Troop 1018 Kanderblog

Day 11

2006-08-01T19:47:00.000+02:00

Monday, July 31, 2006
Today, the scouts went canyoning. About 3/4 of the scouts went on a Beginner's Canyoning trip. The rest went for the Advanced Canyoning trip. I went Advanced, and I am going to assume that the Beginner's trip was similar to the Advanced trip.
There is very little time left for this posting, so I'll add pictures when I get home tomorrow, or something. I'm going to polish the whole blog then as well.
Canyoning
This thing was one of the most dangerous things I have ever done. You see, canyoning consists of four main things of abseiling (climbing rock faces while attached to a rope), jumping, sliding, and walking.
Abseiling
This was spooky, picture this: You have a harness around your waist over your two wetsuits, attached to the harness is rope with a carabiner attached to it. Your carabiner is hooked to a rope suspended 30 feet above raging water and sharp rocks. The rock face is smooth from thousands of years of flowing water and is wet. You need to lean back to keep tension on the rope, and you need to lean in to the canyon. You walk slowly sideways, and must not slip.
Time to go... I'll add the rest later.

Swiss national day!!
~Dan, now 17-years-old, woo.

Day 10

2006-07-31T22:40:00.000+02:00

Sunday, July 30, 2006
Today rocked hard. A large group of the scouts went canoeing down the Aare river, and another large group went on a train ride to the Matterhorn mountain, Switzerland's highest mountain. I was on the canoeing trip, and because I can't be two places at once, I don't have info on the Matterhorn trip, I'll try to get info on that later, sorry, I try.

Canoeing
We woke up at about 6:45 for breakfast and rode a train from the town of Kandersteg to the city of Thun (pronounced "tune"). It is there that we found Ghettoboard(TM) version 3 in a pretty rundown and grafiti'ized area, if you know what a Ghettoboard is, you will find this funny. We met our guides and did a quick safety brief. Then, get this, we inflated our canoes. Inflated! It was craziness, I've never seen inflated canoes in my life, and these ones were just great! They had seemingly double the bouyancy, and John and I withstood many attempted capsizings. So here's what we did on the canoeing trip. We went out with a bunch of German people who knew minimal English and struggled to valliantly to speak to us. Eventually this struggle degraded to... war. War on water, great naval battles were had by splashing water at enemies at top speed with the aid of the canoeing paddles. It must have looked funny to the locals bathing on the sides of the river to see float-by boat battles with people shouting in three different languages at once. We rode through the Swiss countryside and saw everything from post-modern urbanization to open fields and mountainous waterfalls. The water was insanely clear, as is most water in Switzerland, and the bottom had nice smooth rocks lining it. Locals went to the river to bathe and enjoy just like an American would at the beach. One of the strangest things I've ever seen occurred when we were boating in to Bern: people of the city would go up the river and jump in, they'd allow the river to take them down like a "lazy river" for about a mile, then they would come out of the water and walk upstream on a path next to the water. I saw thousands of people in skimpy bathing suits walking up this path in a mass exodus to just jump back in to the water, the craziness made perfect sence after a while, because it's quite hot here, and Switzerland is a landlocked country. We had a blast on this trip, but I don't have and photos because there's no chance that I would take my camera with me in the water.

Conclusion
SUNBURN!!!

That's all I have for now. Cheers!

~Dan

Note: Keep the comments coming!
No snow, but sleet and cold rain, it rocked. Some 1018 hikers also got hit by hail in the mountains a few days ago. I know the posting is a day late, but I will have the canyoning and International BBQ that we did on the 31st up tomorrow morning (if I get a chance).
Just a few days left... It's a shame that this amazing trip is finally winding down.
I'll have flight details soon.

Day9 Pictures

2006-07-31T22:34:00.000+02:00

TA-DA!!!

Haha to the last one...

