Hey! Sorry I have not updated in forever!
Things I have done:
- been on programme a few times
- done a sunrise hike to Bunderspitz
- took an adventure to Paris!
- took an adventure to Venice!
- abseiled into the gorge (and successfully ninja kicked to the platform 2 times!!)
- been kitchen coordinator
- woke up early to see the cows go up the mountain
- hiked Tscenten
- biked to Frutigen one way
And much more :)

Day 25: Giessbach Falls Part I
After the stress of being Kitchen Coordinator, I had the day off. I had no idea what I wanted to do but I knew that I wanted to leave the Chalet. I thought about going to a city but I decided to research the top waterfalls in Switzerland. I then found the next place that I wanted to visit....Giessbach falls!

I hopped on the bus and consequent three trains out to Breinz which is a town nearby Meiringen. I got off the train and on one side of the train tracks was the boat dock. I needed to take the boat over to Giessbach falls but the next boat was not coming for another hour! There was a small house that sold tickets and a miniature park looking out into the lake. The lake was large and that lovely pure turquoise colour. To the left, there were snowy peaks in the distance and rolling green mountains surrounding the lake.

I crossed the train tracks into the town of Brienz for a few minutes - I stopped in the Co-Op to buy a nectarine and chocolate milk to go with my lunch! I returned to the dock loading area just in time to catch the next boat! The boat reminded me of a mini cruise ship. It was a medium-sized motor boat with two stories. When I walked in, there was a ticket booth to one side and then there were two sets of stairs. One set of stairs to my right led down to the bathrooms. The set of stairs to my left led upstairs. There was also a restaurant and indoor sitting area on the floor of the boat right around the corner. I walked to the other side of the small cabin I was in to the deck outside. The deck extended on both sides of the boat but I gravitated to the side of the boat near the back. There were wooden benches nearby a giant Swiss flag flapping in the wind. I noticed the ducks swimming around the boat and sat on a bench close to the flag.

After a few minutes of waiting, the boat started travelling across the lake. The sun was shining bright, the sky was a brilliant blue and the water sparkled as the boat cut through it. On the left, I could see the town of Brienz and a small waterfall among the green terrain nearby Brienz. On the right, I could see the island that was my destination: a rolling green mountain covered in trees. In front, I could see snowy mountains in the distance. All in all, a beautiful boat ride. I got off at the first stop: Giessbach falls. I could see part of the waterfall from the front of the boat while I waited to get off.

I got off the boat and the dock led into a wooden building. In front of me there were maps of the area, brochures and a few benches attached to the wall. Behind me, the building opened up to the lake where the loading/exiting docks were. I saw signs for a funicular so I went up the ramp to look at it. So the funny thing is that when I went to Reichenbach falls I wanted to hike up next to the falls but I ended up taking a funicular after the hiking bit didn't work out. For Giessbach falls I expected to take the funicular up but the opposite happened haha. The Giessbach funicular was similar to the Reichenbach funicular; it was a scarlet red fancy trolley. The trolley followed wooden tracks up to the Grand Hotel Giessbach.

I decided to not take the trolley and I walked back towards the benches. I walked passed the benches and exited the building. I was feeling ravenous so I ate my lunch on a bench nearby the lake. I felt for the first time in a while "peace for my soul" as Helen Storrow would say. Ok, so a note about that. Brief history of Our Chalet: Helen Storrow provided the funds to build and operate the centre for 5 years but only if it was in Switzerland. Falk was a Swiss guider appointed to help Storrow and was the first Guider in Charge (now called World Centre Manager) for 20 years. Falk and Storrow found a spot in Aeschi which Helen Storrow thought was perfect because there she found "peace for her soul." Falk thought the area did not have enough adventure and she ended up finding the spot where Our Chalet stands now as a place that offers both adventure and peace for the soul.

After lunch, I decided to follow the "Wanderweg" signs to the hotel and waterfall. I climbed some stone stairs and after a short walk down a dirt path I came across the waterfall! Well, at least the end of it! There was a bridge that I crossed to the other side but on my right the water was cascading down rocks. To my left the water flowed into the lake. I decided to climb some of the rocks that were next to the waterfall but not completely covered in water. The rocks were really slippery and the mist was a slap to my face. I was about to climb up on a rock when my sunhat flew off and landed underneath the bridge. I carefully made my way down the slippery rocks to retrieve my hat (a successful mission!) and continued on my way. I followed a large dirt road that was surrounded by trees. The sun filtered through the green leaves and pine needles. Some of the tree trunks hung near to the path. I felt like I was in a fairy tale and on my way up to the castle (in this case a fancy antique hotel)!

Day twenty-four:
After my fun day in Interlaken, I took a brief break from training and was on guest services! In the morning I did some cleaning which included venturing to Squirrel House. Also, I was Kitchen Coordinator! On the days that Katy, the Catering Coordinator, has off are the days that one of the vollies is picked to run the kitchen. I was really nervous because I do well with baking, not with cooking. So far, my work in the kitchen has been assisting with cooking by chopping vegetables, preparing platters and other cold foods for breakfast, taking out the compost,  etc. This is the first time that I was in charge of the cooking...ahh!

I prepared lunch for the first time alone. It went alright; it just took me awhile to get settled and figure out what I was doing. I was asked to make scrambled eggs which I had never made before. I figured it out...it's not that hard haha though I did end up accidentally damaging a pan by using the incorrect spatula....whoops! Overall, lunch was a success. Good, only dinnertime to fear cooking.

After a break in the afternoon of hanging around, I went back into the kitchen at four to start cooking. The first thing I had to do was chop up some onions to cook but I could not find them! Luckily, the rest of my kitchen crew arrived and helped me correctly cook spaghetti bolognase with garlic bread and dessert. Making dinner was definitely a challenge but I am glad that I got advice from those more experienced in the kitchen and that guests and staff alike enjoyed dinner which made my hard work pay off haha. I was glad when all of the cleaning was over and when I no longer felt the pressure of cooking for others! I guess this is what chefs feel like...at least Gordon Ramesy wasn't screaming at me while I was cooking haha.

Fun fact: I am super behind on my blog.....but I thank you all for checking and reading! I am attempting to catch up!!!!

Fun fact: The dinner bell just rung!

Day 23: Interlaken Training Part II
After the Trummelbach falls, we drove back to Interlaken. I was sad to leave the valley filled with so many waterfalls but excited to know that I will be back there again shortly. Once we were parked in Interlaken in the spot as before, we were given free time before 5pm. Katie and Rhianna encouraged us to test the scavenger hunt before they give it out to groups on programme.

The first thing I did was go off with Carly, Jessica, Libby and Cate to do the scavenger hunt. We walked from the parking lot onto the main street. We passed by a fancy hotel and walked right next to some beautiful yellow rose bushes. We walked down the main street past the park where the parasailers land, past the chocolate sotre Schuh, past many shops until we reached a rotary. The first clue was to find the post office; you can easily spot the post office symbol which says "Die Post" in bright yellow with a red cross next to it. The post trucks are bright yellow here.

From there, we spotted our next clue: B + K written on the roof of a building right near the post office which lead us into the beginning of the old town of Interlaken. We walked down a street into an area with hotels and restaurants but we could not find our next clue! We had been warned that the clue may no longer exist; it was a sign for a restaurant that changed. We decided to walk past the restaurant and look for our next clue: a shop named after a bird. After walking for a little bit, we found the store! It was a woodcarving shop named Woodpecker. We went in the shop and looked around for a few minutes. Everything was delicately carved out of wood from dainty owl decorations to large coo-coo clocks. I liked the wooden toys and one set of owls that all fit into each other the best.

As we continued to walk down the street we found our next three clues. The first clue was a blinking triangular traffic sign  which was easy to spot from the Woodpecker shop. Then, we looked for a building with the date 1646 on it. This was not as easy but luckily one member of our group spotted the number on a white building with a wooden roof and red shutters. The buildings on this street were different from the souvenir shops in the other part of Interlaken. The buildings were tall with wooden roofs and white, brown or beige colouring with different coloured shutters. In the distance I could see a rock cliff lined with pine trees; a part of a mountain in the opposite direction of Jungfrau, Eiger and Monk mountains. 

Our next clue was to enter a specific store, Denner's, and find the price of the cheapest chocolate. We found the store next to a bridge and an interesting wooden sculpture of a face. I found the sculpture fascinating yet at the same time slightly unnerving. We went into Denner's which was a small supermarket. We raced to the chocolate aisle and found the price for the cheapest chocolate: 0.45 rappens! (Note: rappens is equivalent to cents in the U.S.). Wow!! This is the best price I have seen for chocolate in all of Switzerland! Of course, I bought a few chocolate bars (milk and dark chocolate) and a chocolate drink! The chocolate drink was a box filled with rich, creamy and delicious chocolate milk. We shopped around in the store for a little while and we ran into Rhianna, Katie and both Heathers. 


