As much as

I wanna mingle with the new summer vollies, which we did, I kinda wanna spend the last 2 weeks with my fellow spring vollies and LTS. Also, with Rhianna and Katie gone for a few days each before we leave, the time would be even shorter

Our kitchen duties are dwindling down, along with our housekeeping ones.yahoo! If I remember correctly, they will have kitchen training on Thursday True enough, we had a very relaxing day, for a normal day at Our Chalet. The new kids, as everyone seem to be calling to be them, had bathrooms and common areas training so we only had our WAGGGS room project to do for the rest of the day. Oh yes, and kitchen duties, of course. Now I understand how Sammie felt.hahaha.

We watched Inception with them the other night in the conference room. On hindsight, I think we should have brought along mattresses and blankets cos it was soo uncomfortable! good thing we had popcorns though!

16 days! Incredibly reluctant to leave Switzerland

And I will be going to Interlaken on the 18th and hopefully Luzern on the 27th.haha. Or maybe go to Luzern on the way back to the airport on the 1st of June.see how first lah. But I gotta buy my train ticket back to Zurich on the 27th.  The main point is that I need to get out of the “bubble”.haha. 

I had this moment

of deja vu yesterday. It brought me right back to my first day at Our Chalet. The scene was simply enough, I happened to look outside of Stockli when I saw Katie driving up the driveway with 2 of the summer vollies. Then, I saw her helping to carry their bags up to the Main Chalet Attic. Looking back, it’s typical katie style to do that sort of thing, but, of course I didn’t know it back then.

I remember my first day clearly, it was abit different from theirs cos Koka was the one that picked me up from the Oey bus stop but Katie was the one that brought me up to the Spycher attic. But, seeing them do what they did for us about 2 1/2 months ago sank in that we are gonna to be leaving soon. hahaha. I still remember the shock of seeing soo many people during lunch.It kinda almost made me tear.hehe. xin ruan liao.

This week is definitely the week of departures. We jz had our campfire. And out of all the campfires that I had soo far, this is definitely a special one, for many reasons. For one, over the past 2 weeks, they’ve become friends. We also did many incredibly stupid yet fun things together, like jumping into a freezing lake and having a water fight while cleaning the rubbish bins. When Lizzie, Darina and I were sitting outside in the sun to dry off, we had came to the same conclusion about RSG. That it helps you to expand your horizon and meeting people from all walks of life. If it wasn’t for RSG, we wouldn’t have met the oman girls. And, it can get pretty addicting. Lizzie and I are already planning to come back and help out during summer next year. Oh yes, and Katie Scales need to renew her contract with Our Chalet.hahaha.But, that is another story.haha.

darina, lizzie, me and zulay soaking wet.hahaha.

Before the campfire, Rachael told us to bring a stick. There was a story behind it but I forgot.hehe. Anw, we had to take turn telling everyone our key moments during RSG and then throw the stick into the fire. If I remember correctly, there were the canyoning, jumping into the lake and lastly, the Elsighorn hike. The hike clearly made an impression on us cos about 4 of us said it. I had my key moment all ready-It was reaching the summit of Elsighorn with Katie then snowshoe-skiing down.HAHA.Imagine my surprise when Katie said the same thing! LOL. I guess we must have been thinking about the same thing then. I don’t know, something about the hike that day left a deep imprint on me.

Oh yes, we also surprised Sarah with a belated birthday celebration cos she didn’t tell us that it was her birthday on the 2nd! Today must have been a day of surprise cos when I sang it in chinese, Crystal, the HK summer vollie, joined in! I though they only spoke Cantonese and English there! Nonetheless, it felt good to have someone singing it with me[finally!]  

You know I love you when I get up at 8am for breakfast on my off day Actually, I am gonna kill 2 birds in 1 stone, I am gonna send off Darina then attend the opening ceremony for the summer vollies[then go back to sleep.haha]. How time flies, I remember my opening ceremony being freezing cold and me and Rachael raising the flag.

RSG week 2!

It’s crazy how fast time pass by, in 2 days, the RSG vollies will be going home! Which also means that we will be leaving in about 2 weeks! Oh yes, did I mention that 1 of the summer vollies already came? 