Day 9

2006-07-29T22:38:00.000+02:00

Saturday, July 29, 2006
Today, a majority of the scouts went on a trip to the High Ropes Course. A few didn't, they hung around camp enjoying a "laid-back" day. This post will include info on the High Ropes Course and the previously hiked Jungfraujoch trip.

Jungfraujoch
Hi. This is Robert. Im writing this because Dan wasnt on the hike. So after an uneventful bus ride we got to the station and went on cog train. A cog train is a regular train except for a gear the helps the trains traction. This is by far the loudest train ride ive every been on. So we get off the train at this small little town that really didnt need to be there. We got on another train and contiuned the ascent. The little plaza on the top was nice, and i got to spit off the "top of Eroupe" not once, not twice, but THRICE. My dad and i began to walk up a ramp to the top of the plaza oddly called "the sphix" really random. The view at the top was amazing, you could see a ton of stuff. I then looked down and realized that i could also see through the bottom of the floor. I went back inside. The ride down was the same, except we didnt go on the hike and instead went to another town. My dad and i play the most insane game of mini golf we have ever played. I also learned that cooking waffle cones smells alot like crispy, crispy, cookies. And thats pretty much all that happened, this is Robert Collins, you stay classy herndon.

High Ropes Course
We took a mini-coach from Kandersteg to an area of Switzerland near the German/French border that had the High Ropes course we were looking for. This area was kind of strange, as some of the signs were in French and some were in German, some people even spoke both German and French interchangably. William and I came to the conclusion that they were speaking "Freutsch" (pronounced Froitch), a mixture of German and French similar to Spanglish. Once we arrived at the place, we signed a small waiver, took a 2-minute safety class, and were on our way. The thing I love about Switzerland is the idea of "personal responsibility", that way, you are responsible for your own mistakes, not the company. I'll do a quick rundown on the differences between America and Swizerland:
America
2-hour safety course.
3 waivers to sign.
3 carabiners for security.
1 full-body harness.
1 helmet.
2 gloves.
1 guide following each individual person.
1 helmet.
1-hour affixation and checking of all parts of this list.
Switzerland
2-minute safety course.
1 waiver to sign.
2 carabiners for security.
1 half-body harness.
2 gloves.
That's all! Not only that, but this place in Switzerland has never had an accident, while even the most secure American places have them. What's the deal! Anyway, enough of my rant. We were done with our safety course and on our way to the most extensive and exciting high ropes park I've ever seen. Some parts had you up 35 meters in the trees climbing across a single wire. There were five different levels of difficulty, and we were able to go through them all in our alotted four hours. Arguably the best part of the course was the 200-foot-long zipwire at the end of the Red course. On the way back from the park, we saw some amazing sights over the Swiss countryside, I'll include a photo.

Conclusion
I have over 1500 pictures already, I'm thinking of making DVDs that include all of the pictures of the trip for parents in the troop.

That's all I have for now. Cheers!
~Dan
~Robert

Note: Keep the comments coming!
From Dan: Boogly boogly boo! Canada better get ready.
WE ARE BEING PUSHED OUT OF HERE, I'LL INCLUDE PICTURES FROM THIS POST LATER TOMORROW, SORRY!

Day 8

2006-07-29T17:17:00.000+02:00

Friday, July 27, 2006
Today was also a laid back day, for me at least. I am currently ill and was very sick this morning. The other scouts arrived today from the Lötschenpass hike. Some other scouts and parents went on a day-hike to Jungfraujoch. Later in the evening we experienced an awesome campfire.
I still have no information on the Bunderspitz, Lötschenpass, or Jungfraujoch hikes, I'll try to get that later tonight.
This post is a day late because of the campfire last night.

Campfire
This campfire was the loudest ones I've been to. Because many of the scouts come from non-English speaking areas, the staff avoids using complicated phrases, and does a lot of cheers, "the wave", et cetera. But this campfire was just... CRAZY! Through many of the skits you could see the great American influence on the world. Our skit was doubtlessly the best, and the croud absolutely LOVED it, I recieved many compliments after the campfire about it. I'll go over what we did in it.

