Bombay Chicken Bites the Dust.

---

Today we spent the entire day in Engelberg. It was wonderful, we didn't have to step foot on a bus once! Not that the busses are so terribly bad, but it was nice to have an emotional and physical break from them! The drivers are a little rough on the body here. We began the day by walking to the Chalet, a restaurant/bar that is at the resort level of Mt. Titlis. There we met Peter Reinli, who was a very kind and gave us all free hot chocolate and croissants. Although I would usually never eat or drink either one, I got a wild hair and decided to. We all gathered on benches and watched a presentation that he had for us. It began with a promotional video, then he went into numbers and figures of income and expenditures that the resort deals with. We asked a lot of questions and learned a lot of things about what cultures come here and when. For example, Swiss and Germans come mostly in the winter, while Indians and Chinese come mostly during summer. (haha guess what, it is the summer!) I am not sure that any of us were really expecting to deal with what we had laid infront of us. A warning would have been polite, but probably politically incorrect, so I see his point of view...
We all rod the gondola up to the top of the hill. The second one we got on was the first rotating ski lift in the entire world. It does one full rotation, and by the time it is done you are practically at the top! We were all pretty excited, bundled up in our warmer clothing, and hoped right off! We did not expect to run into a solid wall of stench, however. Trying to make as little a scene as we could we kept on walking through the cloud of curry, sweat, and dirty bathroom aroma, but thats not to say that a few eyes didn't start watering or gag reflexes activated. It was awful! Awful doesn't even explain it. It was so potent that I thought to myself, wow, I will never eat bombay chicken from work again (bombay chicken has curry in it.) I later came to find that I was not the only one that banned any form of food like that from their diet ever again.
We finally made our way through the crowd, up five flights of stairs, through another obnoxious and spatially unaware group, to the top of the mountain! Wow, fresh air has never smelt or felt so good! We had a few photo opportunities then made our way for the large mound of snow. We had snowball contests, snowman building, carvings of downhill slides, and a lot of slipping and sliding going on. It was a ball!! Soon it was time for lunch and the restaurant at the resort had prepared for us to the fullest! We were first given a large bowl of ice cubes :D !! then a choice of a drink and a salad. The salad was different for sure, but it was delicious! The leaves were more green and little fancier than ones that are usually consumed at home, with a light portion of dressing. At the bottom was a little portion of potato salad, which i had never even heard of before, but again, a nice surprise. We were then served spaghetti on a serving holster that went across the table, almost as if each table had their own buffet right at their finger tips. It was the best spaghetti I have ever had!
After lunch we went tube sledding! Talk about a blast! It was a big slope, already made, with a big turn at the end for people to go down. There was a man at the top to regulate the space between everyone, so it was still safe. At the bottom there was a little hike, and then a "magic carpet" that brought everyone back up. We were to place our feet on the conveyor belt, hold onto the tube, and just let the carpet ride do the rest. There was one rule: Do not sit on the magic carpet". Darn, we couldn't pretend to be Aladdin 😞 A storm was brewing, so we were forced to make it quick, but I was able to squeeze in two trials. We then went into a big glacier that had music and bright lights to make the whole thing glisten. Brent then decided that it would be a good idea for him and "house" to slide across the median (for a lack of better comparison) that was extremely slick. I don't know they didn't bust completely, but they made it. As I rounded the corner to catch up with them, I found both in a niche in the side of the ice! lol it was craziest thing ever! On our way out they somehow convinced me to cross the median with them... sometimes I fail to use my brain in the proper way but it was lots of fun. 😊 Hey, I live to tell the story today so it must have been a reasonable decision.
Later on, for dinner, I went with Elz and we met up with Arrabella, Ryan, Jamie, and Janet at the little italian restaurant for dinner. I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before but the food here is VERY expensive. The meal, with a glass of wine, was about $37. I ordered half of a pizza. lol And the water here is not free either!! Again, the remainder of dinner was full of fun and laughter. We were sharing stories, playing the "guess what my boyfriend is like", and then revealing the real deal. It's really cool how a week ago we didn't know each other and now we can sit around a table for two hours and do nothing but chat it up. I am really enjoying the people here 😊
For the first night since being here, Elz and I decided that we would show our faces to the night life (even if it was only in the downstairs bar). I looked soooo glamorous in Joe's underarmor pull over and my (probably) undone hair. lol The important thing is that we received a big cheer as we walked in! That is always heartwarming (and a good gesture of people saying wow its about time!). Although I thought I would be very tempted, I ended up not spending a single frank at the bar. 😊 We all goofed around, told stories, compared classes, etc. About an hour after our arrival, Elz and I went upstairs to go night night.

---