Thursday, October 30, 2008

Under The Sea

JellyFish
Crabs
Octopus
Plankton




I don't feel like writing much: Everyone else is out sledding!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Winter is Here

http://www.chefihuesi.ch/

Check out this cool webcam.

Winter is Here! It's been snowing for 24 hours, we've got a few inches. We may have enough snow for decent sledding tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Just Like Any Other Day


Monster Meal tonight. Monster Mash.

Kitchen Costume Shop...again. Louise is dressing up as some norse monster who lures children into the under world. She sat next to Jen, the Devil at dinner.

Jen had to wear her costume to her french lesson. Sarah told her to say (in French) "Please excuse my outfit, I didn't have time to change out of my uniform before coming."

Jena is smiling in this picture. We're not sure what Sarah is, but it certainly is frightening.

My new lips make it hard to drink water.

Monday, October 27, 2008

For Your Consideration

Halloween Week is upon us. Tonight: Prehistoric meal, though apparently some of the staff felt that just showing up in Any costume, themed or no, was appropriate. You can't tell in the pictures--thanks to the flash--but we were eating in the dark, with small tea lights.
Kitchen Costume Shop




Sunday, October 26, 2008

Luzern #3

Jen and Laura and I played in Luzern before the concert.

It was raining. It is ALWAYS raining in Luzern, that should be part of my Travel-Guide. Did you know I'm going to write a travel guide to Europe? It's like a scavenger hunt. Except, I have to visit more countries than 2 if I really mean Europe. I guess it's a travel guide to Switzerland. Ruth has read the first installment: Luzern. I digress.

We went to the glacier garden--I would recommend going there. You get to see the physical remnants of the glacier's awesome power as well as learn about how the glaciers in Switzerland are shrinking (it's shocking) and see some examples of 19th century Swiss houses. When you get done with all the museum-y learning type stuff, there's a hall of mirrors! It was built for a late 19th century world exhibition in Paris and was subsequently purchased by the glacier garden. I would recommend running around in it trying to lose your friends and then seeing if they can find you again. It's harder than you think to find a person in a hall of mirrors. Don't run too fast, and maybe put your hands out in front of you.

The day after then Ani concert, we walked around on the town walls and then Laura and I visited the Natural history museum before dragging our tired selves home. The Natural history museum was alright, it was smallish but had a really nice collection of bugs and rocks, so Laura was happy.

I'll post pictures later.

Later:

First we found the Lion. It is a very very sad statue, but something was hilarious none the less. I forget what

The biggest, most beautiful pothole in the world. I think. A pothole is caused when a vortex of water forms under a creeping glacier, the intense pressure of the water combined with sand and gravel can form very stunning holes in the ground.
We also found a very large spider. Jen was scared of it because it was "Panting" and might "jump up and bite us" at any second. I was looking for a tiger....
Jen and I tamed a wild beast.
Then we found the mirrors.

Chalet food....
And Dwarfies.

The next day we explored the town walls and the Nature Museum.

Here's one of many skeleton-in-everyday-life pictures that are all over one of the 15th century bridges in Luzern.

The Natural History Museum:
The first room is full of stuffed animals. The first thing I did was run in and pet the otter, before I read the sign that said "please don't touch" oops. I did not want to pet this bird. There was another stuffed bird that was in the process of eating a small goat. I guess this is what it looks like when it's done with dinner.

Then we found the bugs.

Cute Weevils. Just look at their little snouts! *(direct quote from Laura)
Scary bite-y bees. These are about 3 inches long.

I've been holding out

I know you're all on the edges of your seats--waiting for the Ani Concert Report.

Here it is.

The concert was absolutely brilliant. I have never ever been to a better concert. She played for a healthy hour and a half, she introduced every song and she was Fun. I smell Official Bootleg! I'll bet anyone who wants $5 that the Luzern concert will be a bootleg in the next 6 months or so. And if it is, you should all buy it.