The Skit
Dan: We are Troop 1018 of Dranesville, Virginia, of the United States. (croud cheers, for a surprisingly long time)
Dan: Now, as you all know, America is the home to Microsoft. (croud boo's, this is a good sign)
Dan: For this one... special occasion, Bill Gates has given us permission to show you the first version of your Scout Leader on Microsoft Windows Just don't tell the European Union! (as per the EU vs. Microsoft lawsuit). The Troop 1018 Players proudly present "If Your Scoutmaster Ran on Windows". (again, a surprisingly long applause)
Chaz: Look! There he is now!
Harry: Let's go see him! (Dan/Chaz/Harry run up)
John: Welcome scouts. You've got mail!
Dan/Chaz/Harry: Yes! Awesome! Great!
Dan: Yes! I got a MAGAZINE!
Harry: I got a letter from my father!
Chaz: Aww... I got SPAM again! (holds us can of SPAM, laughs and applause follow)
(Dan/Harry/Chaz walk off stage)
(Chaz runs up)
Chaz: Scoutmaster, Scoutmaster! A strange man's coming in to our campsite, he's right behind me!
John: Don't worry... I've got VIRUS protection!
(Peter walks up)
Peter: Hey, uh, I was wondering if you--
(John cuts him off with a punch to the face, Peter falls down, "ooh"s, laughs, and applause follow)
Chaz: Thanks Scoutmaster. (Chaz walks off)
(Chris runs up)
Chris: AAAAHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH SCOUTMASTER!!!!! I CUT MY FINGER AND IT'S BLEEDING EVERYWHERE, WHAT SHOULD I DO?!?
(John pulls out paper hourglass, and flips it around a few times, this lasts a long time, the longer it lasts, the more laughter from the audience occurs)
John: Is is bleeding... BADLY?
Chris: YES YES YES HELP!!!
John: Huh... (pulls out hourglass again and flips it some more, waits about 20 seconds, by then Chris is on the ground passed out, lots of laughter)
John: You need First Aid! (croud laughs for about a minute non-stop)
(Chaz/Dan/Harry run up)
All three: Ahhhh!!!! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ahh! (lots of freaking out)
Chaz: SCOUTMASTER! Patraic fell out of a tree!
Harry: Mark fell off the Fründenhutte!
Dan: Branson got crushed by a glacier!!!
John: Scoutmaster overload... Scoutmaster shutting down.
Dan: We can's have this now!
Chaz: Oh no!
Dan: I know... let's... REBOOT HIM!
Chaz/Harry: Yeah!
(The three kick John in the behind, John looks up, lots of applause)
All three: Come on....
John: Welcome scouts!
All three: Yes!
John: Illegal shutdown detected! Scanning hard-disc for errors! (groans, laughs, applause)
All three: Aww....
John: One percent... two percent... three percent...
Chaz: Gah, this could take forever!
John: Four percent... five percent... six percent... (continual laughter)
Harry: I know! Hit F1!
(Chaz pokes John)
John: Illegal operation in J9_46KxO.ini (John pulls a blue sheet over himself)
All three: Oh no... oh no... it's the... BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!! AHHHHH!!!!!
(The three run off, lots and lots of laughter followed by a huge applause came, it was great)

So that was the skit, and it rocked. The Hong Kongese troop in front of us especially liked the part with the "Blue Screen of Death". We also did a rythym/song thing that was short and sweet, the people loved it too. The rest of the evening had many short skits, songs, and even fire breathing. The whole production had hundreds of scouts and leaders. It was an exhilarating evening.

Conclusion
Later tonight I will have a post about what we did today, this includes the High Ropes Course which was awesome. I'll also try to get info on the hikes I missed.

That's all I have for now. Cheers!

