First Week of Work

First of all apologies for not posting for a while - we've been so busy here that I've not had time to post regularly. I've got a few days to catch up on, so I'll just crack on.

Last week was our final week of training, and for a treat we went white water rafting, which was awesome fun. There was (as I was complaining about last time) some pretty bad weather here last week so the river was pretty high and fast. I obviously couldn't take any pictures, but it was great. Then we had half a day off in the afternoon, so most of the Short Termers (the staff who are for the summer) went to Spiez, a fairly small town on the Thuner lake. The lake is a fairly cool light blue colour, even on the overcast day like when we were there. There is a really nice little castle, on the waterfront.

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A couple of days later we had our graduation, into full Pinkies! However we're not supposed to talk about it with non-Pinkies, as it's a pretty special night. If you want to know more try here and become a Pinkie yourself!

The next morning we were sorted into our departments, the places where we're going to be mainly working for the next three months. I was really happy that I was put in the Programme department, the department that organises and runs all the activities on-site. So that day we did a short hike up the Gasterntal valley to have a meeting in the sunshine, while lying on the grass. I *love* this job!

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The couple of days later we had our first day off (yay!) so I decided to do a hike up a mountain called Jagertosse. Initially I was going to go on my own, but then Anne (from Ireland) decided to come too. The views were pretty incredible, and the hike was really enjoyable (I discovered a fellow Dr Horrible fan in Anne too!). We didn't quite make it to the top, because we wanted to get down to town to buy some more hiking kit, but it turns out that we probably could have because we got down in just over an hour.

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 Finally I've got some photos from our Bunderspitz training hike, the first actual peak I've done here! So after completing this hike I'm now signed off to lead groups on this route, so exciting. 

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D-Day at KISC

So today was D-Day for the new Pinkies at KISC - a day of dressing up, looking silly and exploring Kandersteg village. We were informed last night that we had to dress up as astronauts for today and that we'd not need to set our alarms. So we guessed that we'd be receiving an early wake up - turned out we were exactly right, getting rudely awoken at something like 6:30 in the morning. We were handed a few random costumes (not remotely astronaut related) and I picked up a Scots hat and a blanket to cover for a kilt. Then we were told that we had to brush our teeth, but the other members of the group had to brush them for us! So after that... interesting experience we ovbiously had to have some breakfast - at the train station, in town.

As you can see the costumes were pretty eclectic and made us look pretty stupid. A quick breakfast, with several trains passing us then we were handed our challenge for the morning - find several clues hidden around Kandersteg village, and take plenty of photos of certain things around. We also had our faces painted with our national flags - I would have had the Union flag, but it was too complex to paint with just fingers. Some of the pictures I took:

A picture of the whole team on some playground equipment.

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A picture with the doctor's assistant.

Someone in water

Some of the Long-Term Staff upside-down

Mars (we had to improvise)

The most advanded technology in Kandersteg

Some climbing gear

Then we had to meet up at the bottom of the Oeschinensee gondala to take us up for some messing around on the on the tobbogan run and for lunch at the (rather beautiful) lake.

Then it was back down to the village to make some dinner for the long term staff, and we make some damn good pizza, even if I say so myself. So a long, but really good fun day.

Posted via web from Ali's Kandersteg Adventure

Just arrived! #kandersteg #kisc #scouts

Just got to Kandersteg! I'm using the computers at the Centre, where the keys are slightly different - enough to make a lot more spelling mistakes.

There's not much to post so far, the plane and train were as expected pretty boring. But I've met a load of people (and forgotten most of their names already) who are really great. The weather so far is overcast and grey, but it's about 14C.

Well that's all I've got to say for now - will post some pictures (maybe when the weather's a bit nicer) soon.

Posted via email from Ali's Kandersteg Adventure