Week 2, however, was a whirlwind of crazy activities. On the 7th, we had our “traditional” service day, where we[okay, they] usually do rubbish picking in the ski slopes[or so Katie says].However, it was a different kind of service day this year, cos of the fohm winds, which knocked down about 300 trees at KISC[Kanderstag International Scouts Center]. So, we went over to KISC in 3 vans and went to work picking/chopping trees and logs. Conveniently enough, we were divided into the vans we came in, thus we were in 3 different groups[and in 3 different areas too]. I was with Darina, Carly,Jan, Jenny, Kaley, Cheryl and Zulay. It was fun, and it helped us get to know them better, over lifting branches and moving logs. I have to say, the highlight of the day was that ice lemon tea though! hehe. It also wasn’t a good idea to wear white on that day cos it pretty much changed to brown after I was done. Oh well, it showed how much work I did.haha.

me, Kaley and Cheryl!

Then, the next 2 days was spent deep cleaning Baby Chalet and Main Chalet. Oh yes! And koka also found a solution to clean those darn windows! First, wet a cloth, then wipe the wet cloth over the window and dry it with another cloth. Susan and I had a system down to a tee and with the help of some people[okay, alot of people], Spycher was done before lunch! YAY!

The next highlight of the week was the RSG’s vollies day off and our Elsigenalp hike on the 10th. They had an optional hike to Elsigenalp with 6 of us, Rhianna and Katie and Cheryl, Zulay, Jan, Susan came along with us. The rest of them went to Thun, Bern and the woodcravers. 

Before I start off on my very long story, it is safe to say it was 1 of my hardest hike of my life. We had the option of going up to Elsighorn[the summit] after going up to Elsigenalp to relax, eat lunch and swim in the glacial lake. I was pretty ambitious that day, cos I wanted to check off 3 things on my staff challenge list, climbing my 2nd mountain, snowshoe-ing for 2 hours and staying submerged in a lake for 5 seconds. 

The hike itself to Elsigenalp took about 3 hours, most of it was thankfully on the road and we walked at a pretty leisurely pace so I wasn’t dying to catch up during those 3 hours[thankfully]. It was made easier by the fact that there was alot of people and we had each other to talk to, which is always a good thing. There was a part near to the top where there was bits and pieces of tricky ice, but that was about it. Understandably, after a 3 hours hike, most people didn’t want to hike an additional 2 hours up to the peak. 

So, after eating lunch,crazily submerging myself in the freezing lake with Cheryl, Carly, Karin and Rachael and had a very quick change of clothes, we set out for the peak at around 1:30pm. By we, I meant, Stef, Cheryl,Rhianna, Katie, Susan, Zulay and I. haha. The rest of them decided to relax by the lake and was picked up at bottom by Christoph at around 4pm. 

The first part wasn’t that difficult, still pretty manageable by myself. By the time we were about 1 hour to the top, I had to put on snowshoes cos it jz made life soo much more easier[and I wanted to earn my points.hehe]. I felt bad cos Rhianna and Stef stayed behind with me whenever I needed a break. At 1 point, I remember we were talking about different courses in school that Stef took and the different hiking signs that I never knew existed[thanks Rhianna! ] We decided to snowshoe near the top till there was grass and hike up from there. 

near the peak, with our snowshoes!

To be honest, I remember that part the most. Near the summit, there is a rhombus, which became an (mini)obsession for that part of the hike.Also cos I though I couldn’t make it up. It was at that part where I realized the true meaning of mountains bonding people.At that point, Rhianna was leading the way, and Stef was right behind her and they were saying, ” you can almost smell the rhombus!” and at a later part, “you can almost taste the rhombus!” to me. Looking back, it was hilarious, but, at that point of time, it motivated me. hehe. Also, they took turns taking care of me, something that I am forever grateful for. I remember Cheryl telling me to take as much time as I needed and Katie was right in front of me showing me the steps so that it will easier to hike up the rocky parts.