Our seats were close. I've been close before, but it usually involves a crowd crushing me against a security fence while I gaze up Ani's nostrils--because the stage is 5 and a half feet off the ground. There was no security fence and the stage was only about 3 feet high.

And the crowd, they were so well behaved! Everyone waited politely (even me! best behavior) until the song was completely over before beggining with the hoo00hawwing and whistling (oh, how I wish that I could whistle too).

At the end, those of us in the front row walked calmly to the front of the stage to wait patiently for our set-lists. The roadie on the stage said "oh you guys are so quiet, this is weird" We lauged quietly and walked away without shoving.

Here's the set list (it's displayed proudly in my kitchen these days)

Swan Dive
78% Water
Next Bold Move
Here For Now
Rain Check
Lag Time
Marrow
Napoleon
You Had Time
Promiscuity (a BRAND new one--even though she only released an album 3 weeks ago!)
Present/Infant
Garden of Simple
Paradign
Alla This
Landing Gear
Shameless
and as an encore:
Little Plastic Castle
32 Flavors

The encore was really awesome: she got the whole crowd singing the chorus of 32 Flavors(the ohhh oh oh part) and than improvised over the top of it for a good solid minute--I smell Bootleg.

Here are some of the fun facts I learned from her song introductions:

Napoleon is her indie girl anthem--she put the F-word in every chorus in those days to ensure no radio play. Rain Check is her "I'd sleep with you if I were 5 years younger and didn't know better, but I'm only going to be sensible about it for the 3 minutes it takes me to sing this song-song". Present/Infant is "The song my baby taught me" Landing Gear is a "Labor song" She said that she liked playing in Europe because everyone is so well behaved compared to the americans who are like "Iloveyouanihavemybabyanitouchmeani!" (she seriously said that, I laughed nervously).

Also report-worthy: She got choked up everytime she talked about our Shameful Government, which I understand. I guess when you're an American abroad you want to convince everyone that you're not like Them. It feels like you have to be an abassador for the America that isn't necesarily on CNN--or something like that. I know that some of you (reading) won't agree with this, but I do and it's my blog.

After the show I talked to Hammel for a while, he invited us to his show in London. It's on the 4th--so it'll be a Celebration/Suicide show he said. I'd go for sure but our flight doesn't get in 'till 8:30 and he plays at 7:30. Sorry Hammel...thanks for the invite though.

It was an awesome show.

Dear Brits: She's playing in London on october 29th. GO Go GoGo!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

AniAniAniAniAniAniAni!!! and EuroExtravaganza Finalized

Hi! Tomorrow is the Ani Concert!!!! She's playing in Milano right now, and tomorrow at this time she will be saying "Hi! I remember you, this is what...your 7th time? I like what you've done with your hair and where did you get such a smart top?" That's right, I've already picked out my outfit so I know exactly what she's going to say. I hope she plays all of my favorite songs.

In other news. Laura and I have finalized the EuroExtravaganza itinerary. We realized we were a bit unrealistic when we planned to visit every European country in 14 days--both in terms of basic laws of physics and economically. Also, here's a fun fact, EasyJet is cheap but you need to be a master of combinatorial mathematics to figure out how to get from place to place: they only offer certain destinations from certain airports. What a nightmare. So with all those factors acting we came up with this plan, friends around the world get out your planners and pencil me in:

(All dates are in units of November)

London 4th - 6th
Prague 6th- 8th
Milan 8th
Venice 9th-10th
Milan 11th
Barcelona 11th-14th

Ruth, Katie, Catherine and Rachel. I expect a bonfire. Magdelana, perhaps if you have time you could take me to that castle you kept promising?

Monday, October 20, 2008

Red Letter Year review and Hurricanes

I've been listening to the new Ani Album: Red Letter Year. Laura found it for me after the whole Empty Envelope Fiasco. But, I have a real copy now--my dad bought it for me! Thanks Dad.

