Today at work I got to give a rub down to two of our dolphins with another intern Dan! We just happened to luck out and pass the dolphins right at the end of one of their sessions, and the trainer Dave called us over to do it! I basically had a huge grin on my face the whole time! Dolphins are very receptive to touch, so rub downs are one way to positively reinforce them! Their skin is so slick and rubbery! I also got to do a fun activity with of of the trainers Barb, where I stood near the back pools and hit the water with a target pole, and then Calvin would come from the main pool and put his rostrum (bottlenose) onto the target. He was so cute because sometimes he would have to wait longer for the whistle to tell him that he was correct, and he would just get this look on his face like, Hellooooo, I am touching the target, what else do you want!? hahaha. I got a surprise when Barb sent both Calvin and Malabar back to me and the pole! The two of them were so cute, just sitting there with their faces on the target, waiting for the bridge!
I always mention things I get to do at work, so I figured I would add videos of the dolphin behaviors that I have gotten to cue, so that all you loyal readers can get a better idea of them!
Bow:
Tail walk:
Back tail walk:
Vocals:
And even though we do not have a baby (though I beg the trainers every day for us to get one haha) I included this video of a baby dolphin for your view pleasure!!! :)
And also for your viewing pleasure, Sarah the saxaphone playing walrus!!!! hahahahahaha
Farewell! :)
Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
A day off? Whatever shall I do?
Working a 40 hour week was hard to adjust to at first, especially since I had never worked more than 20 hours a week. It has been 2 months now and I feel pretty well adjusted to the 40 hr work week of the real adult world. Since I work 5 days a week, I get 2 days a week off. We have a rotating schedule, which means that our days off change every week. It's nice in the sense that once a month we get a weekend off, but it's hard not having the same days off each week or the same schedule each week because it makes it waaaayyy harder to remember what day of the week it is! So this brings me back to the title of my post: what have I been up to on my days off this summer? Well, a wide variety of things!!!
I have been trying to read a lot of books this summer since I have always loved reading but did not often have a lot of spare time to do fun reading while in college. If the day is really nice (and by that I mean insanely humid and partly sunny) I will go to the apartment complex pool and read, or if it is raining (which is basically every day) I will just curl up on the couch with a blanket as if it was winter. Haha. Occasionally I will be a huge nerd and bring my book to work to read during my lunch break! Some of the books that I have been reading:
Water for Elephants: A very touching book about a guy who joins a Depression Era circus and falls in love with a girl from the show, that is told from the perspective of the main character once he is in his 90s. It was a really good story and a quick read. :)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: This book has a ton of hype right now and I wanted to see if it was really as good as all the hype. Well, it definitely is! It kind of started out a bit slow and it took me a while to actually get through the first chapter without putting it down, but once I did, I was glued to it! I am currently impatiently waiting for the second book in the series, The Girl who Played with Fire, to arrive in the mail! I ordered it two weeks ago and it still hasn't come!!!
I also spent the last month keeping myself occupied by watching all three seasons of Veronica Mars on Netflix! I was super addicted at first and watched all of season 1 and 2, and half of season 3 really, really quickly, but then I got a bit tired and took a 2 week break before finishing season 3. The show was pretty good. It had a lot of mystery and was the type of show where you say, I have to see what happens next!!! And then you end up watching episodes until 3 am. Haha. Plus, Kristen Bell is just so cute and sassy! haha. I was rather unsatisfied with the series finale, but I suppose that is because the show was canceled too early. Oh well. Now it's time to find a new show to watch!
My apartment has also been super addicted to the Kardashians this summer, and so we have all been watching Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami every week. Hahahaha. We've been all tied up in the saga of Kourtney and Scott. Hahaha. The season finale was last week, but lucky for us, the new season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians starts today! hahaha.
Any suggestions for good shows to watch or good books to read are welcomed!!!!
Other ways I've been occupying my time on my days off include tanning at the pool, working out at the gym (I actually bought a sports bra!), attempting to start doing yoga, and shopping at Target (I bought 2 pairs of super cute sandals last week!)! I also went mini golfing at this super cute Disney mini golf course that was Christmas themed, called Winter Summerland! We can also finally go to the water parks for free, so I think on my next day off I will head over to either Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon!
