Myself and another summer vollie (Jess) have been spending this week in a tent rather than the Main Chalet attic bedroom.When the summer vollies all moved out for the interum time between attic and the staff house, this was basically the conversation that took place.
Random summer vollie: Yeah, so there`s not enough space for all of us in the Camp House. Someone`s going to have to sleep downstairs or outside.
Jess: Ok, I dibs a tent.
Me: Buildings are for losers.
And thus, we began our week of sleeping in a tent and feeling smugly superior about the entire experience. Everytime we unzip our door, we are greeted by this incredible panoramic view of the Adelboden Valley, and up until last night, we were blissfully unaware of the protecton that one little red tent would provide in a wind/rain/death storm.
I woke up at 3ish to the soft patter of rain drops and wind rustling our tent flaps. "How cozy!" I thought as I bundled back down into my blanket and fell back asleep. False. Not cozy. Did you know there is sometimes wind in mountain regions? And if you happen to have set up a tent on an open hill top, several dozen yards from trees, there will be nothing to protect you from said wind?
At approximately 4:07am, the wind threw some sort of temper tantrum all over our tent. I don`t mean it was windy. I mean the rain and wind cooperated in such a way as to allow both to completely freeze and drown myself and Jess, and I began to have flashbacks about a camp backpack trip last summer where we named the river running through our tent. As far as last night, this wonderful breeze continued to tear apart our tent for the next two hours, while both of us buried our heads under our blankets like the adults we are. Beautiful.
Around the time this storm is letting up and I`m drifting in and out of some trippy, sleep deprived dreams, I began to hear cowbells in the background. We have two cows temporarily living at Our Chalet and eating our grass, so this would not have been weird except that this was louder. And getting closer. And instead of just Bambie and Trixie, it sounded like a mob of cows was headed straight for our tent. Billions of cows. With some sort of bloodthirst for Girl Scouts in little red tents. As it turns out, local farmers like to take their cows up to higher pastures to graze (aka how we got Bambie and Trixie), and this is part of the idyllic Swiss life I`m coming to lead, but seriously? 6am?
Eventually, the sun rose and the rain lessened and I stopped being bitter towards the chipping birds. Also, I wasn`t trampled, which was a plus. At breakfast while retelling my near-death experience, everyone else was like, "Oh, it rained?"
And that`s my life in a tent. Where I risk my life nightly.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Eurovision Completes Me
I can`t explain Eurovision and the magic it has brought to my life. I just...can`t. For those lowly Americans like me who haven`t (yet) experienced the joy of this show, just picture American Idol with representatives from 26 Europeans countries, all vying for the honor of hosting it next year. All of these contestants have original songs and light shows/backup dancers that are probably the result of someone`s acid trip. This show was televised in Azerbijan this year and was broadcast all over Europe (and for some reason, Isreal, New Zealand and Australia?), so it`s not like this is somehow a random TV program I happened upon. These are three hours I will never get back, and I cannot unsee the things that I have seen.
Among them:
1. Men in capes who then use the capes to create a boat (Turkey)
2. Backup dancers who taught me how to dance like a crab robot (Moldova)
3. Fountain dancing in gold spandex (Ireland)
4. Advertisements for Azerbijan in which the country is described as "A Land of Horsemen"
5. I am not making this up: six little elderly women baking and singing "Party for Everybody" (Russia)
You have not lived until you`ve seen that last one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g5Nm5z0FqI
The hosts of this viewing party at Our Chalet were two spring vollies who are obsessed with Eurovision, one from the UK and one from Sweden, which was convenient since we ended up streaming it live from Sweden, so we had a translator. Everyone dressed up like the country they were supporting, and as Ukraine, I wore two sweaters, wool socks with flip-flops and brought a potatoe, which should make you really proud of my life choices. It was somewhere in this beautiful, semi-political, semi-80`s dream of a show, I had a really meaningful epiphany.
Europe is insanely weird. Never, never change.