We exited the store and my original scavenger hunt party continued on our way. We crossed the bridge over turquoise water. I know that I have continually used this description but throughout Switzerland I continually see snow-fed water untouched by murky mud and dirt. I think moving back to Massachusetts will be a shock....I will expect the buses to be exactly on time, the water to be a brillant blue and mountains everywhere. Fun fact: The elevation where I live at Our Chalet is higher than the tallest mountain in Massachusetts....what?!!? Kind of crazy haha


Anyways, we crossed the bridge into the old town of Interlaken. Our next target was to find a bakery sign whcih proved more difficult than some of the other clues. We walked up and down the street until I spotted it ! It was a large sign of a man in a baking outfit (white apron, hat and pants) on the side of a beige building with red shutters. I was excited because I found the clue!! It reminded me of I-Spy but real life haha. 
We followed the road which opened up. To the left I could see a clock tower (reminiscent of the one I saw in Bern). After crossing another bridge, we entered the main square of the old town. We walked around, following the clues. The cobblestone square was home to quaint buildings including two large stone wheels outside of a museum. There was also a big sculpture of an apple with an arrow through it! We walked through the square to a white church with distinctive black and yellow shutters. 


We exited the square and continued on our scavenger hunt. We passed by construction, stores, and a street filled with flags of different countries on either side. We looped around and had a short tour of the old town. The old town had cobblestone road and the buildings were taller with white fresco fronts and brown roofs. What I liked was that most of the time I could see the snowy mountian top of Jung Frau from anywhere in Interlaken!We crossed back over the bridges and ended near some souvenir shops. We completed the scavenger hunt and it was pretty fun!!


 The group then broke off but Libby and I wandered around the shops together. At one point, we wandered down a street where there was an outdoor market. It was really cool and different vendors had their things out for display from scarves to cds to things carved out of wood. There was also some street performers which is Switzerland tend to be accordion players haha. After some window shopping (I am window shopping for a Swiss army knife), we wandered back near the chocolate shop. We sat on a bench and watched the parasailers land until we met up for the chocolate show! 


At 5pm, we went inside the chocolate shop, Schuh, which had a fancy shop in the front which led into a restaurant area. We went into a room towards the back of the restaurant for the show. The room was white and had a counter at the front with different tools and a few platters of chocolate that were covered. Around the room there were different sculptures made out of chocolate including some singing dwarfs and a parrot sitting on a tree.  A chocolateer gave us a demonstration. He began with showing us a clip of a video about the cacao bean. We all then had the opportunity to try a cacao bean...it was very bitter tasting! Afterwards, he went over to a container of liquid chocolate and explained the temperatures that chocolate needs to be at to make different things while he heated up the chocolate with a hairdryer. Then, he showed us how to make chocolate mountains filled with caramels. He picked two volunteers to help him make a chocolate cow. He poured the chocolate into the plastic cow mold and the volunteers outlined the different parts of the cow with chocolate using frosting tubes filled with chocolate. While the volunteers were doing that, the chocolateer lifted the covers from the platters of chocolate and we all tried the different types of chocolate. There were mountains filled with caramel, white truffels filled with a champagne filling, milk chocolate pieces, dark chocolate pieces, 100% dark chocolate pieces (exceedingly bitter!!) and my favorite, chocolate truffels with chocolate filling. Then, the chocolateer explained how long to freeze the chocolate in the mold and pulled out a pre-made cow mold and took out the chocolate cow. After we admired the cow, he smashed it into pieces and we had some of the chocolate cow along with the other chocolate. Lastly, he warmed up the chocolate again and set aside some strawberries. We had chocolate with strawberries lastly. All of the chocolate was amazing!  I definitely ate enough to spoil my dinner haha but it was awesome! 


After the chocolate show we headed back to the cars for a ride back to Our Chalet. Later that night after dinner I ran my first Swiss night! It was for a small group of Girl Scouts overseas from Germany. After dinner, I went over to the costume closet with the girls to help them prepare the play for Swiss night. The play tells the story of William Tell. William Tell helped Switzerland win independence. He is famous for shooting an arrow through an apple that was sitting on his son's head after he refused to bow down to the dictator of the time (hence the sculpture in Interlaken). We got their costumes ready and practiced twice before it was time to hear Colby, a local cheesemaker, play the alpine horn outside. The sound of the alpine horn is definitely growing on me and looks really difficult to play. Afterwards, I ran Swiss night with Carly and Heather Canada. We taught the group the Vogellisi song, played Jeopardy and watched them eat chocolate fondue! It was the first Swiss night I ran and I am glad that it went well. 

Day 23: Interlaken Training Day Part I
This day, we had more programme training! It was a low-key and fun day. Again, throughout the day we reviewed the programme that we would do with the girls and the protocol such as how to cross the street with a large group of girls haha.

We drove in cars to Interlaken and we read through the sites that we will point out while on programme. It was cool when we drove through Aecshi; Aeschi is the town where Our Chalet was almost built. I also learned about the legend of Jungfrau, Monk and Giseler. Jungfrau, Monk and Giseler are three famous mountain peaks in Switzerland. The Monk mountain separates the young maiden (Jungfrau) and the ogre (Giseler).

We parked the cars in the back of a hotel and then proceeded to walk to the chocolate shop. Interlaken is beautiful. As we walked down a main street towards the chocolate shop, the wide streets were lined with various stores, cafes, restaurants (including a Hooters restaurant haha) and hotels. The chocolate shop, Schuh, was right next to a large green park where people parasailing land. The mountains frame Interlaken and behind the park I could see the snowy peaks of Jungfrau, Monk and Giseler. Once we were outside of Schuh, we reviewed how programme would work with the chocolate show. Our chocolate show was not until later so we had a few minutes to explore Interlaken before heading back to the cars.

We drove to the location where we will be taking girls to go white water rafting! The small wooden house had a reception area that was connected to the open yet covered space of the equipment rooms. One of the men working showed us a video of the activities the company offers including white water rafting, canonying, parasailing, bungee jumping, etc. We then got an overview of the preparation procedure for white water rafting and then we left for Trummelbach falls. On programme, a few girls will go white water rafting and the rest of the group will go to Trummelbach falls. All of the volunteers get a chance to go white water rafting once and I am excited to go! I also want to do at least one other activity offered by this company :)

We drove to Lauterbrunnen valley which is a famous valley with 75 waterfalls. As we drove along the rock cliffs, I spotted a few small waterfalls trickling down the grey rock-face dotted with shrubs. We parked near a tourist restaurant nearby the Trummelbach falls. We followed a gravel path surrounded by tall grass to a nice open field nearby a river shielded by tall green trees. We had a picnic lunch in the sun (and shade). The sky was a brilliant blue and above the trees I could see the snowy peak of a distant mountain. I could also see different waterfalls in all directions on the cliffs in the valley.

After a relaxing lunch, we continued on the gravel path nearby the rushing river, through a ticket terminal and then into a large brown elevator. I felt a little nervous because it seemed like a roller coaster though I know it was not. After 30 of us (the vollies, Rhinana, Katie and random people) squished into the large elevator, we started moving at a gradual incline inside the mountain. We had  a view of the tracks and rocks on either side as our space-ship like elevator gravitated towards the top.

Once the elevator stopped, we stepped out and back outside onto steps. Now, Trummelbach falls are magnificent and one of the best waterfalls I have been to. Trummelbach falls are a series of 10 waterfalls that are glacially fed by the Jungfrau mountain. Most of the waterfalls are inside of the mountain and near the top. We stepped out near the sixth waterfall (I think?) but followed the rock path with railing support around the mountain to inside of caves carved out inside of the mountain. We climbed up the steps all the way to the tenth waterfall at the very top. The rock cavern tunnels were tall and wide that were lit. The rock steps were slick from the mist of the waterfalls and I could hear the rushing of the falls that roared like a dragon. The steps led up to a small vantage point. I could feel the mist of the water on my face as the waterfall streamed powerfully between glistening black rocks from an unseen source. The water travelled in a river down among the rock to the next waterfall. I walked back down to the ninth waterfall, by far the most impressive of them all. From the smaller enclosure of the tenth waterfall, the ninth waterfall flowed through an open cavern in the mountain. In the cavern, the water dropped the rocks and continued flowing down the mountain. I was above the water so I could see the water dropping down and dropping down the rocks to the next waterfall. This cavern is impressive because multiple rainbows arched over the water and throughout the giant space. When I looked up, there was a crack where I could see the blue sky through.

