It was in the last mountain weekend post that I mentioned how the Swiss geography really lends so much to the C.D.L experience. Switzerland is its own compact eco-system. It doesn’t take much to bound from bustling metropolitan areas to grandiose rural splendour. The snowy peaks and tender alpine valleys are only ever a train-ride away. The opportunity to share a back-yard like no other with our students, too good of an opportunity to pass up!
We spent our first mountain weekend in the summer among the green slopes of Leysin, mountain-biking, climbing, horseriding and so many other wonderful things. But with this January coming to a close, we’re still in the winter swing of things and that means we’re looking to strap on our respective carbon-fibre sports equipment and take to the snow!
Yes ladies and gentlemen, over this past ski-weekend, we journeyed up into Crans-Montana for an unforgettable weekend!
We spent our weekend at C.D.L’s usual lodging at the La Moubra, home of many summer-camps being held in Crans-Montana.
Between Saturday and Sunday, activities were split between the two days. Skiers and Snowboarders would head up onto the slopes for either morning and a number of activities were available to others such as Snow-Tubing, Ice-Skating, an Excursion Day that included a visit to an Escape-Room and some time in the town of Sion and for those more hardcore than the hardcore, there was the study-hall.
Even though the sun shone very brightly down on us, we had to wrap up tightly.
Skiing is something that people who live around here have grown up with. It’s difficult to find someone who lives here who hasn’t learned to ski as a youngster and so it’s often a wonderful experience when we welcome a boarder who has no experience in the sport at all. It really ‘is’ a pilgrimage to the mountain, with all of the rituals included. Early-rises and crisp mornings filled with brand new snow to be sliced through at top speed then followed by the gradual and smooth slow-down into the lunching hour. There’s nothing like some hot fries on a cold crips day on the slopes.
One of the highlights of the trip were the escape-rooms. Fantastically sophisticated, there wasn’t one that was stale. Despite our Olympus boys being selected for the ‘Santa’s Workshop’ escape room as compared to one featuring a haunted mansion or an escaped dinosaur in a laboratory, we found it to be a real thrill as we decoded messages, hooked up tubing, e-mailed santa clause, argued about what constituted a rhombus, took all the batteries out of the lights, crawled through secret passages, piloted miniature construction equipment and did some minor re-wiring. We were the first to escape thanks to our combined wit and tactfulness and ability to recognise basic shapes at the best of times. No pleasantly decorated workshop can hold the Olympus boys when they put their heads together!
Upon our returns to Olympus on Sunday evening, we celebrated Wenyan’s birthday! A wonderfully festive end to a glorious weekend.
In confidence, between you and me. I think that the weekend went smoothly. I even remarked to a colleague that it was going “suspiciously” smoothly. I guess it’s my own professional pessimism getting the best of me as I think I’ve really nailed down what made me uneasy. I’m always ready for things to be a challenge, so when they go well, I always begin to suspect that something, somewhere, has gone wrong. But in the end, it’s just a case of us having grown closer as a boarding house. Despite there being frictions here and there, us having spent so much time together as a house and getting to know each other, there’s a wordless communication that establishes itself effortlessly. We know when to catch each other and lift each other up. We know when to push each other in a spurring way or in an encouraging way. We can communicate in a far more frank way and in a way that involves a mutual respect. We’ve gotten to know what we’re about and that we trust each other when our doubt runs high and that goes both ways. There’s a lot of trust invested, in both directions. This trust is something that I’m proud of as a professional and reserve a lot of pride for the boarders under my care. Sure, there are times when we let each other down, but we know that we’ll make it up to each other on the flip-side. Truth is, both sides are always learning in education. Comedian Mike Birbiglia always describes working with young people the best when he says:
“My friends ask me if it’s fun working with kids. To which I stop myself from saying that it is, because a lot of the time it’s not. It’s not fun. But what it ‘is’, is ‘new’. It’s always just…’new’.”
This quote resonates with me a lot. As with skiing being something we can offer to inexperienced boarders the chance to learn and appreciate, the ones who have done it a hundred times before can learn just as much in a day as the beginners.
We hope your weekend was as wonderful as ours. As usual, it’s only the best of the best from the Olympus boys to you!