[notes]
Woodcarvers
Cholerenschlucht!
Adelboden - Coop trip to stock up
Rock Climbing
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
More adventures. [unfinished]
[notes]
zip lines
high ropes
abseiling
Chuenisbärgli hike
world cup run
Swiss night
taboo c Kandersteg, native v non-native English speakers
zip lines
high ropes
abseiling
Chuenisbärgli hike
world cup run
Swiss night
taboo c Kandersteg, native v non-native English speakers
Monday, May 26, 2008
Tschenten. [unfinished]
[notes]
Tschenten hike
Engstligenbach dunk
ERS in the American room
Cranium NAmer v Brits (+ Czech)
Czech spa wafers
Tschenten hike
Engstligenbach dunk
ERS in the American room
Cranium NAmer v Brits (+ Czech)
Czech spa wafers
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Adventure Day. [unfinished]
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Playtime.
As of today, I am officially a guest on all our programs. Well, as of just after the opening ceremony we just held, all kitted out in national uniform. (I made one out of paper that approximated what I would wear if I had a proper one. Finn and Swede explained their uniforms to me; I think I'll get a proper one when I get home.) I will still help a bit around dinner and breakfast, but I get to slip out of uniform and participate in instead of lead the programs. Our summer staff will be training all week. All I have to do is let them know if they miss something. Today's just a barbecue and orienteering, but we'll be doing high ropes, rock climbing, mountain hikes on Tschenten and Silleren, a trip to Interlaken and its Schokoladeri, spelunking, rafting, and another trip to Thun and its Schloss Oberhofen (Castle).
The summer crew is a fun bunch. They're a crew of eight, from all over the UK; Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto, Canada; and one from New Jersey. We also finally got our chef, of whom Dutch said "I just picked up a copy of you!" when she returned from fetching her at the bus stop. The chef actually spells her name one letter different than I do and she's from Idaho, but I can see why Dutch would say that. We have a lot in common.
I've been having a great time all week with the new staff. Every day is easy with so many people pitching in, and we have enough around for barefoot volleyball matches and lots of lounging and talking on the trampoline. Every night is Cranium, giant Twister, sardines, ten fingers, guitar playing, handstand competitions, oil drum fires, pictionary, or cards. Fixer taught us a game he plays in Manchester called Sh*thead. It's complicated, with special rules for the 2, 7, 8, and 10, but quite fun.
Family, I tried making date pinwheels last night for dessert. We don't have pecans here, though, so I put in muesli, our oat/nut breakfast cereal. We also don't have dark brown sugar, just this dry, light, powdery stuff. They came out all right, but they tasted like buttery shortbread with dates. I think I made about 170 cookies, all told. We had about 120 of them at dinner, since we've got 19 staff and 23 guests right now. We left the tin out while the staff all hung out in the music room last night. There were two left this morning. I made the date pinwheels in place of "sticky date pudding," which uses nearly the same ingredients yet tastes like chewy garbage. Even though the Europeans claim that "biscuits" are for tea, not post-dinner dessert, they were a hit.
The summer crew is a fun bunch. They're a crew of eight, from all over the UK; Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto, Canada; and one from New Jersey. We also finally got our chef, of whom Dutch said "I just picked up a copy of you!" when she returned from fetching her at the bus stop. The chef actually spells her name one letter different than I do and she's from Idaho, but I can see why Dutch would say that. We have a lot in common.
I've been having a great time all week with the new staff. Every day is easy with so many people pitching in, and we have enough around for barefoot volleyball matches and lots of lounging and talking on the trampoline. Every night is Cranium, giant Twister, sardines, ten fingers, guitar playing, handstand competitions, oil drum fires, pictionary, or cards. Fixer taught us a game he plays in Manchester called Sh*thead. It's complicated, with special rules for the 2, 7, 8, and 10, but quite fun.
Family, I tried making date pinwheels last night for dessert. We don't have pecans here, though, so I put in muesli, our oat/nut breakfast cereal. We also don't have dark brown sugar, just this dry, light, powdery stuff. They came out all right, but they tasted like buttery shortbread with dates. I think I made about 170 cookies, all told. We had about 120 of them at dinner, since we've got 19 staff and 23 guests right now. We left the tin out while the staff all hung out in the music room last night. There were two left this morning. I made the date pinwheels in place of "sticky date pudding," which uses nearly the same ingredients yet tastes like chewy garbage. Even though the Europeans claim that "biscuits" are for tea, not post-dinner dessert, they were a hit.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Replacement parts. [unfinished]
[notes]
Engstligen hike on the 17th
poor weather on 20/21 so no hike up Niesen
Bonderfalle hike with summer
summer staff!