~Dan

Note: Keep the comments coming!
Remember: You can refer to older posts through the Archived Posts and Previous Posts sections.
Dan (myself) says "To mom and anyone else who may be concerned, I've finally gotten over the fever (it was 37.6°C, about 99.5°F or something), I only have a few remaining symptoms that will be done with soon. Also, Lori, respond to your email!"
We are supposed to get snow on Monday!

Day 7

2006-07-27T22:11:00.000+02:00

Thursday, July 27, 2006
Today was a laid back day. The scouts that remained at camp had no program scheduled for today other than a service project. The other scouts are currently on the Lötschenpass hike. (As you may be able to tell, I avoid all possible hikes.)

Service Project
This wasn't too exciting, but went towards one of our camp awards. Basically... we had to stack lots and lots of dead brush in a giant pile to be mulched later on.

The Rest of the Day
We pretty much just sat around talking for the majority of the day. We went to a local restaurant with three names for lunch, they include "Crystal Café", "Crystal Pub", and "McDoris". I really do not have any idea why they have three different published names, but the french fries were absolutely spectacular. We had political debates with Danish neighbors. We watched the most insane game of soccer imaginable, there were at least 50 people on the field at once. We witnessed a huge gradient of climates, from sweltering hot in the afternoon, to extremely cold right now. I learnt how to sing "Happy Birthday" in Dutch. We met up with a group from Hong Kong that arrived today. Nothing very very interesting happened today, but I know that I'm looking forward to canyoning and white-water rafting.

Conclusion
I'm still suffering from the side-effects of the disco. This being a sore throat, problems with talking, exhaustion, and sore legs, but it was worth it.

That's all I have for now. Cheers!
~Dan

Note: Keep the comments coming!
Dan (myself) says "Hi to mom, dad, Lori, Eliana, Andrew, Grace, Lalita, Eric, and everybody else, I miss you all dearly."
We are supposed to get snow on Monday

Day 6

2006-07-27T12:04:00.000+02:00

Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Today, the scouts split in to two groups. One group went on a chocolate and cheese tour, and the other group went hiking up the Bunderspitz mountain. I don't have any details on the Bunderspitz hike.

Chocolate and Cheese Tour Group
Chocolate
We took a long bus ride to Broc, Switzerland (in the French part of Switzerland, rather than Kandersteg which is in the German part). In broc, we visited a chocolate factory and took a tour through it. It. Was. Great. The entire place smelled wonderful, the aromas of chocolate, milk, and nuts filled the air. We learned how chocolate is made, and how much science is involved in the making of chocolate. Arguably the best part of the tour was the sampling room. They had layed out about 15 trays of chocolate and had an all-you-can-eat policy! The trays were constantly refilled and had everything from their cheapest chocolates that come in small plastic wrappers, to their most expensive chocolates that come in big velvet boxes. This place was a chocolate lover's dream, and if it hadn't been for the Irish kids behind us singing "Willy Wonka, the Amazing Chocolatier" and "Bob, the Builder" the whole way through, it would have been perfect.

Gruyeres (pronounced "grew-ye")
The "cheese capital of Switzerland", Gruyeres, is an absolutely beautiful medieval French castle/town. We walked the streets of this town for about an hour and a half looking at all the overly-expensive French cafés, and art galleries. The town was an obvious tourist destination, as we met many American and Japanese visitors there.

Cheese
The cheese tour wasn't that great. We walked around three small rooms with these audio-tour-devices that told us all about cheese production. I know a lot about cheese now! But the only free samples we got were three small pieces of packaged cheese and access to a gift shop. As myself and many of the scouts have discovered. Switzerland is, in and of itself, a money making scheme.

Other
Cats
So far, we've found a total of 9 wandering cats, and they're all so friendly.

