first snows of the season

9/12/14

Overnight we had just over a foot of snow.  This might not seem like much... however it was enough to play in and throw at each other! Something we were itching to do even before breakfast.

Our day started with breakfast in the Main Chalet and then we headed back to the Helen Storrow room for the training session "Magic of Housekeeping 1".  In other words we learnt about rubbish and recycling, general cleaning and where to find products, and a tour of all the 'working' areas of the Chalet.

Lunch followed and then we had an hour and a half free.

So here was the view before we decided to run amok....

And here was us in the snow!

These were our best snow balls (above).  Once Charlotte had taught me the 'proper technique' to making a snowball I was actually able to throw them... rather than them just kinda end up a light drizzle of snow!  They make an impact and when you get one to the face it hurts!!  Also you end up with a lot of snow down your jacket, down your pants, in you hat, in your scarf.....

Here is me making my snow angel... this may not have helped with the snow in my jacket and pants situation...

After our break we were introduced to the kitchen and meal preparation.  We started with a video and then moved to the Main Chalet kitchen.  Here we proceeded on a tour of the kitchen and we tried to remember where everything was.  Then we had to make dinner.  Sweet and Sour Chicken was what was on the menu and I think we didn't do that bad of a job!!  

After starting dinner late and being worried we weren't going to have it finished in time.. we finished early - around 5.30 and dinner wasn't until 6 pm.  Instead we played a game of charades on Sarah's phone!  A highly entertaining way to pass half an hour!

Clean up followed dinner, and then we went back to Spycher to learn Christmas carols for the Christmas Celebration of the 19th. I have no idea what this Christmas carol means or what it is called, all that I know is that it is in German.  It's going to be interesting trying to sing it to a bunch of Swiss German speakers!

our chalet history; training day one

8/12/14

In 1929, the World Committe of WAGGGS met in Holland and decided that a Wrold Centre should be built for all Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in the world to share...

Immediately an American Girl Guide Leader, Helen Storrow said that she would donate the money for the construction for such as world centre and the funds for its operation for the first four years if it was built in Switzerland.  Unsurprisingly, WAGGGS agreed and plans began for the first world centre.  The World Committee appointed Ida Von Herrenschwand or Falk, a Swiss Scout, to help locate the perfect location.

Helen Storrow at Our Chalet

During June of 1930, Falk and Mrs Storrow visited multiple sites throughout Switzerland until they found the town of Aeschi.  Mrs Storrow fell in love immediately, and state that "it comes up to all my expectations, here you can find peace for your soul."

Falk on the other hand, had reservations.  She remembered that when she was 17/18, she wanted adventure, skiing, mountain climbing - she hadn't been overly concerned about her soul!  Falk believed that the site in Aeschi was too far away from the real mountains and that the altitude was too low for winter sports.  Mrs Storrow still wanted to present this location to at the next World Conference.  Falk asked Mrs Storrow not to let them ask her what her opinion of the site was, for she did not want to publicly disagree with her.  Mrs Storrow said that if she was asked her opinion, then she should give it honestly and not worry about who it may upset.

The World Committee agreed that Aeschi was a lovely spot.  Lord Baden-Powell then asked what Falk thought about the location.  After hearing her thoughts he told her that if she was going to make trouble she would have to find a spot on her own.  She eagerly accepted and left the meeting with a lost of location requirements:
- Must be near a main train line, but away from tourists
- Must be Hotels in the neighbourhood, but not a fashionable place
- Must be high enough for skiing in the winter and climbing in the summer, but not too high for people with heart conditions
- Must be sufficent ground and pleasant neighbours

She rushed back and eventually found the perfect spot high on a hill in Adelboden.  After a very unlady-like climb over fences and hedges, she was struck by its beauty.  The setting sun shed its light over the mountain tops, cowbells rung in the distance and she could not help thinking to herself that here there were possibilities for adventure and peace for the soul!

In June 1931, Mrs Storrow and the World Committee came to inspect the sight.  Mr von Sinner, the architect, rushed ahead of the main group with a large pole to erect the American flag to greet the group.  They celebrated the confirmation of the location with a tea party.

