Departures.

Things are getting a bit sad around the chalet. Bowie & Sloan left on May 30th, and Brazil left on the first. I was supposed to leave on June first as well, but I didn't. I'm due to leave in the morning, though I haven't gotten my act together. I have yet to finish packing, and it's taking forever to gather up the photos we've collected over the past three months. I know what I want to take and what I want to leave, however, so it won't take me long once I start packing. I haven't done this sort of backpacking trip before, just forest/mountain/river wilderness backpacking, so I will let myself bring too many things. It's uncouth to stink in public, so I will bring extra clothing. I hope my bag doesn't weigh too much. [Edited to add: it weighed sixteen kilos, which is quite a bit considering my weight of fifty-one, but I stocked up on snacks at the grocer right before packing and it should drop down once I eat some food and jettison one of my travel books. I secretly also have two books of poetry and a novel. Don't tell.]

Irish is back, at least, with her husband, and the new team is cohesive and happy. They will do well. I will see everyone in about four weeks, when I pass through again to grab my bag. I left a suitcase in the attic. Finn might bring it to me later, but I will probably just pop in to grab it. I will feel comfortable being in Switzerland right before I fly out of Zurich, since I know the train schedule and all that.

So. I leave tomorrow, heading for Italy. I'm tired, excited, and a little nervous. Heading to the beach should clear up any misgivings.

Such great heights. [unfinished]

[notes]

Woodcarvers
Cholerenschlucht!
Adelboden - Coop trip to stock up
Rock Climbing

Interlaken. [unfinished]

[notes]

Schokoladerei
white-water rafting

Alpenrose c Chef & Fixer

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

Tschenten. [unfinished]

[notes]

Tschenten hike
Engstligenbach dunk
ERS in the American room
Cranium NAmer v Brits (+ Czech)
Czech spa wafers

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.

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!

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.

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.

New staff.

Our new head manager, Bristol, started work today. I took her to Engstligen yesterday, since we both had a free day and I felt she should get some skiing in before the season ends. She's lived in CH before, in a nearby valley, but she's unfamiliar with some of our pistes. She was telemarking and she said she was still learning, so I took Sydney's snowboard up. We got a late start on purpose, since it's cheaper later and we figured we might get tired early. We decided to start on an easy run, but they had closed it for grooming after the morning's snowfall. It was a perfect day: fresh snow right before we got there, then sunshine all afternoon. We had to start on an ungroomed red run, but at least it made for a lot of laughter. We practiced a bit in the late morning, then hit the harder runs after lunch. We stopped to talk a bit too much, but I think Bristol was tired from not having skied in a while. It was great to get to know her, too. She told me about the movie nights they hold up the valley, where you can cycle there in the afternoon, then flop down on the lakeside beach facing the screen & speakers floating in the water. I'll have to give that a shot at some point. I also need to remember to go to Dutch's concert--she just joined a music group in town, and I've been meaning to go to a yodeling night or concert in town for a while now. Oh, and don't worry, I did not attempt this jump.

We also got a new chef today. Pax is temporary as well, and will only stay for a few days. He's a professional and will help us get our act together until we get our real chef in June. It's amusing when we go to town, because "chef" means "boss" in Swiss-German, so we can't tell if the Adelbodners are asking about Bristol or Pax. We're a major source of gossip for the town lately, since we've been having so many staffing changes and what we do has an impact on their businesses.

I've just been doing spring cleaning all day, which isn't so bad. We put up the trampoline for summer, and we'll clean out the sheds, pitch the tents to check for missing pieces, and prepare for a lot of new staff in a couple of weeks. I cleaned the staff house top to bottom today, so we'll be all set as long as we don't eat, shower, or breathe for a fortnight.

In which I stuff and roast myself.

Finn, Canuk, and I hit the Engstligen pistes again yesterday. Finn went home early, but Canuk and I stayed through lunch. It was bright and sunny, and we did realize that we’d forgotten our sun screen, but we kept skiing. We had a great time flying down all the runs and slicing through old tracks. We took videos all day—I have discovered that I do not have a talent for filming and skiing simultaneously.

We went snowtubing before Canuk went back home to pack up. My first run down was extremely fast, and I spun in rapid circles.
I laughed till it hurt. My second run wasn’t as great, but Canuk’s was, and it was a fitting end to a wonderful ski season for her. I stayed on to get my money’s worth from my day pass, getting home after about six hours out there.