"Everybody, to zee Disco!"
Last night, we also experienced an international "disco". It was basically a dance/club scene with scouts from all over the world. It was bloody insane! I always knew that Europeans knew how to party, but who would ever expect a bunch of scouts to be able to do it so well? I'll spare you the brutal details, but just know that it was a night (8-12) of partying to everything from Led Zepplin to Offspring to Cascada. People over 16 were allowed to drink, and many of them were, but none of us Troop 1018'ers, seeing as how the parents decided to not allow it.

Lötschenpass
Today, many scouts are going on the Lötschenpass hiking trip, I don't have any info on that so far.

Conclusion
Europe is awesome.

That's all I have for now. Cheers!

~Dan

Note: Keep the comments coming!
Matt says "hi" to his mom, and Zach but not Michael.
Laurence say "hi" to his family.
Mary Maroney made it safely to Kandersteg. --To her cousins in UK.
There is a prediction for snow within a week.
I'll get more shoutouts for tonight's post.
I finally got the sidebar working.
Y and Z on this keyboard are inverted.

Disco Intermission

2006-07-26T19:30:00.000+02:00

We are going to the "International Disco" tonight from 8-12, I'll post today's blog tomorrow morning. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Dan

Day 4 and 5

2006-07-25T22:32:00.000+02:00

Monday/Tuesday, July 24/25, 2006
This post covers the Fründenhütte Glacier hike and the Fründehütte hikers' activities on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. This post also covers the Ueschinenhütte hike and it's hikers' activities on Monday and Tuesday.

Fründenhütte Group
Hike to the Hut
At the start of the Fründenhütte hike, we took a chairlift up about 400 meters (1300 feet). We then hiked downhill for about 20 minutes until we reached Oeschinensee ("see" is German for lake). We actually hiked down about 70 meters (220 feet) to get to the lake, even though we were going to hike up a mountain. We then hiked up for almost all day with the lake as a very senic backdrop. In fact, it looked like one could just dive in and take a swim, even though we were a long ways up. The hike itself was not too strenuous, even though there were switchbacks at almost every possible oppurtunity, until we were very near the top. Then, there were stair-like things that we have to climb, as well as less oxygen which caused us to be completely exhausted by the time we got up. Thankfully we got up there just as dinner was being served, which helped us get our energy back.

Glacier Workshop
After a night where all 12 of us slept in a giant bunk-bed, we woke up early to have breakfast at the hut and have a glacier workshop, which was almost the entire point of the hike. We got ourselves equipped with specialised boot attachments that had spikes to grip to the ice, as well as an ice axe that had pointy things on all three ends. We walked up to a snow-covered part of the glacier where we had the First Annual Troop 1018 Mid-July Snowball Fight as well as practicing recovering from falling down the glacier using our ice axes. Then, after we did some more hiking up the glacier and rescuing each other from falling down crevices (it was cold!!!), we hiked back down to the hut and then back to town.

Tobbaganing
At the top of the chairlift, we found tobbaganing course. Well, actually, is was more like a luge course without the ice. We already had tickets from when we tried to go on Friday, so we split the tickets and rode on it. Unlike what you`d see in America, there were no seat belts, no safety gear, and you could control the speed. When you`re florring it the entire time, you can go very fast. The one problem is when you catch up to the person in front of you. Then you have to slow down. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a Very Enjoyable.

Ueschinenhütte
International Flag Ceremony
A few hours prior to the Ueschinenhütte trip, the scouts remaining at the Scout Centre participated in an international flag ceremony. All the scouts in camp wore their respective full uniforms and, in order, said ``good morning`` in their native language and presented a troop cheer. We then rose the camp flags. Finally, we did a strange activity similar to one we did in COPE back in USA. All of the scouts from all over the camp lined up next to each other in a circle and then went sideways. And then... we were all supposed to sit down on the person behind us, it was great, we all became eachother's chairs. Eventually, some of the very young Spainards began to fall, this caused all of the scouts in the circle to fall like dominoes, it was hilarious.