On with the review. At first, I didn't like it. There's reverb and echo, there's lines like "Love is all over the place" and "smiling underneath" It is Different. Anna says she felt the same way, but since we are committed Ani Fans, it is our Duty to purchase every new album at least 8 weeks in advance. It's different, but that's one of the reasons I like Ani. I can certainly depend on the fact that every album she puts out in the future, like every album in the past, will sound completely different than every one that has come before. As far as the sappiness of it goes: I'm ok with it now, Catie Curtis has been doing it for YEARS and no one really complained that much.

On to other news: We had a Hurricane here at the Chalet. There was a dutch woman. She has loved the Chalet for a very long time. She even worked here (for how long, I don't know). A few weeks ago, she emailed us to let us know that "The staff at the Chalet are making many mistakes. I will come and show you how to wax the floor, teach you some traditions and help you win back the guests you have lost (presumably due to the mistakes we are making)". So she came. She was housed for free and given a very very intimate tour of the Chalet--which included a scathing peek at my very own desk. She felt free to voice any opinions she had, and did often, usually aiming them at the poor volunteers who are just doing what they're told. For instance: the bathrooms were not clean enough for her standards. The bathrooms were fine. And, I'm sure that she knew exactly where we keep the cleaning supplies... but I digress.

On Friday morning, most of the volunteers had the day off, and the only staff on site was in the office. She took it upon herself to rearrange all the furniture on the dining-hall floor of the main chalet. She took down posters, put new ones up, relocated the antique chest to it's traditional location--right beneath the hatch where food comes from, moved the silverware from the dining hall into the kitchen--right beneath where dirty dishes often pass. She effectively put the dining hall back exactly as it was 25 years ago. Well, I have news for you Mrs. Dutchie, there's a damn reason we changed those things. I'm incensed at the disrespect shown by the Senior Senior staff towards us lowly senior staff and volunteers who have to fix everything, who were the target of snotty comments and had our privacy invaded by an Unsolicited Advisor. So there. I hope it never happens again.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Fish and Chips, and the Worst Day Ever, thanks Ani

Yes, it's true. The summer volunteers used over 100 francs worth of oil for their fish and chips night. I told them they could use the out-of-date oil, since I would have to throw it out anyway, go ahead...have fun. Ugh. Whateves.

In other news. The worst thing Ever has happened to me. The mail came. My Righteous Babe order came. The envelope was empty.

"Sarah, this is not funny, where are my CDs?" Like Sarah would tamper with mail, seriously.

I've sent a note to the Righteous Babe authorities. I even resisted the urge to call them Jackasses. I am doing my best to make it through this difficult time with grace, but it is proving difficult. The Ani concert is next week. If I don't get to hear the new album before then I'm going to be Really Really Pissed. I may have to resort to Piracy. I know, I know...it's Illegal and Ani wouldn't like it. But this is her fault. I'm drying my tears with the invoice sheet.

In other news, last night we had a slumber party.
We played Spots on the Floor, or Chalet-Rules-Twister
We dressed up as beautiful ladies and had a dance party. See, that's the Sprinkler.
And then we crawled into the real attic and listened to Jena's dramatic re-enactment of The Cask of Amontillado.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Oh. My. God. Why do I Leave them ALONE?

Seriously Jena? Seriously?

http://jenainswitzerland.blogspot.com/2008/10/lasagna.html

Read this. This is what happens when I'm gone. I'm crying right now.

The Last Few Days

There is something wrong with us. We can Not Hike. It always ends up like this: I'm scaling a mountain in a way that would make spider man proud. Laura is off in a tree somewhere and I hear her yell, "Hey look what I found in the bushes, what does it say?"
It says "Road is not for going through" Or something like that.
But, we eventually found the trail again. And then we had a delicious picnic.

Back at the ranch, before it's feeding time it's cleaning time. Or...hide-and-seek time.After the fun and games, it really is feeding time.
Tonight we had a Mustache Meal. It is surprisingly difficult to eat with a mustache. We all found our own solutions to the problem.