Building began with the concrete basement, cutting the wood for the rest of the house, and on December 21, 1931 the roof was put on.  Mrs Storrow returned in May 1932 to see the completed Chalet.  Baby Chalet was built for her to stay in and to receive her own guests in preparation for the official opening.

On the 31st July 1932, Our Chalet was officially opened by Olave Baden-Powell, the first World Chief Guide and Mrs Helen Storrow.  Most of the village of Adelboden was present along with Girl Guides and Girl Scouts from around the world.

I'm currently sitting in the Helen Storrow room at Our Chalet, in the second building Spycher, after completing our first day of training.  Today we started with breakfast at 8 am and then an opening ceremony to start off the season.  At this ceremony each country represented in the staff  had a flag put into a log to be displayed in the Main Chalet.  We also were officially welcomed to Our Chalet and received our pins, the ones you can only buy if you visit.

Australia at Our Chalet

2014-2015 Winter Vollies

Afterwards we started our training! We begun with the above history of Our Chalet and then continued on with an inside tour of both the original Our Chalet building and Spycher.  Then we were taken on a outside grounds tour, to see Stockli (the staff house), Squirrel House (So named as a squirrel was the first animal to cross the threshold), the campfire ring, the tool shed, Baby Chalet and Camp House.  It snowed a little whilst we were out.. and I managed to avoid swipping the trees with my head and having snow fall all down my jacket as I did last night after the campfire!

After lunch and a break we were given our official Our Chalet Staff uniforms - polos and a hoodie.  That took a lot longer than expected! We also had the opportunity to get extra white long sleeve shirts and navy pants which previous vollies had left behind.

An introduction to life at the Chalet, through the use of a massive floor board game followed.  We had almost a bedsheet size board on the floor and we had to roll the dice and move along until we got to 60 and if we landed on a space which had a piece of paper on it we had to read it out loud and then we discussed it.  It was a fun and entertaining way to get through some of the dry content about life at Our Chalet.

We then moved back to the Helen Storrow room to discuss what we wanted to get out of our time here and what were our goals and worries.  My personal goal - to be able to ski a blue slope before I leave.  My worry - My exam and University results!

Break and then dinner (sausages, mashed potato and peas and corn).  Then we made our 'notice board art'.  The posters which hang in the entrance to Our Chalet to introduce you to the current staff members.

We are now all sitting in the Helen Storrow room watching Elf before bed!

last day in london

5/12/14

This morning I slept in before packing up all my gear and folding up my bed.  Once that was done I headed out for the day.

First stop was the London Eye.

There was about 10-15 in the pod, however it was still quite roomy.  There were lots of places to stand and look out and tablets on the walls which showed you the main icons of London.  The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben were pretty obvious though!

Next stop was Sealife, the London Aquarium.  

The Aquarium is located a short walk from the London Eye, in the basement of the County Hall on the South River of the River Thames.  They have more than one million visitors each year and more than 2 million litres of water.  

Thankyou to Cairney for my tickets which were my christmas present!!  I really enjoyed them!!

From Sealife I walked down and across Westminster Bridge to take some closer photos of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.  

I was headed towards Westminster Pier where I was to catch the Red Rover River Cruise down the Thames.  My original plan was to catch the boat all the way to Greenwich, which was going to take three hours for a round trip, however when I got on the boat I decided that I would instead only do the shorter version to Tower Pier return, a 1.5hr return trip and then go to the Globe Theatre instead.  

I made the round trip back to Westminster Pier and then caught the Underground to Southwark Station and walked to the Globe Theatre.  The replica is not in the Original location of Shakepeare's Globe Theatre and they have made a few additions to follow new laws such as fire and safety regulations, which would not have existed previously - but it is incredibly accurate to the building specifications, seating, and the paintings on the stage.  The detail was incredible.  

Before you entered the theatre itself, there was a museum on Shakespeare, his works and the original Globe Theatre.  Here is where they had the information which had been used to rebuild the Theatre and materials made for new productions.  The costume above was made for Jane Lapotaire as Queen Elizabeth I for the Royal Gala Opening of the Globe Theatre in 1997. 

