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.