I could feel the burn developing on the bus ride home, but I didn’t get the chance to ice it till I got back to the Chalet. Finn and company had put up the trampoline in my absence, and everyone was so worn out from working and bouncing that they were laying about in the sunshine. I covered up and joined them, as I was tired from skiing all day and then carrying my gear up the hill. The Guild gave us a parting gift, and we spent it by going out to dinner together. Finn, SAussie, Canuk, Sloan, Bowie, Brazil, Dutch, and I headed into town and ordered Swiss food. I finally got my Rösti, complete with Alpkäse and Spiegelei, but no Speck (a cake of hashbrowns with melted local cheese and a fried egg on top, ordered without bacon). It was utterly delicious. I had a couple deciliters of Fendant with it, then ice cream for dessert. I tried the pear and the Ovomalt flavors, and they came in a huge sundae bowl with sliced strawberry, melon, a fig, and a cookie. We had money left over, so we went for coffees a few doors down. We capped the night off with a good bounce as soon as we got home.

I was all pink from the neck up by the time we got inside again, and Canuk had developed a blatant goggle and helmet burn. I’m hoping lotion will help keep it from hurting. It doesn’t hurt yet, though it’s blistering a tiny bit. Dutch got a similar burn when out walking on the Silleren Schneewanderweg last week, and she recovered well, so I have hope. I didn’t go out again today, though I really wanted to. Instead, I stayed in and tried to get some work done. Our internet’s out again, though, so I could only do so much. I had asked the new center manager if she’d go skiing with me this afternoon, but we lingered at lunch and missed our bus. Instead, I did a bit of the Staff Challenge and watched a video with the other junior staff members about this place in the early 1930s. Those women out hiking and skiing in their thick skirts impressed me with their hardiness.

I was sad to have missed out on my last chance on the pistes today, since I don’t have another day off until after Engstligen closes, but I ended up getting tomorrow off as well. I pointed out that I had one fewer day off in May than the other junior staff members, so Dutch said I might as well take one of the next few days. We don’t have guests for another few days anyway, and I was hoping to get one last day on the slopes. I’ll slather on loads of sun screen and hope for a more overcast day.

Fondue, funding, and storytelling.

Work was easy today. I finished up an orienteering project I’d been working on for weeks, then did a bit of tidying. The Guild spent the day in Adelboden, on that sleigh ride I arranged, or wandering the hills around here. A few went on the hike out to Bonderfalle, but reported back that it was still snowy enough deep in the crevice of that valley that they couldn’t safely make it to the foot of the falls. Some Guilders pitched in on our work, and others told us stories about their adventures and marveled aloud that we should be able to travel on our own at such a tender age.

Brazil and I held a Swiss Night for evening program. We had a few volunteers act out the story of Wilhelm Tell. They did a splendid job, bringing the whole room to laughter. I missed half of it while melting up a batch of rich chocolate fondue, but I could still hear the goings-on through the hatch. We split them into nine teams for the quiz on Switzerland. Staff members had been slipping answers into their spiels on the bus all week, and the Guild did well. We awarded them fondue with cookies, apples, and bananas. I had planned for ten groups and Brazil had created nine, so we had our own plate of treats for dipping into the leftover sauce. At the end of the night, they presented Sydney with a check. The Guild raises money for one of the four centers each year, then visits it and donates the funds. We’re going to use ours as a scholarship to help pay for flights for staff members from developing countries, so that they, too, can work here.

Cheese, Grommit!

The group went to Ballenberg yesterday, which is an outdoor museum of Swiss history. They’ve got traditional chalets set up for touring, plus different types of farming, cheese-making, woodcarving, paper cutting, weaving, and all sorts of other crafts. The museum is laid out sort of like Switzerland itself, with Geneva and French CH info in the west, Lugano and Italian CH in the south, and Appenzell in the east, etc. I’m not sure I’ll make it there myself, but it sounded neat. I think I’m getting enough information about Swiss culture by living in a traditional mountain farming town and traveling all over the country.

I cleaned up the barbecue, stocked the T-Bar, and had a bit of time off. It was a fairly light day of work. When they all returned in the evening, I helped with dinner and hosted the evening program, which was a movie about Adelboden in Swiss-German. It’s tough enough to understand German, much less Swiss-German, much less Adelboden (or any little village) Swiss-German, but I learned quite a bit about the area. I’ll try to bring home a copy of the DVD. I liked the portions about soldiers hanging out in town during the war, all the skiing over time, and how the farmers supplement their incomes by working the ski lifts in the winter. It makes sense, but it’s got to be a tough life.

