakes the entire way, unless I was pushing the bike up a hill. We parked our bikes in town (no bike locks of course) and then walked around for a bit. We took the bus back!

5. Finally we (the Our Chalet summer vollies) are kinda official because we are on the website!!! Check me and the other Vollies out!

http://www.ourchalet.ch/en/people/Staff

Have a great weekend everyone!!!