From there, I walked down and visited the rest of the waterfalls. Though connected, each waterfall is unique and impressive. Another one of my favorite waterfalls there was the corkscrew fall which was thinner and twisted a few times on its way down a sharp drop. After the corkscrew waterfall, I exited the caverns. The rest of the waterfalls were observable outside of the caverns and I followed same path except that I took the time to observe the pure beauty of each fall.  I cannot fully describe the beauty of these waterfalls nor can pictures capture them but I had a wonderful time observing the falls. I am also excited because I will have the chance to return to the falls multiple times on programme. I also highly recommend that you come to Switzerland and see them!!

Hey! I am a little behind on my blog haha but I am working on it slowly but surely!
Here are the upcoming highlights:
- adventure park --> ziplining, absailing, pendulum jump
- absailing and hiking
- bunderspitz hike!
- Giessbach falls!
- Luzern!
- guest services time!

Day 22: Elsigen Alp Training
This day I had programme training and we hiked up Engsligen Alp! We have this training so that we know the hiking route because when we are on programme we will have to lead the hike (it would seem like a good idea to know the route haha).

The day was cloudy but I hoped that the sun would come out. We began our hike walking towards Ham's Bistro which is on the way to the Bunder waterfalls. After about 10 minutes, we veered off on a road in a patch of pine trees. After we crossed over a bridge, the road went out of the trees and wrapped around the mountains. The fields surrounded us on either side and houses and farms dotted the landscape. We followed the road until we reached a farmhouse. Instead of continuing on the road, we followed a narrow gravel path that zigzagged up a field into a grove of pine trees.

We followed the gravel trail through the pine trees and out of the trees into the open. Unfortunately, the clouds hung lower in the sky and it looked like we were stuck in a snow globe that someone had shook.
Nearby a wooden house, we followed a narrow dirt path up the middle of a field. The path led through a small village filled with wooden chalets. On the edge of the town, we followed a set of stairs uphill towards a field. At this point, the uphill hike was getting a little more intense so we stopped for more breaks haha. The narrow dirt trail ran up through the field and as we hiked up towards a group of trees, it started to rain and the fog completely surrounded us.

After we made it to the pine trees, the land flattened out a bit which was a nice break from all of the uphill climbing! Soon after, we began the last thirty minute ascent to the top of Elsigen alp! We hiked to the plateau of Elsigen alp but we didn't have time to hike to the peak (hopefully I will hike up to the peak with a group of girls in the future!). On the plateau, there were small rolling hills and as we walked around the bend in the gravel road I spotted a lake! It was a large lake filled with clear water though I could barely make it out with the fog. I found out later that the lake was man-made to attract more tourism.

We walked to the nearby restaurant which was a large wooden chalet. We stopped in and ate our packed lunch there. We also bought hot drinks and snacks while we were there...I had a scoop of gelato which was delicious!

After lunch, we played on the playground outside of the restaurant before embarking on the thirty minute walk to a natural glacial lake. We followed a path that ran next to a coursing river and that wrapped around the mountain with a view of rolling hills and the snowy peak above.

We reached a beautiful turquoise lake surrounded by pine trees and shrubs. Half of the vollies decided to jump into the water, myself included. With my bathing suit on, I walked into the water. I tried to stay submerged for five seconds underwater but it was too cold. The water was so earth-shockingly cold that when I emerged from the water my body felt entirely numb haha. Part of the staff challenge is to stay submerged in a river or lake for five seconds which I did not complete but I will in the summertime when it is more sunny.

Then, we headed back to the restaurant and then we walked down the mountain on the road. The hike down the mountain took a while and we had a nice view of a grey cliff covered in pine trees and the lush landscape. At the end of the hike, Christoph picked us up and drove us back to Our Chalet. The drive back was a little scary... it seemed like we would fall off of the mountain road!

I took a nice hot shower when I got back to warm up after jumping in the glacially fed lake haha. It was a fun and wet day and I can't wait to return on programme with a group of girls on a sunny day!

Day 21:
On this day, the large group of families left along with our cows. I'm sad that the cows are gone..I miss the tinkling of their bells. Well, they have moved up the mountain to better pastures haha.I started the morning off with programme meeting. We reviewed how today was going to run with the arrival of forty girl guides from the UK! Their day programme was specialized to their requests and slightly different from the standard summer programme. Today is also the day we moved into Stockli, the staff house! I was so excited to move into Stockli and not have to hike to Main Chalet haha. At the morning meeting we played a game to sort out rooms and roomates. We each reached into a bag and pulled out a large die. Depending on the colour of the die and the number is how we got sorted into rooms. Originally I was put on the second floor of Stockli but I ended up switching to a room on the first floor so that I would be paired with another person who is a night owl. My roommate is summer vollie Jessica!

For the day programme, the day started with an opening ceremony. We, the staff, introduced ourselves and then Catt read the words that Falk said at the first campfire. Then, the flags (Switzerland and the WAGGGS flag) were raised while we sang the Our Chalet song.

Next, the girls were split into groups and went around to different stations throughout the day. One station was orienteering which included learning how to use a compass and map. Another station was learning about WAGGGS and having a tour and the last station was

First, I had break and I helped Naomi hang up the posters we made on the bulletin board in Main Chalet....people can finally see them! Then, I prepared my belongings to move into Stockli later on. After break, it was time for the barbecue lunch. We had lunch on the veranda just outside the kitchen and Christoph grilled the bratwurst and veggie burgers for lunch. I was excited because there was Toblerone for dessert!

After lunch we moved all of our bags into the van to be transported to Stockli! Then, I was on guest services so I vacuumed Spyker and cleaned some rooms. Lastly, I was on programme! Naomi and I gave a tour to a group of girls. All of the girls were between ages 10 and 15. By the time they got to us though, the girls were all wet (from being outside for orienteering) and tired. The tour started out in the conference room with the power point and then we took them to each of the rooms. I tried to spice the tour up a bit by throwing in some random facts such as going through the oven for staff challenge. Also, in the American room it is rumored that if you sit in Helen Storrow's chair without asking permission the lights flicker. I think they are rigged haha.

After the tour, it was time for the WAGGGS activities. Because of the rain, we were forced to be indoors so all of the stations were in Spyker. The girls were split into groups and went to different stations spending ten minutes at each one. Naomi and I floated around between the stations and kept track of the time. At one station, the girls had to draw the WAGGGS regions on a balloon with marker though the balloons kept popping haha. At another station, the girls had to take a picture that included these elements: celebration, 100 years of girl  scouts and girl guides, a good deed and international. They all came up with very creative pictures! At one station they learned about the millennium goals with Katie Scales and at my favorite station, the girls had to search for clues hidden around in the reception lobby. The clues gave them answers to a sheet that they had to fill in. Then we all gathered back in the conference room and Naomi, Katie and I each picked winners for different categories...they all won Our Chalet song books!!! whoo!).

The guides left at 5pm and returned at 8pm for an indoor campfire in the dining room. I did not go to the campfire but instead spent my time unpacking my clothes in Stockli. When you walk into Stockli, the door directly to the right is the Music Room. The Music Room is a lounge where there is a table, a tv, dvds, cds, books, games and a foldout couch. The couch is always laid out as a bed with blankets and pillows on it. Then, if you walk straight there is a small kitchen with a table and benches with a small kitchenette of a stove, sink, etc. Then, if you keep walking straight there is a room on the right, stairs on the left and past the stairs on the first floor are two more rooms and two bathrooms equipped with showers. My room on the first floor all the way down the hall to the right next to one bathroom and across from the other. My room is medium-sized and my bed is next to the windows that have a lovely view of the tool shed. Jess let me have the large closet in the room (she got the bureau) for my stuff and I also have a bedside table. Yay! The second floor has more rooms and bathrooms. I am so happy to have a permanent place to stay this summer that is separate from the main buildings!

Day 20: Hike to Silleren Part II
Cate and I followed the road up the mountainside. The road was surrounded on both sides by rolling fields with mountain flowers. On our uphill climb, we found a patch of snow! We had a mini snow fight and I made a tiny snow man. The mountains are majestic and the higher up we climbed, more mountains peeked out in between the peaks. Though the hike uphill was long, it was a good bonding time for Cate and I.

Finally, we saw a building as we neared the summit! There was a restaurant, a playground and a gondola system at the top. The restaurant and gondola were closed because the summer season has not started yet. I hope to return to the top of Silleren soon to rent out a scooter and scooter down the peak! We played on the swing set for a little bit and then we took in the beautiful view of the valley. To the left, we could see the roofs of houses of nearby towns. In front and to the right, rolling green hills dotted with pine trees rose up to rock decorated with snow.