Ueschinenhütte Hike
After a ride up the steepest ski-lift I've ever rode up (about 70° angle), the 12 hikers on the Ueschinenhütte hike hiked for about four hours through spectacular landscapes and amazing sights. The mountainsides were dotted with small huts typical of Switzerland. Many of the hills and mountains were loaded with cows and goats (each with its own bell). At about 5:30PM we arrived at Ueschinenhütte (the name of the hut we were staying at) to find wonderful accomidationds (soft pads to sleep on, warm wool sheets, stoves, etc.) After all of the hiking, we were all beat and met up with a troop from the Netherlands (or Denmark, or Ireland, or something... it was hard to tell by their responces). We had some great pasta and beef and fell asleep all night until the ripe late time of 8:30AM! Some of the scouts had problems sleeping because of all of the cows outside that refused to sleep. They ``moo``ed and rang their bells all day and all night. The power failed part-way through the night and we needed to use candles, it was great.

Other
The "Race Around the World"
Hundreds of scouts from the camp arrived at the main sports area to participate in the Race Around the World. This "race" was just a series of relay races, but it was lots of fun, because the teams were split up randomly. For example, my group consisted of myself, Mikey, some Scottish kids, Dutch kids, Italian kids, and more people. We did different types of races and it was loads of fun. Note: That is me in the pink skirt.

The Rain
It's currently raining harder than I've ever seen. In fact, it's hard to see anything beyond 20 feet, and some scouts from the UK have been flooded out of their camp site and are rushing here in to the Centre. The rain here is insane! All day, it will seem perfectly clear and not as if it's going to rain, then some random rain clouds will appear within a few minutes, it will begin lightning, and flash hardcore-rain will bombard the earth at full force for about 30 minutes. Then it will all clear up as if nothing's happened, and the camp sites will dry out within the next 30 minutes. IT'S CRAZY!

Conclusion
So far... this trip rocks.

That's all I have for now. Cheers!

~Dan (Ueschinenhütte and Other)
~Harry (Fründenhütte)

Note: Keep the comments coming!

Day Three

2006-07-23T21:07:00.000+02:00

Sunday, July 23, 2006
The scouts break in to two groups today. Currently, one group is hiking up to Fründenhütte (a hut 2562 meters high) for an overnight trip to explore the nearby glaciers. The other group (my group) is waiting around camp meeting people from all over the world, our overnight hike begins tomorrow, we will be going to the Ueschinenhütte hike.

Note: I do not have any details on the Fründenhütte trip today, so all information will be based on the other group's experiences. I will add Fründenhütte information on Tuesday when I return from my trip to Ueschinenhütte. This also means that there will not be a blog post tomorrow.

The Cat
Today, being Sunday, the scouts went to morning religious services. Some went to a German Catholic church, while others (including myself) went to a non-denominational chapel service. The place is famously known for being where Lord Baden Powel (the founder of the international scout movement) declared the spot as a meeting spot for all scouts worldwide. It was pretty cool because of the Scout Law engraved in so many different languages. Anyway, towards the end of the service, a cat snuk up on us, jumped on Mr. Maroney's lap, and instantly fell asleep. We asked the nearby campers if they knew who's cat it was, and they just assumed that it was native to the camp. We passed the friendly cat around and told stories about our own pets at home. (I guess this isn't very interesting to you readers now, but it was amazing to us.)

The Volleyball Tournament
A big event at Kandersteg International Scout Centre is the volleyball tournament held each Sunday. Personally, I love volleyball, and I was excited for the event. However; I could only form a three-scout team consisting of Chris, Mark, and mzself. Luckily enough, we met up with a group of older campers from the Netherlands and formed a team of eight. Our team name was Hayabusastam-Virginia. The three other teams we faced were ``M.G. Girls`` of Belgium, ``West London`` of the UK, and ``Carrigaline`` of Ireland. Our team lost a game, won the next game, and lost in the finals. It only gives me the hope that next week we will be able to form an even greater team and take the weekly title for ourselves. The games were great, and I learned a few Dutch words here and there. During the game, Peter and Robert met up with some kids from the UK and found common interest in Japanese animation. I walked in to their conversation just to find a heated argument about the show ``Naturo``.

