D-Day

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Caving was exhausting! But once everyone was cleaned up, all the long term and short term staff met in the staff room to enjoy hot chocolate, cheese and crackers. The buzz of night was about D-Day. Posters had gone up while we were on our adventure promoting the activity we were scheduled to do; instructing us to bring in our backpacks a comfortable change of clothes, our toothbrush, the largest spoon we could find, a roll of toilet paper. We were told to get ready tonight and to not bother setting our alarm clocks for the next morning. We were all curious about the adventure, yet the long term-ers all kept their mouths closed.

December 15, 2009: Discovery Day

The fire alarm went off. The staff was shouting at us in megaphones to get out of bed, get dressed, and meet down in the reception as soon as we could. It was pure chaos!

Everyone was quick to meet downstairs, where we were taken outside and split into two groups; the Super Heroes and the Villains. And because every good and bad guy needs a costume, we went over to the Kander Lodge to get dressed up. There was tons of tacky/crazy outfits, wigs, and props. We all had to wear the the most awful clothes and were not allowed to eat until we were certified as looking ridiculous.

The Super Heroes were sent to the Tower for breakfast, and us, the Villains, were sent over not long after to cause some ruckus. It was a good meal and after we ate we packed a lunch for our long day. Our first group activity was to bush each others teeth. This involved us getting into a circle and passing our toothbrush to the person to the left, next they applied toothpaste, and then started scrubbing each other’s mouths.

Once our teeth were cleaned we had to go inside and paint up-- everyone had to have their country’s flag painted onto their face. It was the last straw that made us just look absurd. Before that we could have walked down the street without too much commotion, but the flags made us impossible to miss.

Crazy outfits? Check. Flag masks? Check. We were ready for our first clue. Tom gave us an envelope and told us good luck.

We ran down the icy village road to find a cooking store with a giant size whisk sign along with a frozen tub of ice which we had to use an ice pick to break our clue out of it. From that we had to go to the bank to look up exchange rates and get our next clue. In order to receive it, we were order to sing them a Christmas song.

During the day we were sent all over town, meeting the locals and using them to help us on our scavenger’s hunt. We went to the grocery store, train station, post office, the local bakery (where they actually put our note into a pastry), recycling center, ski rental place, the doctor’s office, and the tourist office.

In the middle of our journey we got called to complete a task; make a vehicle to fit the whole group to “drive” around Kandersteg. Our cardboard creation was rushed and fell apart before we even reached the next stop, but we still had to carry it around like we were riding together. This did not help our cause.

Our hunt ended at the local ice rink! It was colder inside than outside, so we all had to huddle in the girl’s locker room to eat our lunch. After filling up we put on skates and played cheesy games.
After tiring ourselves on the ice, we went curling. It is a sport that requires a lot of patience. I tried really hard to do it, but it takes some skill to accurately slide the rock down the lane.

Then we had another assignment; cook dinner. We were given an allowance and told to make something for 38 people. We decided to make lasagna while the Super Heroes had to create a dessert and appetizer.

Before we went back to the Centre, our last stop of the day was at Des Alps, the local pub. KISC treated everyone to a drink and the long term staff all joined which was a treat.

Cooking dinner was chaotic. There was a little less than twenty people all running around the kitchen, and none of us had any clue as to where anything was located. We served it late, but overall everything tasted good.

Finally, all the pictures we took during the day were played in a slide show at the end of the meal. It was an exhausting day. After we all worked to clean up the kitchen we had the evening off. So we went back to Des Alps for a little more staff bonding.


December 16, 2009

8:00 Thought for the day

8:15 Intro to Kitchen and House

10:00 ASSD- the booking program

11:00 History Session

12:00 Lunch break

2:00 Customer Care

3:30 KISC & Environment

4:00 Check in house

5:00 Check in Reception

6:00 Dinner

6:45 Sledding!!!

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Comments

[Stuart]

Hellooooo? How are things going? How about an update? It looks like you are going to be the only one in the family to have a white Christmas. It's raining here in KC; I hope things cool down so we can have some snow for tomorrow. Merry Christmas - Love Stuart