After taking in the view for a little while, we began our descent to Adelboden. We crossed a bridge near the gondola station and followed the narrow dirt trail past a small pond that then led into the pine trees. We followed this trail down the mountain through the pine trees and lush greenery. Part way down, we took a break and called Our Chalet to let them know that we would be back in time for dinner! We also found some branches to use for walking sticks which helped take the pressure off of my knees. Adelboden came closer and closer into view as we made our way down.

The trail ended and we passed through a large wooden door frame. We followed a trail that led us into a field and we passed an abandoned farm house. Luckily, we spotted the "Wanderweg" sign and knew we were on the right path. We continued down the mountain and as we got closer to the bottom we could hear cowbells (as well as smell the cows nearby haha). After passing through a few turnstyles, we reached the bottom of the mountain in a field right next to where cows were grazing! We followed the trail until we reached the road. After making a turn in the road, we realized that we passed signs that we had looked at before earlier in our hike.....we had turned around and backtracked though we had actually been going in the correct direction....oh well haha. We did get a little lost but it was all part of the adventure!

We decided to follow the road into Adelboden. We were walking on a semi-busy road so we were careful. On our walk into town, we saw some ponies with shaggy coats and took some breaks. Since we were at the same elevation as the town, we did not have to walk up the hill! We walked into town on a far edge that I had never been by before and within five minutes we were on the main street. We stopped and got dessert at a cafe (the same one that I had been to with Karin, Carly and Rihanna!). This time, I got a strawberry tart for a dessert..yum! We enjoyed our dessert on a bench nearby the square with the town fountain. Then, after stopping at Co-Op we began the journey back to Our Chalet.

We made our way down from town and then climbed up the mountainside to Our Chalet though at this point my legs were hurting a lot haha. We got back at 5ish and I took a shower before dinner. At dinner, I sat with a family who lived on the military base. We had a good conversation and at one point they asked me what I missed the most and I named a few foods including granola bars. Then, one of the kids ran and got me a few granola bars! I was touched by their kind gesture and I am saving the bars haha.

There was a campfire that night but I was too exhausted to go so I went to bed really early...at quarter to 9pm! I think I set a new record for going to bed early for myself haha...I am one of the night owls here so it's rare if I go to bed before 11pm haha

Day 20: Hike to Silleren! Part I
I had this day off and I decided that I wanted to take a hike. I went with another summer vollie, Cate and we decided to hike up the Silleren alp. We left around 10am and began our journey by walking down from Our Chalet to the bottom of the mountain. We followed a path that was right next to a coursing turquoise river surrounded by pine trees. The path was wide and made of gravel. I could see that some of the pine trees had fallen as a result of the recent storm, and though I was tempted to walk across the fallen trees that were suspended over the river I knew it wasn't a good idea haha. We also passed a bathtub on this path haha...it was really random but a good photo opportunity haha.

We followed the signs to the adventure park. We passed the outdoor adventure park and I could see some wires up above. There was also a bridge that passed through the clearing. We would be venturing to the adventure park soon as a part of training. Afterwards, we came to a wooden bridge, crossed it and climbed up a hill next to a chalet. We looked at some signs and only saw a road so we decided to backtrack to the path we were on. We continued on the gravel road next to the river until the path opened up to a barn surrounded by fields. We made some cow friends before we decided to follow a small dirt path that ran behind the barn. We made our way around some clean-up of fallen trees up a small hill back into a grove of pine trees though we were no longer next to the river.

We contiunued our hike across the valley until we finally reached the base of Silleren. The view was beautiful; the clear blue sky outlined the snowy mountains. As we ascended the mountain, I could more clearly see the avalanche barriers high up on the mountains. We reached a steep hill next to a small stream. The hill was filled with tall grass and mountain flowers.

Then, we reached a road! We followed the road upwards near fields until we saw a path. We followed the path to an old chalet which had a "Wanderweg" sign near it (Wanderweg stands for hiking trail). We saw a small dirt trail near the chalet so we had a choice to make: 1) take the road or 2) follow the trail.

We decided to follow the trail. We followed the trail across the field and at an upward incline. The trail suddenly ended so we thought that the road would be curving back up in the distance. We started travelling in the direction of where we thought the road would be. We spent an hour crossing fields, small streams and through small patches of trees. We kept going until we came to the edge of the hill that had a sharp drop down to some water below. We took a small break nearby the gorge and decided that we were lost and could not go any further. Unfortunately Cate and I have the same sense of direction which is not awesome and the maps stayed in our backpacks the entire hike haha.

Then, we spotted a road down the hill that we were on (which was clearly someone's property haha). We descended the hill and made it to the road next to a chalet. We decided to follow the road until we reached the top!
 We were getting tired and the summit seemed far away. The real question running through our minds was: Will we actually make it to the top of Silleren?

Day 19: Training and Market Part II
After dinner, it was time for Swiss night run by Carly and Karin with assistance from the Heathers! I will have to run this during the summer so this was the first Swiss night I attended to participate and observe how to run it. First, the set-up in the dining room. Swiss flags cover the windows, flags of each province hang from the rafters and in the front the Jeopardy game is set up.

The first activity for Swiss night...learning a traditional song about Adelboden. We went over the lyrics and then sang along with the music. This song gets stuck in your head so easily...it's in my head right now...
Then, a special guest, Fritz, came to play a traditional horn instrument. The horn is called an Alphorn and is extremely long and made out of wood. The horn starts out with thin (with a reed at the top) and then grows larger to the horn that sits on the ground. Fritz has been playing the horn at Our Chalet for many years and he put on a great show.

Afterwards, some volunteers picked beforehand did a play that describes the legend of William Tell. William Tell helped free Switzerland from a tyrant's rule by refusing to bow down to said tyrant. Tell was ordered to shoot an apple from the top of his son's head or face immediate death. William Tell successfully shot the apple off of his son's head and ran away back to his home in the mountains; he later killed the tyrant thus helping to free Switzerland. The kids did a great job and had a fun time :)

Then, it was Jeopardy time! There were nine teams and I sat with a group of girls. We were the cat team because our noise was meowing haha. I actually knew a lot of the answers but I tried to not help out my group too much. The whole game was loud, competitive and fun. My team won! We won getting chocolate fondue first!

After Swiss night, I was in the kitchen with other summer vollies. We may or may not have drunken the fondue chocolate......haha. Then Cate and I went to Ham's Bistro opened specially for Sarah's birthday. Most of the spring and summer vollies were already there when we got there. I had more chocolate fondue and we had fun hanging out and celebrating Sarah's 19th birthday!

After trekking back to camp house for the night, I decided to go to sleep after chatting

Day 19: Training and Market Part I
This day, half of the summer vollies were working and half were not. I worked that day and began the day with morning meeting (as usual). I learned that there was a big market fair in town and this fair only happens twice a year in Adelboden (before summer and before winter). At this fair, all of the farmers come together to decide which land the cows will move up to for the summer time. In the summer, the cows move up into the mountains to graze. Soon, there will be a traditional cow parade where the cows will wear flower head-dresses. I hope to make it to the parade but it is at 5am haha.

For the morning, I cleaned: bathrooms, vacuuming, setting beds...whoo!
Also, Putri departed today which was sad; the first spring vollie to leave :(

After lunch, we had free time until dinner prep at 5pm (dinner officially moved from 6pm to 6:30pm). I decided to venture into town to see the market! Once I got into town, there were stalls lining the main streets. There was a lot more people milling about among the stalls. There were food stalls selling bratwurst, other grilled foods, chocolate and baked goods. There were stalls selling farm equipment, jewelry, honey and my personal favorite: toy stalls. The toy stalls were filled with different candies and toys. I thought it was so cool because most of the fairs I've gone to there are usually not stalls dedicated entirely to toys.

I stopped by the Co-op and wandered around for a bit. I bought some mint tea and body lotion...whoo! Afterwards, I was walking out of Co-op back towards the market stalls when I heard my name! I saw Rihanna, the Assistant Programme Director, walking towards me! I walked with her to a nearby cafe and we sat outside until Karin and Carly (spring vollies) joined us. They were leading the big group on programme today and allowing for the families to explore Adelboden for a bit. I got a delicious chocolate-covered creme puff and we had a good conversation. I learned that in the winter the trains freeze to the tracks in Sweden.

Then Rihanna, Karin and Carly had to leave and while I was walking with them we ran into Steph (another spring vollie)! I then walked with Steph instead and we had a good conversation. It was fun to hang out with some of the spring vollies before they depart (except Carly is working Summer and Karin will be working in the scout world centre in the next valley Kandersteg).