Among them:
1. Men in capes who then use the capes to create a boat (Turkey)
2. Backup dancers who taught me how to dance like a crab robot (Moldova)
3. Fountain dancing in gold spandex (Ireland)
4. Advertisements for Azerbijan in which the country is described as "A Land of Horsemen"
5. I am not making this up: six little elderly women baking and singing "Party for Everybody" (Russia)
You have not lived until you`ve seen that last one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g5Nm5z0FqI
The hosts of this viewing party at Our Chalet were two spring vollies who are obsessed with Eurovision, one from the UK and one from Sweden, which was convenient since we ended up streaming it live from Sweden, so we had a translator. Everyone dressed up like the country they were supporting, and as Ukraine, I wore two sweaters, wool socks with flip-flops and brought a potatoe, which should make you really proud of my life choices. It was somewhere in this beautiful, semi-political, semi-80`s dream of a show, I had a really meaningful epiphany.
Europe is insanely weird. Never, never change.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
The Weirdest Sorority Ever
Because I really want to brag about climbing mountains and therefore need to get in shape, I`ve been running up these epic mountain roads every other day or so. For the first time in my entire life, I`m not even exaggerating; these hills are insanely vertical, and when I run up them I go about the same pace as if I was walking, much to the amusement of passing cars.
Anyway, on the way down from one such run, nearly back to Our Chalet, I spot a guy walking up the hill where I`ve just come from. Since I`m running by myself, it`s almost dark and I`m paranoid about random men on mountain roads, I avoid eye contact and scowl at the ground until he goes, "Oh, Cate!" and I realize it`s Cameron, the only guy amongst the twelve summer vollies.
Despite wearing jeans and hiking boots, he turns around and jogs with me, which was both very nice and probably dumb of him, since running in jeans is fairly warm and uncomfortable if you`ve ever tried it. We got to discussing our expectations of this summer, and he admitted that having just lived with a bunch of his fraternity brothers, he had no idea what he was getting himself into here. To his credit, Cameron`s girlfriend works on full-time staff here, and he handles living and working with a bunch of teenage and twenty-something women very well, but I can certainly imagine the shock of living with a ton of normal girls, much less Girl Scouts.
In a previous discussion with him and another summer vollie, Sarah, we got to a discussion of sororities. Because I`m a mean person and I enjoy pointing out the obvious, I made some sort of a joke about paying for your friends, to which Cameron made an equally snarky remark about how Girl Scouts also pay dues and are thus paying for friends. I was super offended because Girl Scouting is the best organization in the whole wide world and we empower young women to do things besides be trophy wives and how could you possibly compare $10 dues to thousands of dollars and besides, we light stuff on fire, and when was the last time you saw a sorority sister do that and not get charged with arson? And then I calmed down and realized that a) not all sorority women are trophy wives because some of them become people like Katie Couric and b) he had a point.
A brief Google definition search tells me that a sorority can be defined as simply an organization of young women, which has lead me to believe that Girl Scouts is actually just the coolest manifestation of a sorority. For example, sororities often have secret handshakes or signals. Girl Scouts? We used those signals to pass spy messages during WWII. Sorority women help each other be poised and beautiful. Girl Scouts understand that the most attractive you will ever be is right after mud stomping. In sororities young women often learn valuable interview skills, social skills or study habits. Not only has Girl Scouting taught me how to light anything on fire using just one match, but this afternoon I learned how to use a chainsaw. These things matter, people.
So, Cameron, I know you think it will be rough summer with all this estrogen around you, but it will probably be the best work environment you`ll ever have. We may never be as chill as your fraternity brothers, but we know all the best juvenile pranks and can fix anything with duct tape. If you`re nice, we`ll even share our Thin Mints.
Anyway, on the way down from one such run, nearly back to Our Chalet, I spot a guy walking up the hill where I`ve just come from. Since I`m running by myself, it`s almost dark and I`m paranoid about random men on mountain roads, I avoid eye contact and scowl at the ground until he goes, "Oh, Cate!" and I realize it`s Cameron, the only guy amongst the twelve summer vollies.
