INTERLAKEN, SWITZERLAND aka: July 15-17

So Friday at camp went by really really fast. I wish I would have had time before I left that day to write a blog so that everything would have been all caught up. Regardless, I'm going to try and write down what I remember. It was my favorite kid, Aiden's, birthday. He is sooooo cute. He has been telling me about his birthday for weeks, and I told him I would let him hang on me more on his birthday than normal. He is so cuddley and always just wants to hang all over me. So all day long we had like our normal programming stuff. But it was really cold, so we watched a movie instead of playing outside. We watched Labrynth, which I haven't seen since the choir trip to the lake cabin my senior year of high school. It was for sure amazing. Although sitting for that long when I was super tired was not the best thing ever. I was so like out of it. I dozed off a couple of times. Aiden of course sat next to me and had me put my arm around him the whole time. lol....that kid. And then during the day we also did cream the counselor. I made the decision that we are using shaving cream instead of whipped cream this year because whipped cream ends up smelling so so so gross. I don't like smelling rotting milk while on the weekends traveling. So...shaving cream it was. And it smelled really good. Eight kids got to cream us. They were kind of out of control though, and it was really hard for them to stay like in line and paying attention. Which is weird. Kids best be behavin'. But they had a good time creaming ms. Emily and I. Mr. James, the family counselor also let them cream him, which was really nice of him. I don't know if I would if not for camp. Eric leaves before that, and Mike was gone this friday, so It was just the three of us the kids had to choose from. Eight plus pies on people, and we only went through one and a half cans of shaving cream. That stuff just like keeps going....I was seriously impressed. We also had a cake that day for Aiden's birthday. It was a massive cake and the kids were like super bummed they had to wait for him to eat the first bite. The cake was so good, but it had this like black frosting on it. My piece didn't have this, but a lot of them did. So many people's mouths were like completely black from it. It was pretty intense. I laughed super hard at like Aiden, Emily, and Oliver. After work (I had taken the earlier shift so I could get home early), and went to my room to change, grab my stuff, and go to the train station. It was crazy fast I had to get ready. Then we went to the train, had our list of transfers planned out, and were on our way. The ride was long....I got some of my book read, but then I ended up sleeping for quite a bit on the way there. We had two transfers, but we made it without a hitch. We slightly started to freak out when the train we were on stopped at a station and then started heading the way we had just come, but it was just taking a different route. It did that on the way back too. We finally arrived in Switzerland at like one in the morning at Interlaken and had to walk and try to find our hostel. After asking for help from two guys, since there was absolutely nothing helpful in the directions I printed, We made our way there. It was kind of a long walk, but part of that could have just been because we were so tired. We checked in at the main hostel, and then had to walk a bit further to the tents,which is what we were staying in. It is like this permanent tent village with little tents that have like three bunk beds each, and then a common shower, bathroom, and sink area. It was so quaint, and I absolutely loved it. I just remember that walking on the way there, I already knew that i was going to love Switzerland so so much. It was freezing that night, so at least the blankets were good. The canyoning stuff opened early, so we were going to try and leave by like seven the next morning. now almost two, I for sure didn't get that much sleep that night. But oddly enough. Saturday morning, I woke up feeling like I had a ton of sleep and it was super awesome. I got up at about six to take a shower and then got ready. I was ready to leave, but cuz of some people in our group we didn't end up leaving til like seven. Then we get to the main hostel to book stuff at like seven twenty. And we waited in line behind these like two guys for ever. They were booking stuff for the whole week so it was taking forever....then they started to book stuff for their friends. It was like really? Why. But then the main adventure office thing opened so we bailed on the line we were in and went there. It is like five to eight at this point. So Sam and I, who were the only ones wanting to do the longer, more adventurous canyoning trip went first so we could get our spot. Luckily we got in, since the one we wanted left at eight. We rushed over two buildings after we paid so that we could go! The trip was like 159 CHF and Euro is slightly lower than that in the exchange. I mean worth more. But they are close. So Expensive. But worth it. So Sam and I got to this building and our leader guy comes up and there are six other people who are from a group studying abroad in Germany for the semester. The eight of us followed the main guy and this other leader guy to get our wetsuits, helmets, etc. The helmets all had names on them so everyone could be identified inthe videos and while out in the canyon. I was Pusscat, Sam was Goofy, then there was like Rambo, and some others...lol... It was a lot of stuff. And then we piled everything into a van and started to drive. We drove for like ever, but the views on the way to where we were going were breathtaking. I can't even describe how in awe I was of absolutely everything I saw. Everything looked like it was straight out of a photoshopped post card. Wow wow wow. So... We stop on the way up at this bakery and grab some stuff for afterwards. Finally we stop and change into our wetsuits in the middle of a field (we had our swimsuits on so nbd) and then we drove a little bit to our final destination. It was pretty intense. We arrive and step out, and there is just this huge ledge with a guard rail. Our instructors step out of the van and attach ropes to this ledge. I was thinking, oh my