I'm in the Alps and it is insane!!! Where to begin?? Let’s
go slow day by day. As if you're snowboarding for the first time in years.
I flew out from
Gatwick on Thursday 30th November to Geneva, Switzerland. I
travelled with 2 others, Katie who is the Childcare Supervisor and Will the
Resort Host for Les Bruyeres resort. I am the Resort Host for Reberty 2000, and
all of us will be in an area called Les Meniures in the famous Three Valleys –
the largest ski area in the world.
We’re not there yet
though. We’ve been staying in Les
Gets, Ski Famille’s first and largest location. For the first night when it was
just us and the managers we stayed in Chalet Bacall, but since then we’ve been
living in Hotel Chamoise with the rest of the Chalet Host team. I’m sharing a
room with my honest soul sister, Clare, from Scootland! I’ll have to find a way
to record her saying “Okie dokie” because it’s the best thing I’ve ever
heard!!! Clare’s very positive, and after an series of inspirational seminars
about being your best self and making the most out of your time we’ve had deep
hippie heart to hearts about life the universe and everything.
Anyway, getting off
piste, the first day Katie, Will and I were doing our minibus training. There
were stupid amounts of snow in Les Gets when we arrived. Nothing at all at the
airport, until we started heading up the mountain, and then it was just
incredible. So in our training we really got to drive up snowy mountain hairpin
bends surrounded by locals doing handbrake turns around corners.
I spent 3 or 4 days in
Chalet Bacall doing host training with the rest of the Chalet Staff. The chefs
were practicing too so I got to enjoy the whole menu – and here I’m talking
breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and a 6 course dinner! We practiced welcome
speeches and serving each other and started to get a hang on how things will
roll. I also went back to the airport to check out where everything is, the
different offices, and even got a backstage tour (felt like a celebrity! or
someone on those dodgy airline tv shows) so I think I’m all set for when I pick
up the guests. Hot tub training was a good one. Not. Quite a rude woman who
didn’t seem to quite know what she was talking about and didn't like it when we tried to make it fun…
We also had
teambuilding activities and games – but of course most of the fun stuff
happened when I was busy doing other training. I missed the bum boarding and
wine tasting, but I did get to join the Winter Olympics where I represented
Germany; Seb would be so proud!
The best day by far
was today. It was the first day off, and we decided to make the most of it. The
snow had melted over the week, but yesterday it came down hard, so the
chairlifts were opened for the weekend. As part of my job I get a snowboard and
a lift pass included for the whole season, but as the season hasn’t actually
started the lifts haven’t opened and besides I’m not in my resort yet. But I
figured it was about time to get up close and personal with the mountain so I
hired a board and Clare and I brought lift passes.
There’d been big plans
yesterday that loads of people would be ready to go to the ski shop at 9:30
when it opened. But the two of us were the only ones who actually made it to
breakfast!
Last night we all had
a few drinks. We went to a couple of the local bars, including Bowling Bar
which no word of a lie has a bowling alley beside the bar! It was a great night
but while we were sensible and left about midnight after a couple of drinks we
forgot that the majority of people here are either a) 18 and just here for
drinking or b) just here for drinking.
So we had the slopes
to ourselves. It was the biggest adrenaline rush I’ve had in so long. I think
it’s been about 8 or 9 years since I last snowboarded and I wasn’t sure how it
was going to go. We said we’d do it slowly together, but when I turned around
on the button lift I saw Clare disappearing at the bottom of the slope having
failed to figure it out – to be fair we should have started on a simple
chairlift… I ended up at the top of the mountain by myself with the
knowledge that I had to somehow get myself down…
But it’s like riding a
bike.
# destroyed
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