I then began the long hike back up the mountain. Half-way up a van stopped by next to me (I was wearing my uniform for Our Chalet...aka staff shirt, staff vest and navy blue pants) asking me if I wanted a ride to Our Chalet. The woman was showing the guy she was with Our Chalet and gave me a ride....my first time hitch hiking! Wow haha.

Then, I was on kitchen prep and clean-up. During dinner I sat with different guests and got to know them which was fun!

Day 18: Last Working Day of the Spring Vollies :(

It was the last working day of the Spring vollies before they start to depart on different days afterwards. At morning meeting, we learned that 58 guests were arriving in the afternoon. They are families living at a military base in Germany; the girls are part of Girl Scouts overseas. 

In preparation of the families arriving, we had a lot of rooms to set up. I cleaned the Main Chalet bathroom all by myself and then I helped set beds. 

In regards to the last working day of the lovely Spring vollies, we wanted to think of a creative way to give the Spring vollies their cards that we made in secret. Lunch was the staff only so before the spring vollies arrived, we took a paper chain and hung it above the table where food is laid out for lunch. We then hung the cards on the chain with a sign in the middle with a wonderful painting of the mountains and Our Chalet with "Bon Voyage" painted on it (courtesy of summer vollie Cate). We then made bridges with our hands near the doors for the spring vollies to pass through. When the spring vollies arrived, they went through our people bridges and  we cheered for them. I'm glad that they loved their cards and I was surprised to find out later that we had the nicest hand-over of vollies from one season to the next (yay! we're awesome!). 

After lunchtime, we had the International Experience training with Koka (Deputy World Centre Director). During this training we talked about what it is like to live with an international staff team and talking about the definition of culture. We talked about a metaphor about the glacier of culture: a small part of culture is obvious on the surface including cuisine and traditions and a large part of culture is not so obvious and underneath the surface such as values. We also talked about what culture shock is and I realized that I experienced a few of the things on the list. When I first arrived at Zurich airport I felt: lost, rejected, confused, and slightly sad. Overall, I am getting used to life in Switzerland though I am missing some food and people from home!

Then around four pm, the group of guests arrived and I did my first Meet and Greet. I went with the first family who arrived   (before the rest of the big group arrived). They were staying in Squirrel House, so I went with them to Squirrel house and did the Meet and Greet there. Basically I explained where to find showers in Main Chalet, what services/equipment is available to them in Reception and other important things for them to know. When I exited Squirrel House, the parking lot between Main Chalet and Spyker had filled up with children, parents and suitcases. With three other summer vollies, we divided up the families by location of their rooms and I did another Meet and Greet. I told the families staying in Main Chalet basically the same information as I told the family staying in Squirrel House and Jessica (the summer vollie doing the Meet and Greet with me) and I showed the families to their rooms. 

After fielding off questions, I went to kitchen duty. The kitchen was extremely busy because we had 73 people for dinner including both staff and guests. We were scrambling towards the end but we got the food out on time! At dinner, I sat with a table of guests and got to know them. I also answered their questions about my background and things to do nearby Adelboden. Dinner clean-up took longer than usual but we got it done in pretty good time. As usual, towards the end I did the sweeping and squeeging...I tend to always clean the floor. I prefer that to Vimming. What is Vimming? Well, Vim is a type of cleaning product. First, you shake the white powder of Vim onto a surface. Then, you rub it into the surface with a damp cloth. Then, you take a different damp cloth and wipe it off. Lastly, you take Syrafim (a disinfecting spray) and clean the surface off. I prefer cleaning the floor haha

Today was a monumental day also because....I did a correct and successful cartwheel!!! Some of the summer vollies watched and judged it to be adequate....now I just need to perfect it! 

Day 17:
Cleaning
After my adventurous days, this day felt very slow in comparison. After morning meeting, all of the summer vollies were assigned to do Guest Services for the morning. This means....cleaning! I cleaned some bathrooms and did vacuuming in Main Chalet. With all of us working, we finished cleaning early. The spring vollies' last working day is tomorrow (day 18) before they all separately depart Our Chalet. Since they have been so welcoming and awesome (especially for throwing a surprise tea party for us!), we wanted to do something special for them.

We made all of the spring vollies a special card. On one side, we put a group picture of them in the middle and different decorations around the picture depending on their personal flair. On the back we each wrote them special notes! We were not certain how we were going to pull off giving the cards to them in an awesome way but we worked on making the cards until lunchtime.

The afternoon was not too eventful. I was on kitchen duty and I got to wear an awesome apron and hat. I took control of Wendy, the sanitizing machine, during part of my work in the kitchen.

Fun Fact: The grass at Our Chalet is really long. Why is it not cut? The farmers have to agree about the time to cut the grass; anyone who cuts the grass before the decision is made is looked down upon in the valley.

We had guests from Oklahoma staying with us so for their last night we had a campfire after dinner at 8pm. I went to the campfire and it was fun. Again, I learned many new songs. My favorite from the night is the Swedish Sailor Song which is mostly made-up words. I also learned a song about a donkey and a goosing song from the Oakies. The group from Oklahoma presented the Chalet with a few gifts: the state rock which is the colour of the dirt there and shaped like a rose, a neckerchief in honor of one woman's husband who was unable to visit Our Chalet with the group and a red scarf in the shape of Oklahoma. They also gave each staff in attendance a dream catcher. I traded so I got a purple dream catcher....I love them and I'm happy to have a dream catcher for my room in Switzerland!

After the campfire, I trekked to camp house. Camp house is very small and starting to get messier and messier the longer we stayed in it haha. Then, it was time to hit the hay before another long day :)

Day 16: Training!
After my days off, it was back to training! We currently have around forty guests and I helped out with breakfast clean-up. After morning meeting, we had our first Programme training with Katie Scales and Rihanna. We first got to look through some brochures and see what we wanted to do in our time in Switzerland. I have some high adventure activities that I would like to do and I hope that I get to do at least one of them...it all depends on timing and money! I also learned how to read a map with hiking trails on it.. probably should have looked at that for my day at Reichenbach Falls...oh well haha


Then, we reviewed what the programmes look like for this summer. Most programme cycles include a hike to the Wood Carvers, a day trip into Interlaken with white water rafting, a day in the adventure park and some other lovely events (all of which I will explain in full detail once I am on programme). We also went through how the programmes will run and other useful information. I am excited to do programme training and try out the activities that I will be running in the near future for myself first :)


Afterwards, Katie and Rihanna put a pile of equipment on the floor and we had to dress Katie as the "good role model" for hiking and Rihanna as the "bad role model" for hiking. Towards the end, it was quite entertaining to see Rihanna with a Egyptian crown on, four pairs of pants on and a big furry coat haha. Then it was lunchtime and I was on clean-up afterwards.


I took my free time to call my mom and dad to get some updates on their future trip to Our Chalet!!! I am excited and it is always good to talk to them...even though it was 7am there haha


Then, we went outside with Katie for our next programme training about communication. The training was useful and fun. We mostly did different activities to demonstrate different aspects of communication and how important it is. For one activity, we were split into two groups and we had to write clear instructions on how we wanted the other group to get a ball into a bowl (with each member involved).  For the next activity, I told the same story three times and the person listening had different body language; showing the importance of active listening. I am glad to be practicing active listening and effective communication throughout the summer; it will help me out tremendously not only in life but also as a RA and as a facilitator for GCO next semester. Lastly, we did an activity where one person observed a picture, one person had to draw the picture (they could not see the picture) and another person ran between the observer and the person drawing to help communicate the correct picture. All of these activities illustrated the importance of communication and they were important reminders that I will try to practice this summer.


After our traning ended, Katie handed us a mysterious letter from the spring vollies that we could not not open until 3:55pm....10 minutes! We had seen two summer vollies, Putri and Steph, sneaking around earlier near Main Chalet, Spyker and Stockli. Of course, we came up with a few conspiracy theories. A majority of the summer vollies were convinced that the spring vollies had planned a major prank and were going to attack us. After the anticipation built (throughout our communcation training and while waiting until 3:55pm), we finally opened the letter. The spring vollies invited us to a tea party in Baby Chalet at fourpm.


Now I will back up and give some history of Our Chalet. Baby Chalet was the first chalet built on the grounds and in 1933 Helen Storrow (one of the founders of Our Chalet who gave the funding for the World Centre) hosted a tea party for guests including Lord and Lady Baden Powell and Falk. Part of staff challenge is to host a tea party in Baby Chalet with all of staff but today we attended a surprise tea party today. This was a lovely surprise (much different than our theories today haha) and it definitely brightened my day to a whole new level of amazing.