gosh oh my gosh i'm going to die, I didn't know I had to repel down something! So they hooked us up and we had to like lean all the way back. Basically we were standing up straight, but it was sideways! and press our legs backwards. We could let go of the rope, but i just couldn't do it! At least I got up on my feet. But at one part, this huge side of a cliff like dipped inward and I lost my footing. Of course I would be the only one in the group that this would happen to...... of course. But then I kept going and one dude at the bottom from the study abroad group helped talk me through standing up again. I made it down in one piece yay! The way to describe what repelling felt like is running backwards through the air. When we were all at the bottom we started on our journey. We had a bunch of slides down these like rocks, and then we had to jump from rocks into the water. It was basically one huge continuous winding waterfall that we were walking down. It was unreal. The scariest slide was this one where the rock cut off and we were like launched into the water. Another one we had to like jump on to another rock sideways and they like shoved us onto the slide. It was crazy. The scariest jump (all of which were recommended we do in a cannon ball style) was this one where you could either jump from 15 feet or 30 feet. To get to the 30 ft I had to like climb up this side of a rock wall with nothing strapped to me. We were just holding a fricken rope. It was so scary! And then standing at the top looking down from that thing. Was just nuts. I thought I was going to die. I was shaking soooooo much. But I did it. I felt sooo accomplished afterwards. I have for sure never jumped from anything that high. That was probably the most scary thing out of everything for me. The next scariest besides the repelling was when we kind of zip lined down this one part of the mountain we were looped through our hook with this rope, but it wasn't tied. We had to hold onto it and let go when they said as this thing is like whizzing downwards. Omg. So scary. My hands were so cold from the frigid water. i've honestly never felt anything like that. I was like....what if my hands let go, what if my arthritis makes me not strong enough to hold it! I was freaking out. But I did it. I did everything. I am so proud of myself for that day. After we were all finished they drove us back to the field we changed and they had bread, cheese, and tomatoes, and beer for us. I had so much cheese and bread. the cheese was some of the best I have had. And the bread everywhere in Europe is just unbelievably amazing. I had such a blast. When we got back, the other group who did the less intense one was back and getting ready to go to the lake. The lake wasn't my favorite to be honest. We didn't end up at a part with a beach, and it took us like an hour to find it. We should have just taken the bus. But the lake with the mountains in the background was amazing, and it was nice to just lay out in the sun for a while. Did for a while on the ground....too rocky...field....too buggy....bench? Perfect! That was nice. Then we walked back and got ready to celebrate Sam's birthday!!!! We went to a market and bought stuff to make pasta and bread and salad! It was awesome. The hostel we are staying at, in the main place, has like a kitchen and cooking stuff you could use. I unfortunately dropped one of the cans of sauce on the way there, but it all ended up working out. The pasta was sooo good, and I think Sam felt nice that we had made something for him. During dinner too, all of us but Sam (since the PC isn't really supposed to drink with us) went down during happy hour, which was during our dinner, and got drinks. We all ended up getting cider which was super cheap because everything was buy one get one free. It was nice because Rebecca and I each paid like two fifty frank for our cider! Woo! After eating we all went down into the bar area to just hang and dance and stuff. The bar is literally the hostel's bar. Crazy part was.....We saw the group from Sam and my canyoning at the hostel!!!!! It was really cool! They were like, where is Goofy! And we had a lot of fun. One of the guys ended up buying me a drink, yay free stuff, because I am soooo poor. We danced for a while and then Molly and I headed back to sleep, and soon everyone else followed. I was so tired. I didn't even hear everyone else come back, even though they weren't far behind us. There were five of us in one tent and I think four or five in the other we had booked. (Also six more camp A's from our camp were in a different hostel in interlaken that weekend and we saw tons of people from other camps. Crazy small town for how much there is to do for reals). The sleep I got that night was like the best I have gotten in so long. I slept til eight, so I got like seven or so hours. Perfect! I got up and just adjusted my hair rather than get ready. Saturday's weather was so perfect and sunny and gorgeous. Sunday not so much. It was really rainy and gross. But oh well. These kind of things happen. We mostly just chilled around and got some souveniers. Our train left at one to go home. So we were back by like seven. That was nice. I sat by Mary Beth on the way back, and it was just nice to talk, although I didn't get my book read at all. Then Mary Beth, Bre and I changed super fast and headed to Patch to watch the Women's world cup final. So glad I went even though we didn't get back til like midnight. I was soooo tired by the end, but the game was soooo intense! It is a bummer we lost. Mary beth and Bre were apart of the group that came Sat from Stuttgart to Interlaken that were staying in a different hostel. I feel like we are kind of clicking, which is nice. They are cool girls. So Mary Beth and Bre, in interlaken, came up with this creature called BerMyth, which is a mix between a Mammoth and a Bear. I think it is hilarious, and they kind of got me into it too. So I came up with the side kick, HornYcorn (Pronounced horn-ih-corn) that is a mix between a hornet and a unicorn. Best thing ever. Its slogan is back it up, bring it forward. We were creating backstories, and arch nemesis (which turned out to be Basel). It was great times. I am soooo tired....I need to sleep. more later!