Yoav is coming to visit me again next weekend and will be staying for a week at a hotel just around the block from my apartment, so that should be really fun! Especially since we will be going to Miami for the two days I am off!!! :)
As for what I have been doing at work, it's mostly pretty much the same stuff we've been doing the last couple of months. We have been getting to do a bit more stuff with the dolphins, like helping with the research and we are going to start giving the spiels during the dolphin presentations. I did get to give a few cues to the dolphins through the windows one day (!!!) and gave them the signals to open their mouths and smile for the crowds and to swim along the window and wave goodbye!!! :) It was so exciting! I've just been trying to absorb as much knowledge about training as I can, ask important questions and remember all the hand signals! I also found out that once we are more experienced, the interns actually get to use a whistle to bridge the dolphins during training! So I'm on the road to being a trainer! (Hopefully!) :)
Adios amigos!!!!! (And clearly I was really bored to put so much effort into this blog post. haha)
I have been trying to read a lot of books this summer since I have always loved reading but did not often have a lot of spare time to do fun reading while in college. If the day is really nice (and by that I mean insanely humid and partly sunny) I will go to the apartment complex pool and read, or if it is raining (which is basically every day) I will just curl up on the couch with a blanket as if it was winter. Haha. Occasionally I will be a huge nerd and bring my book to work to read during my lunch break! Some of the books that I have been reading:
Water for Elephants: A very touching book about a guy who joins a Depression Era circus and falls in love with a girl from the show, that is told from the perspective of the main character once he is in his 90s. It was a really good story and a quick read. :)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: This book has a ton of hype right now and I wanted to see if it was really as good as all the hype. Well, it definitely is! It kind of started out a bit slow and it took me a while to actually get through the first chapter without putting it down, but once I did, I was glued to it! I am currently impatiently waiting for the second book in the series, The Girl who Played with Fire, to arrive in the mail! I ordered it two weeks ago and it still hasn't come!!!
I also spent the last month keeping myself occupied by watching all three seasons of Veronica Mars on Netflix! I was super addicted at first and watched all of season 1 and 2, and half of season 3 really, really quickly, but then I got a bit tired and took a 2 week break before finishing season 3. The show was pretty good. It had a lot of mystery and was the type of show where you say, I have to see what happens next!!! And then you end up watching episodes until 3 am. Haha. Plus, Kristen Bell is just so cute and sassy! haha. I was rather unsatisfied with the series finale, but I suppose that is because the show was canceled too early. Oh well. Now it's time to find a new show to watch!
My apartment has also been super addicted to the Kardashians this summer, and so we have all been watching Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami every week. Hahahaha. We've been all tied up in the saga of Kourtney and Scott. Hahaha. The season finale was last week, but lucky for us, the new season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians starts today! hahaha.
Any suggestions for good shows to watch or good books to read are welcomed!!!!
Other ways I've been occupying my time on my days off include tanning at the pool, working out at the gym (I actually bought a sports bra!), attempting to start doing yoga, and shopping at Target (I bought 2 pairs of super cute sandals last week!)! I also went mini golfing at this super cute Disney mini golf course that was Christmas themed, called Winter Summerland! We can also finally go to the water parks for free, so I think on my next day off I will head over to either Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon!
Yoav is coming to visit me again next weekend and will be staying for a week at a hotel just around the block from my apartment, so that should be really fun! Especially since we will be going to Miami for the two days I am off!!! :)
As for what I have been doing at work, it's mostly pretty much the same stuff we've been doing the last couple of months. We have been getting to do a bit more stuff with the dolphins, like helping with the research and we are going to start giving the spiels during the dolphin presentations. I did get to give a few cues to the dolphins through the windows one day (!!!) and gave them the signals to open their mouths and smile for the crowds and to swim along the window and wave goodbye!!! :) It was so exciting! I've just been trying to absorb as much knowledge about training as I can, ask important questions and remember all the hand signals! I also found out that once we are more experienced, the interns actually get to use a whistle to bridge the dolphins during training! So I'm on the road to being a trainer! (Hopefully!) :)
Adios amigos!!!!! (And clearly I was really bored to put so much effort into this blog post. haha)
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Cousin Time!
Last Thursday my cousin Kristen came to visit me from Alabama! It was really fun since I hadn't seen her in at least 2 years. She got here Thursday, and after I got home from work we went to Downtown Disney and ate dinner and saw the Angelina Jolie movie Salt.