Despite wearing jeans and hiking boots, he turns around and jogs with me, which was both very nice and probably dumb of him, since running in jeans is fairly warm and uncomfortable if you`ve ever tried it. We got to discussing our expectations of this summer, and he admitted that having just lived with a bunch of his fraternity brothers, he had no idea what he was getting himself into here. To his credit, Cameron`s girlfriend works on full-time staff here, and he handles living and working with a bunch of teenage and twenty-something women very well, but I can certainly imagine the shock of living with a ton of normal girls, much less Girl Scouts.
In a previous discussion with him and another summer vollie, Sarah, we got to a discussion of sororities. Because I`m a mean person and I enjoy pointing out the obvious, I made some sort of a joke about paying for your friends, to which Cameron made an equally snarky remark about how Girl Scouts also pay dues and are thus paying for friends. I was super offended because Girl Scouting is the best organization in the whole wide world and we empower young women to do things besides be trophy wives and how could you possibly compare $10 dues to thousands of dollars and besides, we light stuff on fire, and when was the last time you saw a sorority sister do that and not get charged with arson? And then I calmed down and realized that a) not all sorority women are trophy wives because some of them become people like Katie Couric and b) he had a point.
A brief Google definition search tells me that a sorority can be defined as simply an organization of young women, which has lead me to believe that Girl Scouts is actually just the coolest manifestation of a sorority. For example, sororities often have secret handshakes or signals. Girl Scouts? We used those signals to pass spy messages during WWII. Sorority women help each other be poised and beautiful. Girl Scouts understand that the most attractive you will ever be is right after mud stomping. In sororities young women often learn valuable interview skills, social skills or study habits. Not only has Girl Scouting taught me how to light anything on fire using just one match, but this afternoon I learned how to use a chainsaw. These things matter, people.
So, Cameron, I know you think it will be rough summer with all this estrogen around you, but it will probably be the best work environment you`ll ever have. We may never be as chill as your fraternity brothers, but we know all the best juvenile pranks and can fix anything with duct tape. If you`re nice, we`ll even share our Thin Mints.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Switzerland is a Playground for Grownups
Swiss hiking is seriously legit. For reals.
Let this not imply I did anything particularly challenging or uphill today, because I did not. The last bit was uphill, but that`s because I was climbing up next to a waterfall, which I did because either a) I`m seriously badass, b) I didn`t take a shower today and thought the spray of the waterfall would be comparable or c) two random girls (in better shape than I) climbed the falls and in my head that meant they were calling me weak. Only two of those are true, and I`m sure you can guess which ones.
As my second day off, I went on this extended-awesome-fairy-tale hike today with Heather, a Guide from Canada. She is much politer and quieter than I am, so we spent the better part of the hike up in silence (which was a challenge since I am apparently uncomfortable with not talking for more than 30 seconds).
---Blog interrupted by a little girl wielding marshmallowy-hands who invites me to play something called Mission Impossible. The game involves a lot of sneaking around and 007 style rolls and I still can`t figure out any of the rules so I use my Bond moves to sneak back inside---
The long and short of the story is that I spent the better part of 4 hours wandering around what looked like an enchanted forest on my way to and from the most spectacular waterfall I`ve ever seen. There was Hunger Games-type tree climbing, the aforementioned waterfall shower spray, and a lot of me trying to figure out just how many stupid climbing challenge things I could do before Heather started to judge me.
It turns out, I can do a lot of messing around in the wilderness before she judges me. Canadians are quite nice that way.
There were cows complete with bells climbing idyllic hillsides in the mountains. And mossy areas that look just like where I will sleep when I get horribly lost one of these days. The whole of this valley is too good to be true, and even Heather agreed with me when I told her the view from the waterfall out over the hills looked like something on a green screen. I have absolutely no idea how I got so lucky as to spend a whole summer here, but it should come as a surprise to no one if I refuse to leave in September.
Let this not imply I did anything particularly challenging or uphill today, because I did not. The last bit was uphill, but that`s because I was climbing up next to a waterfall, which I did because either a) I`m seriously badass, b) I didn`t take a shower today and thought the spray of the waterfall would be comparable or c) two random girls (in better shape than I) climbed the falls and in my head that meant they were calling me weak. Only two of those are true, and I`m sure you can guess which ones.