The next thing I knew, Katie had my bag and Susan was right beside me.If I am not wrong, we were very near the top, and I told Susan that I will wait for them at the rhombus and her reply was I will get to the top if they had to carry me up. In these situations, chocolate helped alot cos after Katie tossed me her chocolate, we reached the peak! hahaha. So, thanks guys! That’s how I managed to reach the 2341m of Elsighorn.haha.And note to self: bring lots of candies/chocolate/water for the Bunderspitz hike. 

cheryl, zulay, me and susan at the peak of Elsighorn!

At the peak, we called back to check on a geocache that was supposedly at the summit. After Rachael’s description[orange rocks, human size!], Stef found it! So, it was our bonus of the day! hehe. Katie then called back to say that we wouldn’t make it back for dinner and they say that they can wait for 15mins[but we took at least 2 hours to go down!].hahaha. The funny thing is that Katie was on call and I was suppose to be on duty phone that night and we were on the same mountain! haha. Eve was sweet enough to make the dinner announcements for Katie and we started to snowshoe down. 

the geocache!

It was more of snowshoe skiing rather than snowshoeing…

It might have more of snowshoe skiing instead of snowshoeing cos we were snowshoeing on a black run[aka a very steep ski run] and sliding and falling on our butts became a common affair. However, it became a fun thing after we got used to all the skiing. Also, it is faster than walking down the traditional way and we had to put our snowshoes to good use[after carrying them all the way up the mountain!]. Through that, I managed to clock my 2 hours.YAY! Since we were breaking all the rules, we also walked on snowshoes on grass and in Katie’s words, its like wearing flippers on dry land.hahaha.

We managed to reach Our Chalet at around 8:30pm and set about heating up cottage pies and water. Cottage pie never tasted soo good and the hot chocolate was especially amazing that night. I still have to say that seeing Katie and Rhianna in the kitchen is something that I have to adjust to. hahaha.we had to vim and scrub the floor that night so both of them kindly helped us. 

okay! more stories later! I am off to sleep cos I am on breakfast in about 5 hours!

RSG week 1!

well…I’ve made abit of progress, 4 down, 9 to go! However with all the excitement and adventure for the past few days, I’ve gotten a little behind.hehe. Time to catch up!

As a spring vollie, you’re always somewhere in between. Not with the long term staff nor in the short term vollies like the “Ready, Steady, Go!” vollies. So, more of habit than anything, we tend to stick together. 

With that being said, we still do mingle around with the RSG vollies, during breakfast and during our duties with them in the morning. It feels quite strange though cos we are with them, but also not with them. Did it mention how wonderful it feels to have soo many people doing daily cleaning with you? I haven’t had that since my first month in Switzerland, I think. With RSG also comes new jobs to tackle, like cleaning the Great Britain Room[which turned into sorting the books out cos we couldn't stand the mess]. Also clearing[and organizing] the toolshed[the wonders of it cos we found a programme box that is AT LEAST a decade old]. There is also outdoor stuff like helping Christoph set up the tents for the summer group, cleaning up Baby Chalet, Squirrel House and Camp House and chopping the branches. 

The perfectionist in us made us organized those books.hehe.

In the process of clearing out the toolshed!

The RSG weeks also coincided with the Spring concert at Adelboden and the Our Chalet staff decided to make it an “evening programme”. So, the church that night was filled with 30 or so people from Our Chalet, along with the locals. The concert was very good! The orchestra played a few serious marching songs at the beginning and some playful tunes at the end[complete with a yellow rubber ducky! haha]. They also had a yodelling choir[made up of men, seriously!] and to see them reach such a high pitch was very surreal!  After the concert, most of the RSG vollies went to drink at the bar while the rest of us went home. 

I sat with Eve, Carly and Karin!

 

Damei is leaving!!!!

A diversion from my usual Swiss post, this one is abit different. The news shocked me but didn’t surprise me, does it make sense?

Well…I was reading the e-mail that Kamini had sent me, with all the GWP gossips and stuff and then I got to the last paragraph and it said “damei will be resigning and her last day will be on the 19th of May”. My first reaction was, “really?? If this is a joke, its not funny at all”. Damei was sorta my mentor in GWP, pretty much every question I had, their answer was “go to damei, she will tell you”. So, over time, we’ve had an unspoken system down pat. No surprise there, since my work station was right across her’s. In terms of character, she and Katie are very much alike. As you can imagine, GWP will feel weird without her.  She was pretty much my reason for wanting to come back and help out too. Now, there is no more reason to hang around there.