They went off on the usual hike to Engstligen today, so I heard all kinds of stories about snowstorms, slipping down the hills, and building snowmen this evening. One more guest came today, so I showed her around. I just got back from hosting a Swiss wine & cheese night. We had white, rosé, and red Swiss wines, of which the white was best, plus a whole room full of cheese platters:

• Frühstückskäse, from Adelboden [breakfast cheese]
  
• Raclette, from Adelboden; creamy and fruity [usually used to make the meal of the same name]
  
• Appenzeller, from Canton Appenzell [very pungent]
  
• Gruyère, from Gruyères; nutty and the main ingredient in fondue
  
• Emmentaler, from the Emme Valley in Canton Bern [This is what much of the world calls “Swiss cheese,” with the holes and all.]
  
• Alpkäse, from near Adelboden [Alp cheese tastes different depending on the time of year, which farmer made it, which flowers and herbs the cows ate, and any number of variables, but they’re all strong cheeses.]
  
• Rotschmierkäse, traditionally made in monasteries [red mold washed rind cheese]
  
• Mutschli, a softer and aromatic mountain cheese
  
• Hüttenkäse, made locally and with herbs [cottage cheese]
  
• Sbrinz, from the Berner Oberland; hard and grainy

Plus two foreign cheeses: (They were made in CH, though, so it was okay.)

• Brie, from France
  
• Gorgonzola, from northern Italy, near Milan

Work.

I’m in the office all day today, since they need to give senior staff a few days off. The other junior staff cooked up a great Schnitzel barbecue for the Guild, and we finished it off with a Toblerone each. Before that, I did a bunch of paperwork, made some spreadsheets for the summer events, and labeled the new guestbooks. I also had to call the Dänzer family to arrange for a sleigh ride for some of the guests. The Dänzers speak Swiss-German, but I could find out about times and prices and number of riders possible and available days. I think it will work out. The Guilders are fantastic, but they drink a great deal of tea. It’s a struggle to keep the tea bags, milk, cups, and spoons stocked in the T-Bar and conference room. It’s tea before breakfast, tea at breakfast, tea after they get home from program, tea before dinner, tea before bed. I’m impressed with their bladder capacities.

I worked all day yesterday, too, since I wasn’t on program. The Guild went off to Thun (this is them on the bus), so I stocked things and cleaned the Chalet. I spent much of the day organizing the recycling, which I don’t mind. I feel like I’m saving the planet. When the women returned, Brazil and I held a successful bingo night in the dining hall. Eleven of them won prizes, and I learned all about bingo culture.

I’ll be on house again for the next two days, while the group goes out, but then I’ll get to go on some great programs. (This is Canuk and me actually on a program.) I really like the Guilders, and I’m looking forward to hearing more of their stories. A couple of them told me about their world travels while we hiked to the woodcarvers’ the other day, and a bunch have already offered their homes if we ever stop by England, Scotland, or Wales. They live all over the place, so we’re set if we do a UK tour. Sadly, I’m not likely to make it over there for a few years, at minimum.

Guilders and languages.

Trefoil week started this morning. The seventy women arrived last night, but we did our opening ceremony at eight, right before breakfast. The staff wear their national uniforms (I don’t have one) and we present the flags of all the countries the staff come from, plus the flag for our guests. I was Switzerland.

After breakfast, we split everyone into two groups. Canuk, Brazil, and I took half of them to the woodcarvers’, while Finn and SAussie took the rest into town. I bought a few things for my family and for my own amusement, but mostly I chatted with Karl, the woodcarver’s son. He taught me the Swiss-German for cow and rabbit, but I’ve forgotten them already. I will try to practice my Schweizer-Deutsch before I go there next, in a couple of weeks. I also intend to try my hand at Holzschnitzen (woodcarving) at some point. They use linden (chestnut?) for most things, but cherry for the simpler ones, since it’s harder to carve. Cholerenschlucht (Cholera Canyon) still isn’t open. I’m looking forward to the last bit of snow melting down there. I’d really like to check it out, and it would make for a better walk home.

This is what it looks like down in the Adelboden valley.

This is really how the locals live. They've got their axe and skis at the ready, just outside their little chalet. Panning left, you can see the fruits of their labor, lots of chopped wood, and the bells the cows will be wearing in short order.
            