International Friends
Throughout the day, we met several scouts from all over the world. Among the scouts we met was a group of Irish guys, we had a great time talking to them about television, politics, jokes, and their views on the world. These guys from County Cork were awesome, and we came to the conclusion that we were the funniest people in camp. Later in the day, we met up with some Danish girls and had a more serious conversation about social life differences in Denmark and America. It was really interesting to see what Danish people thought of Americans, and how much influence we have on them and the rest of Europe.

A Giant Game of Chess
After dinner, Mark challenged Peter to a game of chess. The great thing about KISC is their giant outdoors chess board. After a few minutes of playing, a group of about 15 British scouts came around and were arguing over what moves each player should make, it soon became a very intense showdown with teams formed for each side of the battle. In the end, Peter's team won, with Mark's team putting up an amazing fight.

Conclusion
With the exception of a few more odds and ends throughout the day (including mini-boat construction and racing), that's the majority of all that happened today. It wasn't as crazy as yesterday, but the sunburn is a quick reminder of all we did today.

That's all I have for now. Cheers!

~Dan

Note: Thank you for the comments, I tell the scouts what you say in them and it makes them happy! Please keep them coming! (To leave a comment, just click the number next to the title of each post.) There will be no post tomorrow. I will revise past posts on Tuesday.

Day Two: It begins...

2006-07-22T21:47:00.000+02:00

Saturday, July 22, 2006
The scouts experience one of the most obscure and amazing sports imaginable: crate stacking. We also got demolished in a game of soccer (here, it's called football, this caused soem MAJOR communication problems, seriously), we rode up a ski-lift several thousand feet in to the air, and saw the largest imanginable Toblerone for sale (for only 98 franks).

Crate Stacking
Two groups went crate stacking today, one group in the morning and one group in the afternoon. We met up with the guide and hiked to the crate-stacking location. Allow me to explain crate stacking to you...
STEP 1: Affix harness, helmet, and gloves.
STEP 2: Stack three initial crates, make last prayers.
STEP 3: Begin stacking new crates, suppliers will hand (and eventually throw) you new crates.
STEP 4: See how high you can get before falling off.
The process of crate stacking is quite daunting until you finally get on the crates and stacking away, many scouts fell early and physical limits were put to the test. Only a few scouts actually stacked all 21 available crates.

Soccer Destruction
We met up with a group of Spanish scouts after about a half-hour of playing American football. Seeing as how I was the only one who understood any Spanish (gah, those classes came in handy... for once) even though their dialect included a few words that are never used in Latin American Spanish, we set up a game of soccer with them. We had no idea of the magnitude of their skill in soccer... and we didn't realize that the hordes of 10-year-olds would actually fare well against us. So... in a game of about 8 Americans versus 15 Spanish/Danish players, we were demolished with a total score of about 11-0. The thing was, to us it was merely a funny slaughter of a game, to them it was serious business.

Ski-Lift
We rode a ski-lift on a trip that took about 9 minutes up a mountain (of which's name I can neither pronounce nor spell). We had hopes of tobbagining and swimming in the alpine lake, but a sudden thunderstorm halted our plans. Other than the amazing ride and the spectacular view, that trip wasn't much.

Toblerone
So... all over Switzerland there are these small grocery stores called "COOP" (pronounced co-op). The amazing thing with this store was its front aisle. The entire aisle was full of Swiss chocolates, especially Toblerones. In fact, I saw more different kinds of Toblerones than I had ever imagined. There were mini ones, 6-pack-hexagon ones, extra-long ones, white chocolate ones, and the mother of all Toblerones, a 4.5 kg (about 10 pounds) mega-Toblerone hanging in a hammock for 98 Swiss Francs, about 80 US dollars.

