Day to day.

I haven't given the best picture of what it is I do, I suppose. I'm actually signed up to work odd jobs at a chalet. I help the guests out, give tours of the place, since it was built in 1932 and has some interesting quirks, and pitch in around the house. Sometimes this means I have to help with laundry, though that's easy because they have an industrial washer & dryer and there aren't that many guests anyway. Sometimes I get to cook dessert. I made a pan of bread & butter pudding today, for example. Whenever I can, I take the outdoor tasks. I sort the recycling, shovel snow, and clear the fire pit. Today, I chopped ice. We'd had a few cars not make it around the last hairpin of our winding mountain road, and more than a few slide back down the hill after trying. I chopped ice until I got a blister on my palm, then I chopped ice till the blister filled with blood, then I chopped ice till it burst in my glove, then I chopped ice for another hour. Afterward, I shoveled all that chopped ice off the edge of the road. I didn't mind a bit. It was good exercise, and anytime I wanted a break, I just leaned on the handle and looked out at the mountains. They're amazing. Here, this is the view from the staff house window just after daybreak.

For that matter, this is the staff house, where I live. I took that right before the last big snow. It looks more like the former picture around here these days.

I generally get up between seven and half eight (eight-thirty, that is--I have to speak European around here) and head to the main chalet. Sometimes I help with breakfast, sometimes I just stuff myself on muesli and fresh yogurt or the bread that's delivered to us daily by the local baker with some Alpkäse. I help out in the morning, but we get lazy by lunchtime. The staff usually eats leftovers for lunch, and since the kitchen coordinator makes a full meal for dinner each night, we have plenty of options. Plus, there's always that bread and cheese for a sandwich. We don't work very hard in the afternoon, either, actually. I spent this afternoon in the office, hanging out with the senior staff and the chalet cat. We had tea and ChocOvo bars right after lunch, and since it's Sunday, we had official afternoon tea at three or four. We have official tea at least half the time, actually, whenever someone suggests it. We've two Aussies, so even though our Brit has left us, we still have lots of reminders for tea. Afternoon tea actually means hot chocolate and whatever leftover dessert we can scrounge up, since we have regular tea all the time. Today it was cake, lemon or chocolate chip. Sometimes it's chocolate mousse, raspberry crumble, or peach upsidedown cake. (We make a new dessert every night. Sometimes I get to cook it.) All the staff members sit around a rickety old table, sipping chocolate, chatting about our countries, making fun of each other, and planning out the afternoon and next few days. I get some real work in before dinner (see: ice chopping), then stuff myself again. I have been eating everything in sight lately. Just piling the food on. It's great.

We had raclette for dinner tonight. It's a Swiss-French dish wherein you cut a bunch of slices of cheese, then put them one by one in your little pan, just the size of your palm, to melt. You stick the cheese pan on one level of a griddle, then put bite-size pieces of food on the upper level. We had potatoes, peppers, broccoli, bread, and pineapple to choose from. When the cheese is bubbling, you put your food bites on your plate and use a little spatula to scoop your raclette cheese over your food. Put in a new cheese slice while it cools, and you can go on all night. Dinner's not this much fun every night, but it's always good and often Swiss or at least European in origin. After dinner this evening, I gave a tour.

That's probably the most boring my days get, and really, I had fun today. It's always great to just sit and talk to the guests, as they're usually from all over. We had a trio of young women earlier this week, one from Canada, one from England, and one from Japan. They were traveling together and game for discussions during and after dinner. So, usually, we've a local woodcarver to visit, a hike to guide, or a fondue and Swiss trivia night to put on. Brazil and I put together a great campfire for a group of Boy Scouts who visited the other night. They were an international group from Basel, and one of the leaders was also Brazilian originally. The other played rugby and told me all about where to hike in the Black Forest and which castles to see on my way there. I also learned some Boy Scout songs, mostly about pirates, beans, and heaven. Hmm. I'm leading a hike along the river in a few days. We'll go see the falls, have a snow barbecue, and then head up Engstligen for some snow tubing.

I'll leave you with the obligatory "Hey, I'm in Switzerland!" photo. I should have a better one soon, with snow and all. I keep forgetting to get pictures of myself. It's been a crazy past few days. The board of trustees (BOT) for the center was here, so we had to keep all fifteen of them happy as cows with bells. They asked for extra servings after the kitchen had cleared up dinner, had me fetch them some wine right as I was about to head to bed, and fussed about trying to impress each other. They held meetings during the day, so I had to help stock coffee and cookies in multiple rooms. I did have fun on their last evening. They hiked out to this gnarled old tree for appetizers and fun in the snow. I got to hike out with a giant cheese platter, too large in diameter for me to wrap my arms around. It was wood and an inch thick, so it was a bit of a job to get it out there. Sydney (the other Aussie) and I also carried three thermoses of Glühwein between us, which we set up on a toboggan beneath this gnarled tree. I threaded my way between all these old women with my arms outstretched, trying to get cheese to everyone on a narrow, snowy path. I'd already passed them the wine, so they were pleasant and fed me some cheese as well. There must have been at least fifteen varieties of cheese, nearly all delicious, plus some apricots, cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts, prunes, and a pear. When we finally finished the cheese plate, I helped the BOT strap on snowshoes and we took a walk. Anyone who didn't want to snowshoe could sledge back down. We made it back to the chalet just after the sun set, just in time for dinner. I think we kept the BOT in good spirits for the time they stayed.

Also of note: I can walk into town when I feel like it, and Finn and I went to the grocery store the other day. They have a good ten brands of Swiss chocolate, plus all the Easter displays are out right now. There are chocolate bunnies like I've never seen before. They also pre-dye their eggs, which I found hilarious.And then I found the cheese aisles. Ooh. The chocolate, by the way, has more than one of its own aisles as well. And the wine! Wine is wicked inexpensive in Switzerland, it turns out. I've been testing out the beers the last batch of staff left here, having a nightly installment of an international beer tasting, but I might have to switch to wine for a while. I got a Swiss fondant and a French pinot noir for starters. I'll crack them open in a few days, when I have another long break. The chocolate I bought for the rest of the junior staff is already half gone, so I'd better get in on that first.