Engstligen hike on the 17th
poor weather on 20/21 so no hike up Niesen
Bonderfalle hike with summer
summer staff!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Glaciers. [unfinished]
[notes]
Chur
Glacier train, English speakers
Oregonian!
Romansch
Oberalppass
Kandersteg c Swede, Fixer, & Dutch - surprise!
Chur
Glacier train, English speakers
Oregonian!
Romansch
Oberalppass
Kandersteg c Swede, Fixer, & Dutch - surprise!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Up and over. [unfinished]
[notes]
Weissbad
hike to Brülisau along nature trail
up to Hoher Kasten
24 mountain huts a day's hike apart
hike down into the valley
Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Weissbad
hike to Brülisau along nature trail
up to Hoher Kasten
24 mountain huts a day's hike apart
hike down into the valley
Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Monday, May 12, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Holding pattern.
Work is easy lately. I helped Fixer dig a huge hole for four pipes the other day, and now we'll fill it up. We needed a better way to get the wood pellets into the storage bin for the pellet-burner (environmentally friendly Swiss heating system!), and the pipes are it. I am working on an inventory spreadsheet, and Swede, Brazil, and I cleaned the heck out of the laundry room yesterday.
I also cooked lunch for everyone yesterday. We had some sort of mystery fish in the freezer and I missed seafood, so I gave it a go. It has the same name in French and German, so it must be somewhat local. It wasn't in the German-English dictionary, and I've forgotten what the label said by now, but it started with a P. It was white. At any rate, I gave it a good ginger-soy marinade and fried it up, then served it alongside roasted carrots & potatoes and some garlic spinach. That was the closest I could come to what I might eat at home. It went over well. We've no chef again for a while, so we're all having a bit of fun in the kitchen. Finn's got some sort of rye conconction on the brain, Bowie made pizza with corn, Brazilian style, Sloan made a great mac & cheese, and Dutch made apfelmousse this afternoon for tea. I think it's going to be do-it-yourself omlette night now, though, after all that.
I'm a bit nervous about my phone interview tonight. I can't get to my online documents for some reason, so I don't know exactly what I put in my scholarship application. I'll just have to sound charming and winning and bright and hope for the best. It'd be nice to get a bit of money for school.
But that's nothing to do with being in Switzerland, so never mind.
Dutch's music group had its first concert last night. I had some work to do, so I missed it, but Fixer and I met up with Dutch, Finn, and Swede in our favorite local pub, the Alpenrösli, afterward. I talked to Fixer's Swiss friend for a while, getting to know more about the area and what it's like to be Swiss.
I need to start planning my next few days off now. I think I'm going to go to Italy. I just found out that you need a reservation to see the Last Supper, so that's out. I still might try to catch a show in Milan, or I might just relax in Cinque Terre for a few days.
I also cooked lunch for everyone yesterday. We had some sort of mystery fish in the freezer and I missed seafood, so I gave it a go. It has the same name in French and German, so it must be somewhat local. It wasn't in the German-English dictionary, and I've forgotten what the label said by now, but it started with a P. It was white. At any rate, I gave it a good ginger-soy marinade and fried it up, then served it alongside roasted carrots & potatoes and some garlic spinach. That was the closest I could come to what I might eat at home. It went over well. We've no chef again for a while, so we're all having a bit of fun in the kitchen. Finn's got some sort of rye conconction on the brain, Bowie made pizza with corn, Brazilian style, Sloan made a great mac & cheese, and Dutch made apfelmousse this afternoon for tea. I think it's going to be do-it-yourself omlette night now, though, after all that.
I'm a bit nervous about my phone interview tonight. I can't get to my online documents for some reason, so I don't know exactly what I put in my scholarship application. I'll just have to sound charming and winning and bright and hope for the best. It'd be nice to get a bit of money for school.
But that's nothing to do with being in Switzerland, so never mind.
Dutch's music group had its first concert last night. I had some work to do, so I missed it, but Fixer and I met up with Dutch, Finn, and Swede in our favorite local pub, the Alpenrösli, afterward. I talked to Fixer's Swiss friend for a while, getting to know more about the area and what it's like to be Swiss.I need to start planning my next few days off now. I think I'm going to go to Italy. I just found out that you need a reservation to see the Last Supper, so that's out. I still might try to catch a show in Milan, or I might just relax in Cinque Terre for a few days.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Travels. [unfinished]
I got up early Monday morning and caught the bus to Frutigen, then the train to Bern. 
I spend a lot of time on trains these days, and I keep forgetting to post one of my favorite sights in the train stations: the vending machines. You can get candy, chips, and soda, sure, but you can also purchase vitamins, lighters, condoms (center), smoothies, coffee, and cannabis tea (bottom right, orange containers).
