I was picked up by Catt, a member of staff and I was struck by how friendly she was. As we drove in the opposite direction from which I had been walking, I saw the other side of the mountain I was supposed to climb. We drove up the steep mountainside and I saw the snowy peaks rising above and green pastures. Then we arrived and pulled in next to a few wooden buildings. There is the Main Chalet, which reminds me of a giant cabin, and is where most guests stay. Across from that is Speaker and this has offices and more guest accommodations. Then nearby is Stockli, the staff house. Then other buildings are dispersed on Our Chalet grounds.
Here is a picture of the main Chalet building and the flag pole! ( this is not the side that I first saw...this is a picture from the back of the building from near Baby Chalet).
Catt showed me around Main Chalet and brought me into the Dining Room to meet everyone; summer volunteers, spring volunteers and ready,steady,go volunteers. Then we brought my stuff up to the attic where I will be staying with the other summer volunteers or summer vollies for the next two weeks.The attic is like a large loft and has 10 beds. Each bed has a shelf over it and a sign for each person. It is all decorated with balloons and paper chains. I like the bright yellow comforters...they remind me of dandelion flowers or tulips in the springtime. I met some of the other summer vollies who were in the attic. I decided to take a shower and went to what I thought was the girl's bathroom....there were only 2 shower stalls which I thought was a little strange. I was confused later when summer vollies said that the girl's bathrooms had 6 showers....only later did I discover the real girl's bathroom on the other side of the first floor.... embarrassing.
After showering but before dinner, I explored the grounds a little bit. I climbed up on a small hill next to Our Chalet and I felt like I was on top of the world. The snowy Alps dominate the landscape and the rolling green hills are covered with flowers. Wooden houses dot the curves of the rolling green valleys and hills leading up to the snow covered peaks. Then, the dinner bell rang and I ran up to the second floor of the main Chalet building. The dining room is a large room with two wooden tables, wooden benches and a wooden floor. Dinner was pleasant and I met the rest of the vollies, though I was still exhausted and not yet used to the time difference (6 hours ahead of MA!).
The highlight of the evening was the campfire after dinner. All of the vollies and staff headed to a red tent with a point where the fire circle is. The campfire began with an introduction by Koka, the Deputy World Centre Director, and she welcomed all of us. The campfire was a celebration of the hard work that the Ready,Steady,Go volunteers did in the two weeks that they spent at Our Chalet preparing the grounds for the summer season. It was also a celebration of the spring vollies to continue their work for the next two week and for the summer vollies to welcome us to the Our Chalet family. I have felt very welcome here and every person that I have met so far has been very friendly. I have enjoyed getting to know the staff, the summer vollies, the spring vollies and everyone else!
We each had brought a stick to the campfire and we went around in the circle and each person shared a memory from their time here or something they are looking forward to. Hearing the experiences of the Ready,Steady,Go volunteers and the spring vollies got me really excited for the experiences ahead of me including hiking, jumping in a glacier lake and other high adventure activities. Afterwards, we started singing many songs. Most of the songs I learned at the campfire that night and I realized how many songs I did not know! I led the Cheese Moose song (shout out to Camp Harrington!) and it was really fun. Some of my favorite songs were the songs in other languages including a song about fishing and a Swedish song filled with gibberish words. There was also a birthday so we sang happy birthday is at least 5 languages and wore pillowcase hats. We ended with the song "Linger" and did a pulse squeeze (similar to GCO!). Afterwards, we trekked from the red tent back to the main Chalet and I snuggled into bed for some needed sleep. :)
Thanks for reading!
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