When we walked into the first floor of Baby Chalet, there were delectable delights laid out on the table and cups, tea and hot water ready for the tea party. There were corn cookies (a common cookie found in Singapore, courtesy of Putri), short bread cookies,  lemon squares, a pot of whipped creme and a beautiful double layered pound cake with strawberry jam filling. I enjoyed my tea while sitting (though it was a little crammed with all of the staff in Baby Chalet) on the red window couch and eating all of the desserts. Then, it was off to dinner prep and afterwards, dinner clean-up. 

 

Day 15: Day off! Adelboden!
After my adventures of the day before, I decided to relax more on my day off. I slept in until 11:30am and then I read for a while in my bed in Camp House. I then got ready and hiked to Main Chalet for lunch. After lunch, I ventured into Adelboden with summer vollie Libby. Except for when I got lost with my suitcase on the first day, I have not been into Adelboden since. It was a holiday so I expected most shops to be closed.

After we descended the mountain that Our Chalet lies on,  we walked through the rotary and up the other side of a mountain to Adelboden! We passed a few chalets and we first stopped by Adelboden's local museum is a small church on part of the incline up into the main part of town. Libby and I searched around the museum for a geocache. A geocache is usually a small container with a book or small trinkets inside. It is a game played world-wide where people hide geochaches in random locations. Then, they give clues to the coordinates of the geocaches and you have to go find them. Essentially, it is a modern-day treasure hunt. Unfortunantly, we forgot to translate the clues of the coordinates from German to english so we just looked around the museum. One side had long grass, a stone wall in the back and a woodesy area on the right-hand side. We were looking and ran into the man in town who runs the museum. After we talked to him, we gave up and decided to return another day when we had more information haha.

We continued the incline into town and passed by a Co-Op and a few other small shops and cafes. We turned onto a street nearby a church and then walked down a main street next to the church. Then I saw it...the fountain! Part of the staff challenge is to climb the fountain in town and I had imagined a fountain similar to one that I saw in Bern: a pool catching the water from a spout and a large spire running up the centre of the pool. Instead, the fountain in town is a pile of rocks with water spouting over them...haha not even close to what I was thinking but definitely easier!

Nearby the fountain, a man was selling some wooden items and the main street is near the church square. Libby and I went in and out of various shops including some bakeries! The chocolate was tempting but I ate the Balisto bar that I brought with me instead. A Baslisto bar is a crunchy bar with a chocolate coating....the Swiss version of a granola bar. I was surprised with how many shops were open considering it was a holiday in Switzerland!

We returned to the fountain and I wanted to climb it but we decided to wait until the man selling his wooden items had finished packing up first. We talked for a while and I found out more about Girl Guiding in the UK among other things. It was a good bonding time. Then, we decided we had waited long enough. I climbed up the fountain and posed for a picture...but not before getting one shoe wet haha. I think I have 12 points now!! Whoo!! I am closer to winning the glory of staff challenge!!!

Afterwards, we headed back down the mountainside to the rotary. On our way down we hung out and talked some more at a local playground. The Swiss playground was really cool and included a rope structure similar to a jungle gym and a red slide that was long and curved. We made it back to Our Chalet in time for dinner!

After dinner, some summer vollies wanted to go check out Ham's Bistro that Christoph had pointed out to us. One of the vollies had saw that it was open that day so we decided to check it out. We walked on a small dirt path to the right of the Stockli staff house down the side of the hill. Ham's Bistro is a small house located nearby Our Chalet and nearby Harry's Chalets (I passed it on my way to the Bonderfalles). We grabbed a few drinks and sat down outside. Ham, the man who owns the bistro, introduced himself and got to know us. We realized that the bistro opens on June 21st but once we name-dropped Christoph's name, Ham let us know to call us if we wanted him to open up the bistro. We made reservations for June 1st with chocolate fondue for summer vollie, Sarah's birthday!  We relaxed for a few hours and a few of the vollies even ordered cheese fondue! We then returned to Our Chalet and trekked back to Camp house. We found our new hangout for the summer haha.

Reichenbach Falls and Aareschlucht Gorge Part IV:
After I got off the train, I crossed a bridge over the turquoise river. The mountains framed the river on one side and on the other, two rock cliffs towered over the water on both sides. The view was breathtaking and I realized that I was looking at the Gorge! I eagerly followed the trail up to a road and a tourist building for the Aareschlucht Gorge, complete with a dragon logo. I went inside the building and after showing my train ticket to the person in the booth, I walked out to begin my walk alongside the gorge.

A wooden path followed the gorge from the West gate (where I was walking towards) to the East gate (where I started from). The wooden path was high above the water and right next to one of the rock cliffs. The turquoise water flowed almost noiselessly underneath the path and the chiseled rock faces rose high above my head on both sides. On the top of the cliffs though, there was grass, trees and other vegetation visible. The view was breathtaking and no picture can ever do justice to the beauty of the gorge. The path wound around the rock cliff and got more narrow as I walked closer to the West gate. At one point, there was a large cavern where rocks filled the gaping hole between the rock cliff that I was walking next to. I understood from the signs (that were in German) that there used to be a waterfall at the point that had dried up a while ago. The entire gorge was created from a glacier that used to sit on top of the rocks and had melted. The water eroded the rock into the rock cliffs that I saw which is similar to how the Grand Canyon was formed.

I followed the path (which was an easy stroll...I definitely needed that after my day of hiking/walking everywhere) and the area between the rocks got more narrow. After going around a major bend, a small waterfall appeared! It was a lot smaller than Reichenbach falls but still cool! The waterfall looks like nature turned on a water faucet and forgot to turn it off. The water falls off the rock cliff into the river directly. I went into carved out caves and I got a closer look at the waterfall. I continued to walk in the cave but I followed a route that led out to be near the river again.

Then, I walked in and out of the cave and viewing ledges as the rock cliffs came closer and closer together until they were a mere few inches apart. The rock sides no longer looked chiseled as they did before, but were carved out in long strips. They reminded me of what craters look like on the moon from pictures except vertical. After 20 minutes of dodging in and out of caves, I saw bright light and I exited the gorge to a view of the river and the mountains at the West gate. The gorge is a magnificent place that proves the beauty of nature.

I bid the gorge farewell and I made my way back to the train station (though not before taking a break at the playground nearby the rest station on this side of the gorge gate). I took the small blue train back to the Meiringen train station. I missed the train to Interlaken by a few minutes and had to wait about an hour to catch the next train. I took this time to have dinner because I had a feeling I would not be back to Our Chalet until late. My journey back was long because I had to wait for long periods of time between some trains. During my layover in Speiz, I ventured out of the train station and went into town a little bit. Spiez is situated on a beautiful lake. Among houses and shops, a castle overlooked the lake. The town centre was quaint and filled with different shops which were closed.

I made it back to Our Chalet around 10:30pm and I trudged back to camp house, falling into bed right away. The day was filled with many adventures and one thing that I find entertaining is that I had four people ask me for questions during the day;  once in English, twice in Swiss-french and once in Swiss-german. Then, I was reading the Hunger Games on the train and a woman started to talk to me. She and her family had biked from somewhere past Adelboden to Interlaken...what a long bike ride!

Reichenbach falls and Aareschlucht Gorge are definitely worth seeing and I am glad to have satisfied my appetite for waterfalls on this day off!

Day fourteen: Reichenbach Falls and Aareschlucht Gorge Part III:

I am sorry that I haven't updated in a few days but while I was staying in Camp house I did not get internet and at times my bed looked more inviting than the walk back to the T-bar in Main Chalet in the dark haha.
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Now, to continue on!
I am glad that I wore my raincoat because when I stepped off of the platform, the mist from the Reichenbach falls was raining down on me. The falls tumbled ferociously over the rocks in a thin stream that widened to drape over the water pooling at the bottom. The water at the bottom pooled into a rapid stream heading down the mountainside.

I followed a trail that headed away from the falls at first and along a rock cliff. The gravel trail went into a forest patch and I ascended to the top of the falls. I stopped along the way to eat a sandwich and to admire the falls as I got closer and closer to the top. The sound of the falls got even louder the closer that I got to the waterfalls. After about 30 minutes, I reached the bridge at that crossed over the top of the falls. The bridge crossed over right where the water drops off the rock cliff. On the right hand side, the rapids flowed over a few bumps until the water drops off of the rock cliff. On the left, I got an amazing view of how sharp the drop of the waterfall is and the rocks below. I didn't spend much time on the bridge but I spent some more time admiring the view of the water before the drop. It seemed to rush in smaller frothy waterfalls to get to the big drop.

