I am 1 in 10 million.

Do you ever think for a second and realize that you are only 1 person in this huge world?
It can be a depressing thought.
Sitting back and thinking, "what can only 1 person do?"

When those thoughts creep into my head,
I am lucky enough to sit back and remember,
I am a Girl Scout,
and I am 1 in 10 million.

As a young Girl Scout living in Oklahoma I never quite realized this.
I went to my weekly troop meetings in the school year,
and when summer came I headed to Camp Kate Portwood for some Girl Scout camp fun.

Working at Our Chalet has shown me a new side of Scouting and Guiding--
We are 10 million members strong around the world,
which means I have 10 million people on my side,
helping to make the world a better place.

To illustrate this message to the lucky young women that visit Our Chalet,
at closing campfire we a song.

The song goes like this...
"I am one voice, and I am singing.
I am one voice, and I am singing.
I am one voice, and I am singing.
I am not alone..."
and on that, one person will stand up with them,
they will proceed to sing "We are two voices, and we are singing"
at the end of each verse another group stands up,
as we go threw 10 voices, 100 voices, 1 thousand voices, 10 thousand voices, 1 million voices, and then 10 million voices.
Then at the end, when the entire group is one large circle,
we revert back and sing "we are 1 voice, and we are singing"

At the recent campfire, two nights ago,
A fellow vollie stood up and sang the solo part,
and then I stood and was her second voice.
While singing with just my fellow Vollie,
I thought, "what if one of us messes up?"
Luckily, neither of us did,
however, about the time it got to 10 million,
my fellow Vollie flubbed a word,
I overheard this, because I was directly next to her,
however, the rest of the group, "the 10 million" voices,
were able to cover her small mistake without everyone noticing.

That just proves that when we stand alone, everyone notices our faults,
but when we stand up, with our 10 million voices loud, no one will notice 1 person's fault.
This is why I am blessed to be a Girl Scout.

When we stand together, who can stand against us?

Please let this be a normal field trip... With Christoph? NO WAY!

Christoph.
Oh Christoph.
Christoph is the grounds and maintenance man here at Our Chalet.
He's basically like a German Chuck Norris,
but better.
He's hilarious.
And odd.
And everything else amazing.
And every now and then,
he takes random trips and tells the vollies...
"Whoever is sitting in my car at 9 am when I go to leave, can come with"

So that's just what Jess and I did yesterday.
We were sitting in his car at 9 am,
ready for an exciting day of "Christoph Adventuring"

We ended up going to a valley two valleys away,
called Gasteretal.
It's a really special valley,
you can only enter from this time to this time,
and you can only exit from this time to this time.
Also, you have to have a pass to enter.

The road getting in is extremely narrow,
and slightly terrifying with Christoph's European driving.
But once in, you are struck my a beauty that you can't even imagine.

Christoph took us a to a Gasthaus and we had tea, coffee, and pastries.
And then we began to hike.
For anyone that knows me knows, I HATE HIKING,
however, this hike was at a slow pace,
we had nowhere to be at a specific time,
It was the most enjoyable hike I've ever been on.

We had an ice cream about two thirds of the way up,
and then continued up to this little spot off the beaten path and had our packed lunches.
Once back at the car, Christoph decided we would go to KISC,
so we went to KISC.
(P.S. KISC is Kandersteg International Scout Center)
It's AMAZING!
We saw Karin, a spring vollie of Our Chalet,
and then Jess and I basically wandered around.

All in all,
it was a perfect day.

Gasteretal Valley

Welcome to KISC

Klettersteig? Via Ferrata? Illegal.

Many days ago...
(sorry I'm late at writing this...)
These two wonderful people, Katie Scales and Alex Newcombe,
used their days off to take two bright eyed little vollies,
Me and Cate O'Donnell on this little adventure called Klettersteiging.

Klettersteig is the German word for it,
the rest of the world calls it Via Ferrata,
while America calls it... illegal.


A via ferrata (Italian for "iron road") or klettersteig (German for "climbing path") is a mountain route which is equipped with fixed cables, staples, ladders and bridges.
(and that kids was copied straight off Wikipedia!)
So basically, it's like hiking, 
but A MILLION TIMES COOLER!!!


You're strapped into harnesses, 
and you've got clips and hooks that keep you completely safe.
You also wear a helmet, just for those rouge rocks.
It's honestly the safest I've ever felt on a mountain.


And, even from someone who doesn't like hiking that much
(yes, I know I VOLUNTEERED to live in Switzerland and lead hikes...)
It's still a really fun activity, 
because it's pretty slow going.


So basically, to sum up Cate and I's Klettersteiging day,
We did the entire Klettersteig in about 3ish hours,
with Katie in front and Alex in back,
just to make sure we were safe.
It felt just like mummy and daddy were keeping us safe.
And I was pretty grateful to have experienced people along on the journey.


So once back at the Chalet,
and realizing how much I enjoyed this new activity,
I thought of how much I wanted to take my friends back at home,
maybe we could find some somewhere and take a long weekend road trip,
who knows?


Much to my dismay, 
as I googled them in the good ole US of A,
I found out...
THEY'RE ILLEGAL...
Permanent climbing wires,
such as the one's used on a Via Ferrata, or Klettersteig course,
are illegal in America.
There are only 4 Klettersteigs in the USA,
and they were built before the law was in place.


So basically this just means... I have four new places to visit.


Also, while Klettersteiging,
we saw the famous flower of Edelweiss,
I would like to take this time to publicly apologize to Katie Scales for calling her ALL TIME FAVORITE flower ugly...
it's not ugly, 
it's just different,
and beautiful in it's own way.

Katie and I on the Klettersteig

Bright-eyed and bushy tailed Vollies pretending to do the Lion King at the top of the Klettersteig.

Our fearless mum and daddy, Katie Scales and Alex Newcombe.
Love you guys!