Right, so I made it to Bern without any of the above items and headed straight for its colorful fountains. I think I took unneccesary pictures of most of them, but I liked this one in particular. It's the child eater, and it's ghastly. I then wandered along the cliffside, heading downhill. Bern was founded on the tip of a finger of land jutting into a hairpin bend in the Aare River, and the train station's right where the rest of the hand would connect. Heading toward the tip, you pass huge swathes of open land where succesive city walls used to be. The Bernese have torn them down and claimed the spaces for pedestrian squares. They've great green stone buildings everywhere, interrupted periodically with old towers and ornate edifaces of grey stone, like the theater off of Markplatz. Since it's famous, here's the clock tower. It was pretty neat to watch it chime, and I liked the zodiac and lunar clocks as well.
The main street down the city is lined with arcades, shops, and restaurants. I stopped by Albert Einstein's house, then admired the well-maintained cellers under each store. They used to be wine storage, back when the XXX was a huge city granary. The cathedral was nice, but nothing special. I'm getting spoiled on all the architecture and old churches. I did like all the terraces, though. Bern's finger of land is considerably higher than the nearby river, so it has great views and pretty terraced gardens. I skipped the smaller Kirsch and Rathous in favor of the bears. Bern's heraldic animal is the bear, so they've a super-touristy bear pen just across the river from the tip of town. The locals like their bears as well, but they're agitating for improved quarters for them. You can see why.
I walked back along the other side of the river for a while, enjoying the day. After crossing back into old Bern, I visited some more fountains and the remains of the last city wall. The prison tower is all right, but the Dutch tower has a better history: soldiers returning from WWI had picked smoking up from the Dutch, but they weren't allowed to do it in the formerly wooden Swiss capitol city. They hid in the tower to feed their habit and miraculously never burnt it down.
I also checked out the parliament, where a group was protesting the Turkish government. Odd, for a non-EU country, but perhaps I missed the point. The parliament abuts a large square, under which the Swiss government keeps its gold. It was tough to imagine that I could be brushing past muckitymucks and standing on billions of dollars. Bern is a very laid-back capitol. I wanted to jump in the river for a float downstream, like the Bernese do all summer, but they informed me that it wasn't warm enough yet. I ate my lunch by statures of bears and hopped back on the train to head for somewhere more exciting.
I headed to Kerzers very briefly, mostly just to see the countryside out the train windows. I was up in the northwest of Switzerland, just south of the Jura mountain range. This is where Neuchatel is, of the cream cheese, and it is Switzerland's best farmland. They have incredibly rich, dark soil here, and the touristy thing to do is rent a bike and either go on a "vegetable ride" through the fields or cycle up to the summit of Mont Vully to see the vineyards and look out over the farms. I wanted to see all I could, though, so I skipped the bike rides and admired the land from another train's windows.
Murten is right on the border with French-Switzerland, so about a quarter of its citizens call it Morat instead. They've got a full city wall there, available for a rampart stoll for any aspiring guardsman.
I spend a lot of time on trains these days, and I keep forgetting to post one of my favorite sights in the train stations: the vending machines. You can get candy, chips, and soda, sure, but you can also purchase vitamins, lighters, condoms (center), smoothies, coffee, and cannabis tea (bottom right, orange containers).Right, so I made it to Bern without any of the above items and headed straight for its colorful fountains. I think I took unneccesary pictures of most of them, but I liked this one in particular. It's the child eater, and it's ghastly. I then wandered along the cliffside, heading downhill. Bern was founded on the tip of a finger of land jutting into a hairpin bend in the Aare River, and the train station's right where the rest of the hand would connect. Heading toward the tip, you pass huge swathes of open land where succesive city walls used to be. The Bernese have torn them down and claimed the spaces for pedestrian squares. They've great green stone buildings everywhere, interrupted periodically with old towers and ornate edifaces of grey stone, like the theater off of Markplatz. Since it's famous, here's the clock tower. It was pretty neat to watch it chime, and I liked the zodiac and lunar clocks as well.
The main street down the city is lined with arcades, shops, and restaurants. I stopped by Albert Einstein's house, then admired the well-maintained cellers under each store. They used to be wine storage, back when the XXX was a huge city granary. The cathedral was nice, but nothing special. I'm getting spoiled on all the architecture and old churches. I did like all the terraces, though. Bern's finger of land is considerably higher than the nearby river, so it has great views and pretty terraced gardens. I skipped the smaller Kirsch and Rathous in favor of the bears. Bern's heraldic animal is the bear, so they've a super-touristy bear pen just across the river from the tip of town. The locals like their bears as well, but they're agitating for improved quarters for them. You can see why.