We got a pair of Finnish chefs in for the week, thank goodness, so we don’t have to swap off cooking for eighty. They’re about sixty, but they’re lighthearted. Marjatta speaks no English, and Emma speaks a bit, enough that we usually don’t have to ask Finn to translate. They helped me learn to count to ten in Finnish last night, and we tried to teach Marjatta the same in English, but she just laughed. Finn says the “th” in three is far too difficult for Finns, and Dutch says it’s difficult for everyone. She taught us how to tell her we loved her. I’m going to be in trouble in Amsterdam, if I make it that far, when all I can say is “I love you.” SAussie is learning Dutch, since she’s dating a Netherlander, but I’ve my hands full with German. Luckily, if they speak extremely slowly, I can sort of get the gist of Dutch. Finnish is impossible.

Imbisse!

I will now interrupt my lack of posting to bring you a short guide to Schwizer Imbisse, or Swiss snacks.

First, of course, Toblerone. We can get this one at home. It's milk chocolate with honey, plus almond and nougat bits. It also comes in white and dark chocolate. It's shaped like a pyramidal tube. This shape is so strongly associated with Toblerone chocolate here that they have nicknamed the similarly-shaped tank barriers "Toblerones."

Another common chocolate bar is Cailler Branche. This brand was the first to build a chocolate factory in Switzerland. Mr. Cailler figured out how to make chocolate bars, and I'm pretty sure that's when Switzerland became an independent country. As Wikipedia says, Mr. Cailler's son-in-law "had the idea of combining the chocolate with his neighbor Henri Nestlé's condensed milk to make milk chocolate. The Caillers eventually merged with the operation of Charles-Amédée Kohler (the inventor of hazelnut chocolate) to form the firm of Peter, Cailler, Kohler. They were acquired by Nestlé, which had become a manufacturing giant, in 1929." The traditional Cailler bar is about the size of one Twix stick. It's hazelnut milk chocolate with tiny hazelnut bits on the outside. A bit sweet for me, but not bad.

I've actually not had any Nestlé here yet, but I couldn't resist the Lindt & Sprüngli, which we just call Lindt back home. I've received two milk chocolate bars as presents. Wonderous.

Of course, these larger companies make all kinds of chocolate. You can get it with extra milk, chunks of raspberries, super dark, almonds, hazelnuts, nougat, milk or darke chocolate mousse, marzipan, peppermint, cookies, yogurt, cornflakes, rum raisins, you name it. The chocolate aisles are small miracles of opportunity.

I also tried a Lindt & Sprüngli with orange chunks in it. It was good, but it made me wish they'd done it with bits of ginger or something. Mmm. Once you've got chewy bits in the chocolate, you might as well get crazy with it.

I know Ritter Sport is actually German chocolate, but I also tried their coconut one. These bars are square and the filled ones have a layer in the middle, like an Andes mint. Coconut and chocolate went well with skiing, as did dark chocolate and Haselnuss, as did Dunkle Vollmilch, which is some kind of half milk-, half dark-chocolate hybrid (medium chocolate?), as did one with bananas in.

I received a small truffle as a gift as well. Its origins are unknown, but it does have chocolatier Philippe Suchard's surname on its wrapping. It looked like one of those chocolates with a cherry and liquor inside, but it turned out to be the same idea with a prune. Suchard is with Milka, another Swiss chocolate company. The Milka bars are very popular around here. They just tasted like ordinary milk chocolate to me, but the milk chcolate fans swear they're special.

Minor bars are common as well, although slightly more expensive. I got a mini one when I checked out of my last hostel, in Luzern. The regular bar is also about Twix-sized, but it forms a square cylinder instead of a round one. It's one of my current favorites, despite its milk chocolate base, because it has bigger chunks of hazelnut inside.

Kägi-Fret is basically the original Kit-Kat. It's another square-Twix shape, though a bit bigger, and you get two in a pack. They're crispier than Kit-Kat, and I like them better.

Appenzeller Bärli-Biber are sort of... hmm. They're like cinnamon-apple cookies with a thin marzipan filling, only not at all. They're a traditional Swiss hiking snack, and they're quite adequate for this purpose. They are slightly sweet and squishy for my taste, though, and sort of odd.

Balisto bars are kind of like granola bars, except they aren't as sweet and they come in more flavors. They're made of muesli, which is what I have for breakfast most days, and sometimes also as a snack. These things are great for hiking. You can get plain muesli, yogurt, berry, almond honey, coconut, and a few others. We have chocolate peanut here, so that's what I eat.

There are also Choc-Ovo bars, which I think I already described (compressed and vitaminy malt powder with a milk chocolate coating), and these cute little cookies that have shortbread on top and bottom with a thin jam filling. They look like flat Dairy Queen ice-cream sandwiches, only shortbread-colored, and one cookie has two eyes and a grin cut out of it. I think I heard someone refer to them as Naughty Boys, though I'll have to check on that. [Update: they're called Spitzbüb Coquin, and we also have mini Panettone now as well.]