As my second day off, I went on this extended-awesome-fairy-tale hike today with Heather, a Guide from Canada. She is much politer and quieter than I am, so we spent the better part of the hike up in silence (which was a challenge since I am apparently uncomfortable with not talking for more than 30 seconds).
---Blog interrupted by a little girl wielding marshmallowy-hands who invites me to play something called Mission Impossible. The game involves a lot of sneaking around and 007 style rolls and I still can`t figure out any of the rules so I use my Bond moves to sneak back inside---
The long and short of the story is that I spent the better part of 4 hours wandering around what looked like an enchanted forest on my way to and from the most spectacular waterfall I`ve ever seen. There was Hunger Games-type tree climbing, the aforementioned waterfall shower spray, and a lot of me trying to figure out just how many stupid climbing challenge things I could do before Heather started to judge me.
It turns out, I can do a lot of messing around in the wilderness before she judges me. Canadians are quite nice that way.
There were cows complete with bells climbing idyllic hillsides in the mountains. And mossy areas that look just like where I will sleep when I get horribly lost one of these days. The whole of this valley is too good to be true, and even Heather agreed with me when I told her the view from the waterfall out over the hills looked like something on a green screen. I have absolutely no idea how I got so lucky as to spend a whole summer here, but it should come as a surprise to no one if I refuse to leave in September.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Swiss Challenge #1: Table Climbing
I climbed a table this afternoon. I know at this point I was hoping to have climbed at least a Swiss peak, but a table in the dining room of Our Chalet is pretty much as far as I`ve gotten in the three days I´ve been here.
If you don´t dream first and foremost of climbing a Swiss mountain, then you should. They`re big, they have lots of snow according to Google images, and the von Trapp family escaped over them. Therefore, it would come as a suprise to me when the first thing I climbed upon arriving in Switzerland was, in fact, a table. To be technical, we also climbed two jungle gyms in the little town of Adelboden when we went looking for shampoo the other day, but if you`ve ever tried to climb the entire way around a table without touching the floor, then I think you know how many bragging rights I`ve just earned.
Switzerland is seriously better than I imagined it would be, down to every snow-dusted peak, sloping chalet roof, and sunrise from the bathroom window. The unexpected things are the type of adventures and friendships that have cropped up with the oddest bunch of misfits who make up our little group of summer volunteers. Today we discussed feminist Girl Guiding and the relative merits of various staff challenges we can take. If we hit 80 points at the end of the summer, we get the staff challenge badge. Climbing around a dinning table is 1 point, and during our free time two of us made it- I´ll post the epic pictures when I can figure out how technology works on this continent. Our Chalet is truly full of everything that makes Girl Scouting and Guiding meaningful, empowering and fun, and table climbing is just the start.
Tomorrow we climb through an oven and write a poem about the experience.
If you don´t dream first and foremost of climbing a Swiss mountain, then you should. They`re big, they have lots of snow according to Google images, and the von Trapp family escaped over them. Therefore, it would come as a suprise to me when the first thing I climbed upon arriving in Switzerland was, in fact, a table. To be technical, we also climbed two jungle gyms in the little town of Adelboden when we went looking for shampoo the other day, but if you`ve ever tried to climb the entire way around a table without touching the floor, then I think you know how many bragging rights I`ve just earned.
Switzerland is seriously better than I imagined it would be, down to every snow-dusted peak, sloping chalet roof, and sunrise from the bathroom window. The unexpected things are the type of adventures and friendships that have cropped up with the oddest bunch of misfits who make up our little group of summer volunteers. Today we discussed feminist Girl Guiding and the relative merits of various staff challenges we can take. If we hit 80 points at the end of the summer, we get the staff challenge badge. Climbing around a dinning table is 1 point, and during our free time two of us made it- I´ll post the epic pictures when I can figure out how technology works on this continent. Our Chalet is truly full of everything that makes Girl Scouting and Guiding meaningful, empowering and fun, and table climbing is just the start.
Tomorrow we climb through an oven and write a poem about the experience.
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