I walked back along the other side of the river for a while, enjoying the day. After crossing back into old Bern, I visited some more fountains and the remains of the last city wall. The prison tower is all right, but the Dutch tower has a better history: soldiers returning from WWI had picked smoking up from the Dutch, but they weren't allowed to do it in the formerly wooden Swiss capitol city. They hid in the tower to feed their habit and miraculously never burnt it down.
I also checked out the parliament, where a group was protesting the Turkish government. Odd, for a non-EU country, but perhaps I missed the point. The parliament abuts a large square, under which the Swiss government keeps its gold. It was tough to imagine that I could be brushing past muckitymucks and standing on billions of dollars. Bern is a very laid-back capitol. I wanted to jump in the river for a float downstream, like the Bernese do all summer, but they informed me that it wasn't warm enough yet. I ate my lunch by statures of bears and hopped back on the train to head for somewhere more exciting.
I headed to Kerzers very briefly, mostly just to see the countryside out the train windows. I was up in the northwest of Switzerland, just south of the Jura mountain range. This is where Neuchatel is, of the cream cheese, and it is Switzerland's best farmland. They have incredibly rich, dark soil here, and the touristy thing to do is rent a bike and either go on a "vegetable ride" through the fields or cycle up to the summit of Mont Vully to see the vineyards and look out over the farms. I wanted to see all I could, though, so I skipped the bike rides and admired the land from another train's windows.
Murten is right on the border with French-Switzerland, so about a quarter of its citizens call it Morat instead. They've got a full city wall there, available for a rampart stoll for any aspiring guardsman.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
More new staff.
It's getting exciting around here. Our workdays are a bit slow, but the company is fabulous. Pax kept us laughing during his four days here, and now we've a few new people to meet.
Swede is witty and thoughtful, and I spend a great deal of time with her these days. She's been here twice already and is currently serving as an assistant everything as we prepare for the summer season. She's great to talk to and has been stellar at pictionary. Dutch and I won two rounds against Pax and Finn, but Swede and Finn together beat both the teams of me & Fixer and Pax & Dutch. I'm enjoying all of the Scandinavians I meet. I'll have to head up there some day and see what drives them.
Fixer is new as well. He worked in the next valley over for years and has come here to get us back in working order. He's good with wood, computers, engineering of all sorts, and practical solutions. He's also game for a night out whenever and brilliant at charades. We figure he picked the latter talent up when he first moved to Switzerland. He speaks near-fluent Swiss-German now, which is a kick to listen to. I can't pick up the accent, though I've learned a few Swiss words.
My consistant favorite part here is the international flavor, even over the chocolate, hiking, skiing, and views. We talk about language all the time, and I love hearing foreign expressions and phrases. I love comparing which words we use for which items and trying to figure out how they're related to other languages.
Swede says I'm good at pronouncing her language and should study Swedish. Ha. I can currently say "yes," "no," "ice cream," "cheers," and "it's in the lake" in Swedish. (We played Go Fish after alearning the Finnish and Swedish versions of another card game one night.) I will perhaps work on counting next, but only if it's nothing like counting in Finnish. I'm having a terrible time with Dutch due to its similarity to German. My Dutch is still limited to "I love you."
Also, the snow is melting. I need not say it, but the hills are now alive.
Swede is witty and thoughtful, and I spend a great deal of time with her these days. She's been here twice already and is currently serving as an assistant everything as we prepare for the summer season. She's great to talk to and has been stellar at pictionary. Dutch and I won two rounds against Pax and Finn, but Swede and Finn together beat both the teams of me & Fixer and Pax & Dutch. I'm enjoying all of the Scandinavians I meet. I'll have to head up there some day and see what drives them.
Fixer is new as well. He worked in the next valley over for years and has come here to get us back in working order. He's good with wood, computers, engineering of all sorts, and practical solutions. He's also game for a night out whenever and brilliant at charades. We figure he picked the latter talent up when he first moved to Switzerland. He speaks near-fluent Swiss-German now, which is a kick to listen to. I can't pick up the accent, though I've learned a few Swiss words.
My consistant favorite part here is the international flavor, even over the chocolate, hiking, skiing, and views. We talk about language all the time, and I love hearing foreign expressions and phrases. I love comparing which words we use for which items and trying to figure out how they're related to other languages.
Swede says I'm good at pronouncing her language and should study Swedish. Ha. I can currently say "yes," "no," "ice cream," "cheers," and "it's in the lake" in Swedish. (We played Go Fish after alearning the Finnish and Swedish versions of another card game one night.) I will perhaps work on counting next, but only if it's nothing like counting in Finnish. I'm having a terrible time with Dutch due to its similarity to German. My Dutch is still limited to "I love you."
Also, the snow is melting. I need not say it, but the hills are now alive.
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