I kept climbing away from the waterfall into the forest again (still on the trail). I made it to the restaurant at the top which was a wooden chalet on top of a hill. I went into the restaurant briefly to restock on water and then it was time to find the ledge! I followed the brown sign with a picture of Sherlock Holmes on it that stated "Fussweg Footpath." The thin dirt path soon turned to a stony steep descent surrounded on both sides by trees.  I easily made my way down the path all the way to a pasture. I looked at my directions (thanks to Spring Vollie Steph!) and I realized that I had passed the trail leading to the ledge! Well, I didn't come to Reichenbach Falls to miss seeing the famous Sherlock Holmes ledge! I gritted my teeth and climbed the steep route back up to a trail next to a rock cliff.

The trail followed a rock cliff and I hoped that it was the trail that I was looking for. The rock cliff was bumpy and looked to me as if it had been chiseled out long ago. After I rounded the bend, I came upon a ledge that had a metal fence on the right and the rock cliff on the right. On the rock cliff there was a plaque that stated "At this fearful place, Sherlock Holmes vanquished Professor Moriarty, on 4 May 1891." 
It was really cool to be at the famous ledge and I definitely could see why it is a "fearful place." Without the fence, it would be very easy to tumble into the force of the falls. The ledge is close to the top and nearby powerful water. I saw the white star marking the ledge up close and I was lucky to be able to spend some time alone on the ledge without the company of others. This was nice for two main reasons: 1) It was a very narrow ledge 2) I had some time to admire the ledge and soak in the fictional history seeping the ledge


Then, I left the ledge and I crossed a muddy area of grass where I was exposed on one side completely to the falls. I could see the trolley and the platform on the other side of the rock cliff and it seemed so far away. I began my descent (again) down the mountain side on a steep narrow path filled with roots, stones and many twists and turns. After about 15 minutes, I reached a small wooden door connected to a fence that led me into a cow field. I followed a narrow cow path on down until I climbed over another fence...clearly I was on someone's property haha. In the background, as always, is the tinkling of cow bells. I walked along a road down the mountain and I came across some goats, cows and two animals that are native to Switzerland that I could not identify. The unidentifiable animals were not behind any fences so I quickly passed by them on the road. I followed the road back to the trolley station and started to walk back into town.


It was 4 pm and I had two options: 1) Go to the Sherlock Holmes Museum before it closed at 6pm or 2) Get to Aareschlucht Gorge before it closed at 5:30pm. I decided that the Gorge sounded cooler and I would rather get to it in one day than spend the money to get back out to Meringen to see it another day. I walked fast back into town and took some pictures along the way of some interesting buildings and other things in town. With one last gaze at the Sherlock Holmes museum, I made it to the train station by 4:30 pm and caught the last train to the Gorge. The train was bright blue and green and the train ride was pleasant but short. I decided to get off the train at the East Gate of the Gorge so then I could walk back towards Meringen instead of away. 

Day fourteen: Reichenbach Falls and Aareschlucht Gorge Part II
After finding a new direction, with renewed energy I continued up the mountainside on a trail over rocks and roots. I had a beautiful view of the nearby snowy topped mountains and the roofs of the buildings in Meiringen. 


The trail was soon filled with piles of red dead leaves, left over from an earlier season. I passed by another small stream that ran quietly through the rocks surrounded by the red leaves and moss-covered trees were nearby. The trail then got much steeper and I braced myself for the climb. A sweaty few minutes later, I reached a sign that said "Luegen- Falcheren" but I was not sure what that meant. The path continued to get steeper and there was a mossy stone wall on either side. This reminded me of the remains of stone walls that I come across occasionally in Massachusetts; abandoned sites where the farmland has grown back into a forest except for the wall. There was one more steep part left until I reached the top...but I didn't hear the falls anymore. After I reached the top, the path went through a large field that rolled up to my left and I had a beautiful view of the Meiringen. 


I didn't hear or see that falls. I guessed that I had climbed higher than the falls! I walked forward into a clump of trees but I determined that the path went back down the other side of the mountain which was not what I wanted. I returned to the field and I decided to go in the direction of the falls. I ran through the field stopping only a little bit. The grass started up to my ankles and as I passed a chalet the grass went up to my calves. I ran fast because there were a lot of flowers in the grass and consequently many bees. I could hear cow bells tinkling in the distance and deducted that I was in cow fields....again. And lost. 


I ran through the grass with it up to my thighs (good thing I was wearing full-length leggings haha). I got to an electric fence and I could either cross it or turn back. I decided to turn around and I saw a small hill that I went down. I ended up finding a trail that led back into the trees. The path descended down the mountain but by this point I was glad to be out of the grass and I was frustrated and exhausted. I went down the trail and it branched off into a smaller path. I followed the small path to a river. I climbed over a fallen birch tree and crossed the river. I climbed up a steep slope and walked along the trail until it ended and I ended up turning around and going back to the trail that I had left originally. I kept going down the mountain and I kept hoping to find Reichenbache falls but instead I found a rock cliff that curved into a half-circle. Underneath, there was a bench where I took a break.


Then, I continued down the mountainside and the trail zig-zagged through some green plants until I reached the gravel road. I passed by the small waterfalls again and retraced my steps exactly back to where the trolley station is. 


Well, I didn't travel all the way to Meiringen to not see the Reichenbach falls up close! I decided to take the trolley up (which was now open). I waited in line and after about 20 minutes, I got into the trolley. I was on the end of the bench right next to the side of the trolley. I am not  a fan of roller coasters but this was a slow and leisurely ride up to the falls. I saw some of the trails that I followed on my hike up the mountain. 


I gingerly got off of the platform and I was prepared in my rain jacket for the misty rain from Reichenbach falls. The falls are amazing! The water cascades down the sheer rock face and down into a rapid down the mountain. I also saw the white star on the other side of the falls that marks the famous ledge where Sherlock Holmes defeated his nemesis Professor Moriarty.


I started on another hike: up to the top of the falls and over to the famous ledge! Despite my exhaustion, I was energized for another hike!

Day fourteen: Reichenbach Falls and Aareschlucht Gorge! Part I
Note: I did a lot of adventuring this day so there will be multiple posts as I break it up haha
I had a much needed day off and I decided to venture off on my own to Meiringen where the Reichenbach Falls are. The Reichenbach falls are famous as the location where Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty faced off for the last time.

I left Our Chalet at 9:15am and began the long journey to Meiringen. I took a bus and three trains to get there. On one of trains, I passed through Interlaken which is a beautiful city surronded on both sides by lakes. The lakes are turquoise blue and green mountains rise up around the lake. The scenery reminded me of the dinosaur age and I could imagine taradactals flying around in the sky and other dinosaurs eating the vegetation around the lake.

After I arrived in Meiringen, I tried to figure out the bus schedule but I don't think any buses were running because it was a Sunday and most things are closed on Sundays. I meandered into town and the first building I spotted was a chapel. Stained glass decorated the chapel windows and there was a tall wooden agriculture that reminded me of a mix between a totem pole and a tree. The sign outside of the building informed me that it was....the Sherlock Holmes museum! It was closed so I decided to possibly stop by later if I had time before it closed later. The museum was situated in a park. To the right of the building was a platform with a life-size set of chess pieces (similar to the set that I saw in Bern...perhaps this is a trend in Switzerland?). To the left of the museum past the sculpture was a grassy area with a small playground.

I continued up the street but I had two problems: 1) I had no idea how to get to Reichenbach falls 2) It was time to find a WC (water closet). I entered a fancy-looking hotel near the Sherlock Holmes museum and I followed the WC signs to the basement. The basement walls looked like marshmello and were now smooth at all. I walked up and down the hall for a few minutes until I spotted the bathroom! It was a door that had a symbol on it that I had not seen before haha. Afterwards, I asked upstairs for directions and reception kindly gave me a map to take with me.

Now, with directions I could finally set off! I walked down the streets of the quaint town of Meiringen. Stores lined the streets and most of the buildings were white with terracotta roofs or wooden (another theme of Switzerland). I also passed by the Sherlock Holmes hotel and I got a glimpse of some other smaller waterfalls to the left in the nearby mountains in the distance. I turned the corner and ended up crossing a bridge. Underneath, the turquoise water flowed strongly and on both sides, snowy mountains were close on the horizon. In front of me, I spotted Reichenbach falls! The falls tumbled down strongly from the mountain and were nestled in the pine-covered mountain in front of me.