They’ve talked about leaving before, during my 2nd or 3rd month of internship[when we had our jabs] but when no one resigned, I though that they were only joking. Also, during the week that I help out for the airshow, damei was joking that she might not even be in GWP when I come back from Switzerland. I didn’t think that she was serious about it! As you can imagine, I laughed it off at that time. So, that’s the reason why I was not surprised, it was a long time coming. It was only a matter of when.

Then, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye[and tons of thank you] to her since I will still be in Switzerland. You know, at moments like this, I wish I could fly home. I would love to fly home and ask her, “why??? and why now??” She’s been an incredible teacher and I’m very grateful for all her lessons during my internship and for that airshow week.That airshow week was a turning point of the teacher-student relationship to a more informal one where we could joke with each other.

So, thank you for everything!

1 down, 13 to go!

I just realized that I’ve being way too kiasu, and I shall stall on the next one for another 5 days or so. 

What is that all about? hmm….you will know when the time is right Later(tomorrow) will mark the start of our “Ready,Steady, Go!” week with 15 RSG vollies! It will also be international night, with WAGGGS night being on yesterday night. I am as clueless as the RSG vollies about what will we actually be doing during the next 2 weeks[even though we have the paper that tells us the structure and stuff, this is a whole new different ball game]. What I am sure of is that we will get to know them very well. Its amazing how it this time last year, it was Angeline, Val, Shiks, Yus, Jasmine, Sheok Cheng and Hawa who were part of this very same team. From what they told me, backed up by Katy, I am sure that it will be a pretty unforgettable 2 weeks. The key is to participate as much as possible[as usual ]. Like, there is this night hike to the magic tree, which I would kinda like to go, even though I’ve been to the magic tree before and I will be off on that day. However, I’ve only snowshoe-ed there and only during the day. It will be a whole new experience considering the different people and elements. I’m also looking forward to the spring concert on Friday! hahaha.These few days will be spent learning names[let me see, I've remembered Maribeth, Susan, Jenny, Jan, Rama and Sarah soo far, so 9 names to go!],adjusting to the new morning routine[we wouldn't be doing it alone anymore, YAY!] and setting the table at a speed of light for 24 people.HAHA. Oh yes, and not sitting close/next to my fellow spring vollies and the LTS even though I really want to. Its funny how during the RSG meeting, the LTS told us that they will still love us even though they will be talking to the RSG vollies. Don’t worry, after HSS and all the groups, we are pretty used to it[or at least, I am]. At least I know Rhianna will still come over to Stockli and watch movies with us! Speaking of her, she will be going to Denmark to visit Julie for the next week, so now it’s her turn to be gone!  

Before I go to bed, note to self: Remember to take thumbdrive from Katie. 

The dramatic days of foehn winds

It’s really all about the little kids from GSUSA Italy who were here for the past 2 days. The kids[and their mums], all 40 of them, came to Our Chalet in the middle of our first foehn[snow-eater] windstorm in years. From Our Chalet’s fb page, it says “Weather forecast says: Violent storm in the mountains with gusts of 150 km/h and more, coming from the south. Foehn, also called the snow-eater wind gusts at level 3 (considerable danger)” It had been going on for the past week or so, and only at night, with gashes of wind banging stockli and sometimes opening windows. With that being said, the most dramatic and scariest one had definitely been last night. 

Back to the kids. There were 31 girls, age from 7-12 and a few teenagers with 9 mums and they consisted of 4 troops[translation: coy]. They arrived at Our Chalet a little bit after 4pm on the 27th , which meant that our[Rachael's, Carly's and mine] plan A: do the Chalet tour and shop then go to the kitchen to help out for dinner prep, went out of the window. Instead, Rachael will do the meet and greet, then all 3 of us will start the tour at 4:45pm and cancel the shop out and not help out for dinner prep. 

It was pretty reassuring when Ericka, the leader of the group said that they were comfortable with foreign accents, after we introduced ourselves at the start of the Tour. Since the group was so big, we split them into half and Carly told 1 half and Rachael and I took the other half. The tour went pretty well, except that the kids were understandably hungry and couldn’t wait to eat dinner. 

