Adelboden and my home base.

I scouted out my little chalet after I arrived last night. We've got two main buildings for hanging out and eating in, a campsite and two little chalets (one just one room and an attic, real Swiss family [Robinson?] style) for guests, plus the staff house. I'll post pictures when I can get out in the daylight and take some.

So far, only one other new spring staff member is here. She's from Brazil and quite jetlagged, even though her time difference is only four hours to my nine. The rest should arrive late tonight, and we start work on Sunday. They haven't actually moved the winter crew out of the staff house yet, but we got to move in to our rooms last night. I had been looking forward to getting settled after living out of my backpack for a few days. So, here's my room. My bed is to the left in the L-shaped room, with cabinets built in behind the door, in that slice of the wall you can see at the lower left edge. I love all the light wood here, though it's odd that absolutely everything is the same color and construction style.

I went out with all the other staff members last night. We walked into town after a sort of flame-lit hazing. The Brazilian, whom I will henceforth refer to as Brazil, went to bed instead. The walk into town is about two miles from our little outpost, one down to the river and one back up the other side. It's pretty steep, but nothing I couldn't handle. We all got the standard and claimed the big corner table just as another group left. It was a great group. We have staff members from Brazil, England, Finland, Holland, Canada, Denmark, America, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, and Nigeria. We were joined by one of the Canadian's (Ontario) sister, two more twenty-somethings staying as guests (from Toronto, like the other Canadian), and a couple of staff members from another chalet from England and Ireland. The Finn, Brit, Nigerian, both Aussies, Dane, Dutch, and Swiss will all be around for at least a little while. It's been great living with such an international bunch already.

If you order a beer in town, you automatically get a large Cardinal. The other obvious option is a small one (but why would you get that?), though rumor has it they will actually serve you other beers if you ask for them by name. Other choices include some kind of weird tea drink with a German name and a Flying Hirsch (which is called a Jägerbomb in America). They do it with a mini bottle of Jägermeister instead of a shot of it, which means you have to have better aim. I stopped after the Cardinal, though, since I was still rather tired from traveling, and the Nigerian and I walked back around midnight. The others ventured on to a couple of clubs, eventually making it back to the chalet around four. Despite my early bedtime, I slept till noon, missing both breakfast and lunch. I didn't feel as tired today, so I must have needed the extra sleep.

The part of the day I was awake for was okay, just sort of hanging about and getting used to everyone. I helped out in the kitchen for a while because I didn't feel like hiking on my own before learning the area. We made a great curry and then some excellent fondue. I spent much of the evening chatting with a few women from England. They've been all over Europe, so they gave me some tips for my upcoming travels. Nigeria and I talked for a while about medical education, since she's also starting medical school in the fall, and Brazil and I started planning out our first trip.

I've got a couple days off right after training ends. I might just ski, but Brazil wants to get going on our travels. We'll see. It's been unseasonably warm the last two days, but we're due for a bunch of snow and then some cold sunshine soon. I'm psyched to get up higher on the mountain.