I've made myself hungry, so I'll head off for a mini berry tart now. I intend to catch up in here soon, though we have a full house once again and I've got lots of hikes to go on.

Business as usual.

We took the group on a hike to Engstligenalp two days ago. It was as usual. We all have three days off now, while there are no guests, and then we have a full house for ten days. A group of Trefoil Guilders, all British women of about 65-85 years old, will be staying with us and going on a full program of activities. We’ll have ten days without a break, but at least we’ll get to go out traveling.

Canuk and I went snowboarding and skiing again today, of course, this time with Dutch. All the areas are closed except for Engstligen, which has only eight runs. It’s in a bowl high up on the mountain, so it keeps its snow a lot longer. I’m going to have to decide when to ski/snowboard/sled/cross-country ski for the last time. Engstligen closes on 4 May. I had intended to spend this whole break up on the pistes, but Bowie, Sloan, and Brazil have planned a trip to Luzern, and it would be fun to go with them. I wish they’d planned it for May, though, so I could get more skiing in. Life’s all about choices. Still, the pistes were fun today. It snowed a lot, and we could only see one pole at a time. The poles mark the edge of the groomed pistes, so you don’t really want to lose them, especially in a place like Engstligen. We could hear each other shouting, laughing, and skiing, but we lost track of each other visually about five meters away. Dutch got vertigo and left, but Canuk and I stayed till it cleared a bit, then skied the powder all afternoon. The faster black run goes directly next to the t-bar, so you can see how steep it is while you’re getting pulled uphill. It’s a rush going down. I had a great time. I’m definitely getting better at skiing. I don’t have to think about it anymore, and I can zip around without worrying about falling. I still get tired after six hours in the powder, but I’ll have another break at the end of Trefoil week. Those will be my last two days to ski.

We keep having internet problems around here. I’m not getting much time online, so I’m getting behind in the work I’m doing for school and for scholarships. I’m also not able to post to the blog as much as I’d like. I hope I will find time to catch up before my next break.

Staff challenge.

All I’ve done for two days is work. We had no guests for a while, due to a black-out week, and we’re nearly done with the spring cleaning. We have forty-odd people coming in for just tomorrow night, so we’ll need to prepare for them and then clean up after them as well. On the plus side, with just staff here, we have gotten a LOT done. We also have tea every day, and we’ve been getting creative with pastry dough.

Here are some spare pictures instead of a description of my work activities.

This is our Chalet cat. She's usually sweet, but she yowls something awful around dinner time and is good at interrupting your work for a quick pet.

Here's yet another couple pictures of some great mountains.


This is the staff having a snow picnic.

Here's the cable car at Engstligen falls. It's a bit of a tight squeeze going up with a lift full of skiers and gear, but it's a fun ride nonetheless.

This is what the locals do for fun in the winter, besides skiing, of course. Official timed sled races! One person steers and the other controls the speed, as far as I can tell.

Here's another fun winter activity I didn't take part in. It looks like fun, but I'll wait till I make it to Alaska.

This is your typical Swiss mother. The kidlets get their own mini sleeping bags and everyone goes out into the snow. I've also seen tots in backpacks during crosscountry ski trips or snowshow hikes.

---

I decided to work on my Staff Challenge after work, since I didn’t have time to do anything exciting with my nights. One of our challenges is to climb the fire escapes. We have to do it as though we were fleeing a fire, though: out the window and down.

Other challenge activities include (bold if I’ve done them already):

• hiking at least three mountains (6000 meters total) [waiting for the snow to melt on the trails]
  
• camping overnight somewhere [waiting for warmer weather]
  
• staying submerged in a glacial lake or stream for five seconds [ditto]
  
• hiking to Kandersteg [ideally over the mountain pass]
  
• hiking to Dorf [Adelboden village] and back on your own at midnight
  
• cycling to Frutigen [will do soon.]
  
• skiing a red, blue, and black run
  
• tobogganing Tschenten or Silleren [I tried, but night sledding was closed on that occasion.]
  