We also did a campfire for them after dinner. Since Katie was away at a town meeting, Rhianna was the only one there to watch over us. I am very grateful that she had allowed us to pretty much run the show by ourselves. Which, I think is a first for all of us. They also wanted a short campfire and with lots of kids, we decided on having lots of actions songs and ending it with 3 quiet songs. It was a good call on their part cos THE GROUP HAD BROUGHT S’MORES ALONG!

That night, Rhianna and Carly introduced us the fine art of cooking the marshmallows, quoting Rhianna, “golden brown on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside” and what does it consist of, graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows! They kindly gave each of us a S’more each and it was delicious! Definitely much better than the usual “refreshments” that we have in Singapore right after the campfire. 

The next day, Eve, Stef and I went to the programme meeting and had our longest meeting yet. In a nutshell, it was encompassing what their leaders wanted and the Chalet challenge into the hike. Which is more challenging than you think it might be. Also, this was our 2nd time hiking to the woodcravers’ and we have 40 people to lead. 

During the hike, I realized that what the leaders wanted was finishing up their badge work[the first aid kit stop].It kinda reminded me of the bukit timah hikes that we did to complete the flora and fauna section. But I find it abit wasted lah, since they were all the way in Switzerland and they spent a good 40mins of the hike doing first aid[and not enjoying the nature around them]. I also realize that we have to get used to not seeing the person at the back[when leading the hike] and vice versa. I was shocked at how big the gap were! There were a couple of stops we did so that the girls could go to the bathroom in the great outdoors[I am soo grateful that Stef knew what to do], also a first for me. Even though the hike there was 3 hours, I was impressed with the little kids’ determination to continue hiking even when they are hungry and tired, though less impressed with the older girls[deck chair, seriously?]. Thankfully, we managed to reach the woodcravers’ in 1 piece and the leaders organized the girls and Stef kept track of the number of people inside the shop.I have to say, they came in and out of the shop pretty fast! If I am not wrong, like 40 people within 30-40mins I think. 

The little drama started when they though that the water was unsafe to drink and when Stef was calling Katie, the news spread like wildfire around the group. It was really because of a new swiss law that they need to put up the sign that that water is unsafe for drinking cos it was not tested by some expensive machine. We did the WAGGGS section before hiking back. 

The 3 of us decided to take the same route back so that they wouldn’t need to go into town and go downhill and uphill again. We also wanted to be in time for dinner and have time to prep for Swiss night.By some sort of miracle, we managed to reach the Our Chalet in under 2 hours! haha. That gave us 45mins to have a post-hike meeting with Katie and to rest before dinner. I suspect that Katie had given some though to the “reflections after activities” post-it note that I wrote during the mid-term evaluation cos she had begin asking me how the reflection sessions work. We went in more in depth than usual, and I kinda liked it.haha. 

Eve and I did Swiss night yesterday night and I have to say, it was much calmer than I though it would be. I guess cos they were soo shagged from the hike that they didn’t have the energy to fight it out during swiss night.haha. While washing up, Katie, Eve and I talked some more.hahaha. Katie was impressed when she heard me raising my voice for the first time during Swiss night.LOL. On my part, it was a bo pian thing cos Stef wasn’t with us, and to get their attention, we HAD to raise our voice. Gosh, how I long to “diam” them! hahaha. In the end, we left the kitchen at around 10pm. 

At around 10:30pm, we were at stockli playing with our laptops, a usual. Then, a blackout! I went to spycher to check things out, and it turns out that both Spycher and Main Chalet are experiencing a blackout too. The wind was also gushing like mad. Rhianna, Katie, Eve and I then went to work finding torchlights, and taking things down so that they wouldn’t fly away[like the flags at the flagpole]. The power came back for a few minutes then it went out again but thankfully came back for good at around 11+pm.

This morning, we found out that all of us had little sleep cos of the foehn[Christoph didn't sleep at all!], and that 3 trees had fallen down around the site and that our dustbins and milk carton boxes are all over the place. It had been a pretty dramatic morning.