On Friday we decided to do a whirlwind tour of Walt Disney World! We started our day at 10 a.m. at Disney's Animal Kingdom, where we saw a lot of animals, went on some fun rides and got a picture with Flik from A Bug's Life! Afterwards, we headed over to Epcot, so I could give Kristen a backstage tour of where I work! We also went on a few rides and wandered through the World Showcase, but it was starting to get really rainy and we were starting to get really hungry! Around 6 p.m. we finally headed over to the Magic Kingdom, and right as we got there it started to torrentially downpour! We lurked around in some Tomorrowland shops and at burgers until it finally stopped raining! Afterward, we went on a few rides, and then met up with two of my roommates! This past weekend was the last night for the Summer Nightastic fireworks at the Magic Kingdom, and since none of us had been to any of the parks at night this whole summer, we decided to stay until closing! We watched the Main Street Electrical Parade, which is always fun, and then watched the special summer fireworks, which were awesome!!! We still had an hour before the park closed, so we headed over to Frontierland and went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain! It was a very long and exhausting 14 hour day, but really really fun!
On Saturday, we were lazy in the morning, and then decided to drive to Cocoa Beach! Even though the weather had been really bad the day before, we checked the weather report and it wasn't supposed to rain until the evening, so we decided to risk it and go to the beach! It turned out to be a good idea because it was super sunny and insanely hot! After roasting on the beach for a few hours, we headed home, showered and went out to dinner! Sadly, I had to open at work the next morning, so I had to go to bed kind of early, and wasn't here when Kristen left on Sunday afternoon. But it was a really fun little 2 day vacation with my cousin!!!!
By chance, by schedule of days off these past two weeks were Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, so after working one day (Sunday) I also got the next two days off! Yesterday I went to the gym, cleaned our apartment, and went to go see The Other Guys at the movie theater. It wasn't a great movie, but it was an enjoyable 2 hours and 7 dollars spent. Today I woke up at 7 (I rarely sleep in, even on days off), went to the gym, went to Target, went to the pool, dyed my hair and then watched a DVD from Netflix. Overall, the past two days have been very productive, but also very relaxing!
On Friday we decided to do a whirlwind tour of Walt Disney World! We started our day at 10 a.m. at Disney's Animal Kingdom, where we saw a lot of animals, went on some fun rides and got a picture with Flik from A Bug's Life! Afterwards, we headed over to Epcot, so I could give Kristen a backstage tour of where I work! We also went on a few rides and wandered through the World Showcase, but it was starting to get really rainy and we were starting to get really hungry! Around 6 p.m. we finally headed over to the Magic Kingdom, and right as we got there it started to torrentially downpour! We lurked around in some Tomorrowland shops and at burgers until it finally stopped raining! Afterward, we went on a few rides, and then met up with two of my roommates! This past weekend was the last night for the Summer Nightastic fireworks at the Magic Kingdom, and since none of us had been to any of the parks at night this whole summer, we decided to stay until closing! We watched the Main Street Electrical Parade, which is always fun, and then watched the special summer fireworks, which were awesome!!! We still had an hour before the park closed, so we headed over to Frontierland and went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain! It was a very long and exhausting 14 hour day, but really really fun!
On Saturday, we were lazy in the morning, and then decided to drive to Cocoa Beach! Even though the weather had been really bad the day before, we checked the weather report and it wasn't supposed to rain until the evening, so we decided to risk it and go to the beach! It turned out to be a good idea because it was super sunny and insanely hot! After roasting on the beach for a few hours, we headed home, showered and went out to dinner! Sadly, I had to open at work the next morning, so I had to go to bed kind of early, and wasn't here when Kristen left on Sunday afternoon. But it was a really fun little 2 day vacation with my cousin!!!!
By chance, by schedule of days off these past two weeks were Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, so after working one day (Sunday) I also got the next two days off! Yesterday I went to the gym, cleaned our apartment, and went to go see The Other Guys at the movie theater. It wasn't a great movie, but it was an enjoyable 2 hours and 7 dollars spent. Today I woke up at 7 (I rarely sleep in, even on days off), went to the gym, went to Target, went to the pool, dyed my hair and then watched a DVD from Netflix. Overall, the past two days have been very productive, but also very relaxing!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)