From the Globe I walked up the Thames through some Christmas Markets to the Millennium Bridge. 

The Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian suspension bridge that crosses the River Thames in London. It was built some time before the Summer of 1995 and was destroyed by Fenrir Greyback and a small group of Death Eaters on 24 June, 1996, in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. 

After I had finished walking the bridge, and getting worrying that Death Eaters were going to appear out of no where and destroy the bridge, I made my way to Leicester Square to buy tickets to the Lion King show that evening.  Though they were actually much cheaper than going at home, I still bought then anyways - it is part of the 'London experience' to go to a show in the West End.  I found some food at Burger King and then made my way through Trafalgar Square (below) to the Lyceum Theatre where the Lion King was showing.  

It was a very good show, very well done and the performers were amazing, but I was a little disappointed on the adaptions they had made from the movie and the extra bits and pieces they had added in.  

I headed home where I had all my stuff packed and ready to go.  I called a Mini Cab to take me to the Hotel Danielle and her family were staying at, where they had invited me to stay.  The taxi man had no idea where he was going and tried to ask me where to go.... I didn't know either!!  But I eventually made it there in one piece by about 12.30 am, crawled into bed with an alarm set for 6.15 am.  

stonehenge and bath

4/12/14

This morning I was able to get a good photo of Danielle’s house before leaving.  Isn’t it cute!?

We headed off to Stonehenge first.  It was going to take approximately 2hrs to get there through the country side.  All went well until we got a flat tyre.  Thankyou to Matt for teaching me not 2 weeks before how to change a tyre.  Of course we were on a downward slope with no emergency lane with mud and grass right up next to the car, on a blind corner, but oh well.  I got down and put the jack under the car and raised the car but when it got to taking the tyre off the wheel nuts were on so tight I couldn’t move them.  Cue our knight in shining armour, a tyre man drove around the bend and stopped to help.  He had a gun machiney thing that took the wheel nuts off in 5 seconds, replaced the tyre and took down the jack, all in the time it had taken me to put up the jack.  So we were off again.

 

We got to Stonehenge just before 11am.  We got our tickets, and Danielle and I headed out to the stones whilst her mum went to try and get a new tyre for the car (we didn’t trust the spare).  We walked around the exhibition on how the Neolithic people who built Stonehenge lived and worked day-to-day before boarding the bus to Stonehenge. 

Halfway to the stones we exited the bus at Fargo Wood to walk the rest of the way.  We walked through the woods a bit before entering a paddock.  Within this paddock were four Cursus barrows.  They appeared as low lying mounds in the paddock, but were actually Bronze Age burial grounds and formed a part of a larger group spanning behind us into the woods we had just walked through. 

From there we were able to walk down the paddock, past the construction site to destroy the old visitors carpark and return it to natural ground and up the road to the stones.  I spent 10mins trying to find my ticket before we were allowed onto the grassed area on which the stones stood.  Danielle was impressed at how close you can actually get to them – approximately 5-6 metres away.  I was majorly impressed.  We may not know why these stones were arranged like this and we may never know but the feat of arranging them in such a way is incredible.  We wandered around the circle of stones for about 45misn before boarding the bus back down the hill. 

Down the hill we went through the shop (they always end in the shop!) before meeting up with Danielle’s mum.  She had season passes to British Heritage Sites which was what had got us our tickets so she wasn’t worried she hadn’t got to see the stones.  We walked through the Exhibition Hall before heading back to the car.  Danielle and her mum were both eager to try the Tim Tams I had bought them. 

We drove from Stonehenge to Bath and arrived in Bath about 2pm.  

First we headed to the get some food and to the Christmas Markets.  They were beautiful. Traditional wooden huts which were decorated to the hilt, all selling a huge variety of handmade products.  So many Christmas decorations!!

We wandered around for a while before heading to the Roman Baths.  It was very well set up in that they had replaced ruins or statues in the places where they would have actually stood. It meant that when you walked around you could see things as they actually would have stood.

Just after four we headed back to the car to make the hour drive home in time for Rainbows.  At Rainbows we made 3D stars and Christmas Bracelets.  

Thank you 1st Thornbury Rainbows for letting me come and visit and my presents!!