Excerpt taken from 2 East + 2 West, 2011.

 

6.2.11

Thursday

I woke, super excited to see the crisp clear mountain faces. I jumped out of bed, threw open the curtains and… got blinded by white nothingness. Loads of fog. After that let down, the first thing I had to do was finish my snowman, so I went outside to the melting process as soon as cooking breakfast got going.

 

 

The mid-body and head were much faster. Cherry nose, rock eyes and smile. My hands were freezing, I put Lillian in charge of adding twig arms. My labor was rewarded with cheese, sausage (I peel off the casing that’s probably intestine), warm milk, pasta, and nectarines. Dad turned on the TV and much to our disappointment it was a blank white screen on the chanel that shows a rotating camera view LIVE, constantly. Schilthorn looked better than Jungfrau, so we got ready and walked to the Müren cable station. Originally all the cable cars were supposed to be simple, but when the James Bond Movie On her Majesty’s Secret Service every plan got majorly upgraded. Especially the peak’s resteraunt which now rotates 360º for prime views.

The ride got me slightly jittery because we were so high and the car rocked occasionally, but it was enjoyable. For a few moments we only saw clouds the suddenly a bright blue sky and deep green mountains. What a relief.

Outsite was so amazingly pretty, and cold. My weightlifting jacket and reflective sunglasses served me well. I was surrounded by steep faces and snowy peaks. Black birds with bright orange-yellow beaks hovered at our sides, wanting bread. you could see Eiger (Ogre), Munch (Monk), and Junfrau (Virgin) L→R clear cut into the view. Plaques clearly outline and label ever peak. Apparently France’s Mont Blanc was visible, where I was in 4th grade (1st snow fight!), but too bad we didn’t know at the time. My dad insisted on a pic w/ survelleince/weather camera. The mountains are beautiful in a difficult to describe way—the color and 3-D contrast of snow and rock, how clean nature looked, so different from daily life, and to think of the people who live(d) here.

 

 

After some excerpts of James Bond came the famous revolving resteraunt. Affordable, popular, yummy, cool theme. “007” on windows. I had gimmelwald veal w/ pasta, and we shared it and goulash and veggie soup. There were tons of tourists so it took some time, but we enjoyed the alps, I have no idea how many full turns we did, anywhere from 8-25… Tasty, warm, cozy, beautiful, unique. The desert ice cream flavors were themed on the tallest peaks i.e. Junfrau = fruity and JB characters. We almost got 007 Spaghetti. 中文 and Espanol menus… Spanish is easier to read. Halfway through a German ←i think living near hear joined us. We didn’t talk to him at first, probably arguing, but things picked up. He was nice… looked tech-y agrred as we complimented Schilthorn. Parents + him discussed Europe. We put a salt shaker and parsley strip on the window sill and soon rotated out of sight, but I never saw them again. Then we stuck our heads in a decorative fence thing that spies fought at in the movie.

 

 

Outside was sunnier than before, which means another round of photos. And snowballs. Which leads to a pissed, potty-mouthed sister. Blue-gray-white prettiness.

 

 

On our descent, we stopped mid-way, equally beautiful, different angle, but Lillian’s bad mood spread to my dad. And the argument about which cuss words are worse didn’t end well. The originally planned hiking trail was way too snowy.

 

 

Back in Müren you could see some mountains, depending on where the clouds were blown. We identified another chickadee nest in rock wall. Then at the tram info station dad asked for trails while Lillian and I made use of snow remains. We ran onto the grass, and I was either dodging or throwing, I slipped on wet grass and landed in an invisible puddle of melted snow. It sucked, my knees and below were half soaked. I had to convince my family to let me change back at the chalet.

 

 

Then we went up, past the cable station towards a parachute launch spot. We gave black and white goats (the brave ones) purple bell flowers. Literally Every time we saw a patch of snow in reach, dad suffered.

 

 

Finally we got to a steep dirt path that was less than the width of a shoe and dotted with poopy slugs. Ugh, I took it up to the launchers. A tall, young, blonde lady from Holland explained the whole process. A heavy equipment backpack straps on and serves as a seat. Pull the handle in the direction you want to steer. It was nice watching learners spread out a colorful parachute and run down a hill until their feet stop touching the ground. Theres a small boring emergency parachute you can carry, and it drops straight down. Otherwise you circle as you descend.

 

 

We met a chinese chick studying in France and talked to her as we descended. We fed a group of cows, some of them fought with each other by butting heads. Suddenly I felt 2 zaps. I looked down at the leave I was holding, touching ribbon-string. Who would’ve thought it had thin electrified wires woven in, but then again how else would something so thing keep in big fat cows? The animals were black, or brown and white. They really like milky plants.

 

 

All the goats were still grazing by the melting snow river and cables, so we fed them to, a lot. Anything with white fluid, we realized. I taunted one by covering it’s face with a giant, delicious leaf and holding it there as it tilted its head. I managed to feed one young one. They’re so precious with they’re their super loud bells. Baa, tail wag, chew chew.

 

 

Back at our Chalet we heard an Alphorn. Albert was back. We went down to see, and he showed us how few notes there were. A scale was like an arpeggio on the violin. He played a couple simple pieces, we got photos.

 

 

Lillian and I cooked ravioli while my mom insisted that she and dad go [back] to gimmelwald for “the best cheese she’s ever tasted.” We had finished eating when they came back with more sausage, milk, and 7 wedges of alpcheese. We had warm milk before it was nighty night.

My snowman looked like it was anorexic; sitting on a puddle of piss.