After about 20 minutes, I made it to the beginning of the mountain up to Reichenbach falls. There was a red trolley service that would bring you up to the falls but they were closed down. The wooden track rises up most of the way to the falls. The trolley is bright red with wooden bench seats and doors and was a refurbished antique. I ate lunch near a stone commemorating Sherlock Holmes in the park near the trolley while I decided what to do. Since I did not want to sit around for 30 minutes, I thought that I could hike up the mountain to the falls. I started to head up a hill (without taking a map or reading the map of course) and started walking on the road. I figured as long as I followed the wooden tracks, then I would be able to hike the falls.

I followed the road and passed underneath the the wooden tracks. I continued on the road until I came to a trail that turned all rocky. I ended up passing some other hikers so I knew I was going the correct direction. Then, I came to the end of the rocky road to a bunch of yellow signs. I randomly picked one way to follow and followed a gravel path. I had the rail track in sight and then I crossed a bridge and underneath there was a big rocky patch. A river was flowed through the rocks to a sharp drop of five to seven feet and then continued with a strong current underneath the bridge. The sharp drop amazed me that at such a small waterfall could be made while on my hike up the mountainside before the giant waterfall of Reichenbache!

Then I came to a fork in the road; I then wasn't sure what to do. Should I continue to follow the gravel road (next to which was a grass field with an abandoned chalet) away from the Reichenbache falls or should I follow a small hiking trail into the trees? My internal compass is not the greatest and I tend to get lost easily...I decided to follow the small hiking trail into the trees because I would be following a route closer to the falls and the trolley track would still be in view.

On the trail, I saw the beginning of the waterfall that I had spotted the end of at the bridge that I crossed. The rocks stacked up into a small sheer cliff that the water tumbled over into the a pool and river that flowed into the other smaller waterfall (back near the bridge). I continued uphill over rocks and roots on the trail. I came to a point where I passed right next to the track that I could reach up and touch it (if I wanted to haha). I kept going uphill (taking a few water and sunblock breaks on my way) until I reached a metal electric fence. The wire shaped into a small opening with a wooden door. I ducked down into a large field which I assumed to be a cow field. I could clearly see the Reichenbache falls in front of me and a grey house to the left and the trolley track to the right. I eagerly followed the trail until I came to a bridge that crossed over the trolley tracks. To my left, there was the grey house on the field, a nearby abandoned chalet and tall grass. I watched a trolley under and above the bridge before I ventured across. I ran through a field of tall grass up to my calves to the edge of the field that was surrounded by fence and had a drop. Below the drop of land was a river from the Reichenbache falls. I stayed here for a few minutes stuck. I had managed to get myself stuck again. I didn't want to give up...but where to go?

I crossed the bridge back to the first side that I was originally on. I went up a small hill through the grass (taking the path of least resistance) and climbed up the path and ended up next to the grey house. I paused there for a break, hoping at last that I was going in the correct direction.

Day 13: Training!
The day began with Tour training with Catt after the morning meeting! Since I was not picked to be a tour guide at UMASS, giving tours at Our Chalet will be fun. After going over set-up, we reviewed the script for the tours. First, the script that accompanies the power point and the prouncition of some of the words. Then we went to each area in Spyker (I've been misspelling it so far as Speaker haha. It's the building where reception and guest accommodations are located) and in Main Chalet while reviewing the script. I learned the names of the surrounding mountains and some other fun facts.

Fun Fact: Adelboden's flag has an Eagle on it because Adelboden means land of the Eagles.
Fun Fact: The WAGGGS room in Main Chalet used to be Falk's  room. Note: Falk helped found Our Chalet with Helen Storrow.

The afternoon was dedicated to putting all of my clothes in my suitcase through the wash, putting my suitcase outside in the sun and moving all of my stuff to camp house. Because of some nighttime visitors, I opted to move to camp house which required a lot of laundry. Camp house is located near Our Chalet and is a 5 minute walk from Main Chalet. Two summer vollies remained in the attic, two summer vollies are sleeping in a tent near Camp house, one summer vollies is in the first floor of Camp house, and the rest of us are in the loft area in Camp House. The loft area is about half the size of the T-bar (very small) and the stairs to get there are located in the back of the house. The first floor is slightly bigger and we are storing our suitcases and clothes in there. Luckily, there is a bathroom attached to camp house.

Then, it was Eurovision time!! Eurovision is a big song competition in Europe. Each country chooses a representative (s) to perform a song, first qualify for the finals and then (if the country qualifies) compete in the finals for the title of Eurovision. The winning country hosts Eurovision the next year and also wins the glory of Eurovision haha. Eurovision this year was hosted in Azerbaijan.


Two spring vollies, Eve and Karin, hosted the party in the conference room in Spyker for Eurovision. We all came dressed as countries and had to get a little creative haha. I came dressed as Switzerland (though Switzerland did not compete in the finals); I wore a red tank top and put the cross on my shirt in white tape. Other countries present included: the UK, Albania, Hungary, Turkey, France, Italy, Ukraine, and Ireland.

The first part of Eurovision is watching all of the finalists. There were 26 countries competing, though a few countries automatically go to the finals because their countries donate a lot of money to Eurovision. The acts were all interesting. Some memorable ones: Lithuania: The teen male sang "Love in Blind" and he had a sparkly blindfold which he ripped off half-way through the song and then did some break dancing.
Ireland: Two twins dressed in robot costumes sang about a fountain and had matching dance moves. There was also a fountain that they jumped into at the end.
Russia: There were five or six ladies in their 70s who sang a song about partying while they baked bread in an oven.
Turkey: There was a group of men and the lead singer sang about boats. They all had capes on and with their capes made a makeshift boat twice during their song.

Then, after all of the countries compete people call in to vote. The voting though is very political because people usually vote for their neighbors or allies from World War II. We did a local voting on paper (the top three, number 1 being the winner) and I voted for my three favorites:
1. Sweden - This female singer (according to Karin), is at the top of I-tunes in Europe currently. She was very talented and stuck out me the most.
2. Ireland! They were very eccentric and interesting
3. Norway - They had a group of a five people. A woman, playing the violin, and a man harmonized a song. The back-up singers in their group also harmonized with them. They reminded me of Within Temptation (an awesome band!) and they were very talented.

I left Eurovison early, so I didn't know who won before I trekked back to Camp house for bed.

Day 12: Training!
Today it was back to training indoors haha! My morning was filled with more brilliant cleaning! I listened to my music whilst I vacuumed the entire Main Chalet and then mopped Main Chalet. I did learn about something new during the morning: Eurovision! I had never heard of it before but it is a huge competition in Europe. Basically, all of the countries pick an unknown band or singer to perform one song and represent their country. All of the countries in Europe compete and the final competition is soon to see who wins. After each country representative (s) perform, people call in to vote but they can't vote for their country. Apparently the voting is very political and most countries vote for their neighboring countries. Something to look forward to!

After cleaning, I was feeling a little tired and not awesome so I spent some time outside before lunch. After lunchtime, we had a Health and Safety Training with Koka, the Deputy World Centre Manager. Koka went over how to stay healthy (drink lots of water, sleep, sunblock), fire drill procedure and the duty phone. The duty phone is similar to the RA duty phone. The person who has the duty phone gets it after dinner and takes any call throughout the night (which there are not many) and there is a senior staff also on call as a reference (like the Residence Director (RD) on duty).  When answering the phone, I have to answer with "Our Chalet, this is Paige, how may I help you?" I might automatically answer with "BCG Cluster officer, this is Paige, how may I help you?" instead if I am half-asleep haha.

I was on dinner prep and clean-up again but Katy was back from her days off. I helped do random jobs again and then I and summer vollie Cate spent some time in the food pantry putting away the giant food order that just came in. The food delivered was stacked in the middle of the food pantry which is a small-ish room so the boxes took up a majority of space. We were working and suddenly Katy burst through the door telling us that the dinner bell had rung! We hadn't even heard the bell and probably would have kept working through dinner if we hadn't been told haha.

At 8pm, we had our first program with guests....camp fire! Earlier in the day we had planned out songs to do and who would help set it up, etc. We had guests who arrived from Germany and a few guests who arrived the day before from Bath, UK. The campfire went well and I learned some more interesting songs! I also learned the German version of "Down by the Banks" game which is cool except that I can't remember the words anymore. One of my favorites from the night was a song about fishing from Australia (I knew a similar version) because it involved some dancing! Another favorite was a song from Israel that was a quieter yet beautiful song and I hope to learn it by the end of the summer. The guests left after an hour but the summer vollies we stuck around until the fire died down. We talked about a slight issue with our living situation in the attic. I have learned the true meaning of a popular bedtime phrase (aside from sweet dreams). I slept in the WAGGGS room last night though I was woken up at 6am by a thunder of bells. When I looked out the window, there was a line of cows being led up the mountain and the bells were from the bells that they wear.

Thanks for reading!