• cross-country skiing Boden or Engstligen track
  
• explaining four Swiss hiking signs
  
• snowshoeing for two hours
  
• checking out the Adelboden night life
  
• climbing the fountain in town
  
• climbing the main chalet and Spycher fire escapes (one normal, one a rope ladder)
          
  
• sledging down Hohliebeweg (our road) at night
  
• climbing around a table without touching the ground
  
• sleeping in the attic of the main chalet, built in 1932 and reputedly gently haunted
  
• sleeping in the bomb shelter
  
• climbing through the old Swiss oven and writing a poem about it while inside
  
  
• writing a new Chalet song [Brazil did it, actually, but I learned and performed her version and they counted it.]
  
• cooking a traditional Swiss dish
  
• cooking a dish from your own country for the staff
  
• cooking dinner for everyone by yourself
  
• learning some Swiss-German
  
• watching a sunrise or sunset from the peak of Bonderspitz [waiting for the snow to melt on the trail]
  
• climbing into our commercial clothes dryer
  
  
• doing an extreme sport (canyoning, bungee jumping, paragliding, etc.)
  
• organizing a staff evening program
  
• traveling to somewhere in Switzerland

These are all worth one to five points, and we have to get eighty points to meet the challenge. I think I have about thirty points so far. I need to get going on these, and I need to get the ones I’ve done signed off. There are another twenty or so items on the list, some more boring than others.

Learning to snowboard, part three.

Canuk and I spent all morning on Bühlberg. It snowed at least fifteen centimeters while we were out, and we nearly had the place to ourselves. Silleren-Metsch and Lenk close on 13 April, so this is the last week and we figured we’d better ski/board to our hearts’ content while we still could, despite the weather. I think most Adelbodners will wait for another sunny day (e.g. tomorrow, they way the weather works around here). We had taken the first lift up of the morning, and it was completely whited out by the time we got to Bühlberg (via Silleren and Giles-Lavey). I was trying to get a feel for how far to lean over on the snowboard, but I couldn’t see the ground underneath me. I managed to lie down on the hillside at one point when I thought I was only barely tilting. I crashed into Canuk on that first run down Bühlberg after braving the easy ridge trail over from Tanzboden, but I improved quickly. (It helped that it stopped snowing quite so hard and I could see where I was going and even see Canuk on the piste, though she stayed behind me for an hour after I took her out.) I even managed the skicross trail by lunch time, though I fell on the hairpin turn and nearly wiped out on the third jump. After lunch, we boarded Lavey and Hahnenmoos for a while, then took Brenggen for kicks. T-bars are very intimate when you’re both on snowboards. I couldn’t imagine riding one with a goofy-footed stranger.

We could see the ground from the lift later in the day, and we could track our progress by following our tracks back up the mountain. Mine looked much better after I’d had some practice. We had to head in around three, since we were both tired from the long day on the pistes yesterday and fighting the powder all day today. My right leg was also starting to fail me, and I slipped off the piste at one point when I didn’t quite make a turn. I flew about two meters and landed seated, then got up and bumped over some crunchy whirls and jags where last night’s snow had hardened before getting enough speed to jump back up onto the main run. I also managed a full cartwheel on another trip down: I caught an edge, flipped over, pushed up into the snow with my palms, and landed on my board again. Sadly, Canuk didn’t catch it on film. It was too snowy for pictures in general, actually, so I'll spare you the usual shots of snowy mountains.

I've plans for the future, just you wait.

I really wanted to play tricks all day today, but I just never got around to it. I will have to save up my ideas for my last week here. Canuk says April Fools/All Fools Day ends at noon, anyway.

Most importantly, I got mail today! Thanks, Mom. Everyone else was green-eyed over my package, so I shared my news clips around the table.

The other highlights of the day included chopping hundreds of pieces of kindling with the volunteer dad, a goofy first-aid training courtesy of the volunteer mom, and a night hike. I led it, and I pushed the group hard up the hill so we could reach the falls before we had to turn around. The ginger UK kids kept right on my heels and taught me British children's knowledge. I had a great time chatting with them. We'd just had daylight savings, too, so we got to watch the sun drop over the row of mountains across the valley from a different perspective than usual. It was a sharply clear night, and the stars came out in batches, a few at a time and then in great bursts. We all need to brush up on our astronomy, but we had a laugh while making up constellations. The hike ends with a short, steep hill, atop which you can see the town again. Even so, it doesn't give off much light pollution.

I've got a streak of work days coming up, and then a three-day break. I get a couple of three-day "weekends" this month, actually, which is perfect for traveling. I want to hit the pistes a few more times before the season ends. With three days off, I can both ski and travel. The farthest reaches of Switzerland are perhaps four hours away by train, so I can see quite a bit in a day. With an overnight stay, I've got all the time in the world for sightseeing.