Conclusion
For the most part, that's it for today, with some extra odds and ends. We had a great time today, and most of the scouts are looking forward to glacier-walking tomorrow. Remember to keep cheking up on the blog for more updates!

That's all I have for now. Cheers!
~Dan

Note: Sorry for the bad sizing of the pictures, because of technical difficulties again, I've had problems with the blog. Expect better results tomorrow!

troop 1018 arrives

2006-07-21T19:08:00.000+02:00

we arived in switzerland today after a immensly long plane trip. After the boring and occasionally sweltering plane trip we made it to zürich. The airport was not very crowded and we retreaved all of our bags, and boarded the train. The train took us on a trip through tunnels and mountains to the capitol city of Berne. We spent sevral hour touring the city, seeing such sites as the cathedrial and the famous clocktower. we were unable to visit parliment, as it was under renevation. We ate at verious street vendors. We finally loaded all our gear onto another train, and took that to Kanderstag. The route was very senic. From there, some took a bus to the camp, while others backpacked. We checked in with the staff (very international) and were shown around the camp. the town itself is very europeon (cozy and small) with plenty of shops and restaurants. we set up camp uneventfully and ate dinner at the dining hall. everyone was very tired by the end.

°John

note from dan: we're currently very tired and being charged for this internet time, I found a way around this, but... it wont go in to effect until tomorrow.

expect pictures later on!! thatäs all

The Journey Begins...

2006-07-20T18:40:00.000+02:00

Thursday, July 20, 2006
Today, Troop 1018 scouts and scouters fly over to Switzerland.

Information
At 3:00PM, all Troop 1018 members going on the Kandersteg stip must arrive at Dulles International Airport with all necissary gear and passports ready. We will check our bags, go through security, and be ready for our flight today that begins at about 6:00PM.

The trip will take approximately eight hours. We will be landing in Zurich at about 8:00AM Swiss time and later taking a train to Bern, Switzerland. Scouts will be encouraged to sleep on the plane, as jet lag may be a problem for them tomorrow morning. We will tour the City of Bern, then take another train (needs confirmation) to Kandersteg, Switzerland and finally hike to our campsite at KISC (Kandersteg International Scout Centre).

That's all I have for now. Cheers!

~Dan

Troop 1018 Kanderblog Officially Begins!

2006-07-18T10:31:00.000+02:00

Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Today, two days prior to the beginning of our odyssey to Switzerland, the Troop 1018 Kanderblog is officially begun, with regular, daily posting to follow from this point onward.

Introduction
I'll start off by introducing some of the site's basic features to you:
--Previous Posts:
This section, located on the right-hand side of the blog, will allow you to quickly navigate the most recent additions to the blog, browsing is by title.
--Archived Posts:
This section allows you to quickly navigate all previous posts, the browsing for this section is by date.
--Related Websites:
This section should be rather self-explanatory, basically, it has useful links to any trip-related websites.
--Upcoming Events:
This section will include the next three days worth of coming events to keep you up to date on what's coming soon. This section may be seperated by patrol, age, or other group, depending on what activities we are doing.
--Pictures:
Any pictures included in posts will be resized to fit the blog well; however, you can see their full version simply by clicking on the picture.
--Comments:
Technically, you can leave comments to posts by clicking the little number next to the title, it's gray and, if clicked, will bring up a window prompting you to fill in a comment box and send it to the blog. This will be readable to all Kanderblog visitors, including myself. If you want to comment or send us messages throughout the trip, use the comment function.

Questions
If you have any questions about this, please send me an email ASAP to Denalin@gmail.com!

Posts
Posts will be seperated in to different sections depending upon who's doing what that day. Reports and pictures will be provided every day to me to keep blog readers up-to-date on all of the activities happening every day.

That's all I have for now. Cheers!

~Dan