This week at work I....

Learned how to pressure wash the docks and pens! (Such thrilling work. hahaha)



Learned the cues and signals for the dolphin hand stations and body presents! (What that means is like ventral and dorsal line ups, pec presents, and tail flukes presents.)



Watched a lot of research sessions! For the next four weeks I am assigned to the research pier, so we are mostly just observing various research projects with the sea lions and dolphins. It's not too eventful, but it is cool to see all the animals involved in the research.



This week, I'm actually assigned to Depot, which is where they fix everything and build stuff. Today I spent three hours scrubbing some above ground dolphin pools with brushes. My arms and chest are killing me! But it was quite satisfying to see the pool go from disgusting to sparkling clean! Only bad part was that I was shin deep in dolphin poop water hahahaha. Defintely the unglamourous side of animal training!!!

What I did at work today:

Learned how to prep buckets in the fish house!



You may all be fooled by the stylish scrunchie and shorts/boots combo, but this is actually NOT me. hahaha

First Day with the Navy Marine Mammal Program!

I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping this updated since I left Florida, so here's a quick overview of my past two weeks! I spent about a week at my parents house in Northern California, which was nice because I hadn't really spent a lot of time with them in the past year. Yoav came up for a few days to hang out and then drive down to San Diego with me! On our way down, we stopped at my grandparents' house in Nipomo for like an hour to see them and my great Aunt Mary. We also stopped in Santa Barbara to spend a night with Nicole, which was nice because I hadn't seen her in a long time!


For the duration of this internship, I am staying with an aunt and uncle and their kids, which is really helpful for me since the internship is unpaid. In exchange, I will be a junior soccer mom, and help pick the kids up from school and drive them to sports practices and such as necessary. :)

So today was my first day at my new internship! We started at 8 am, and did a variety of "first day" things such as get our security badges, tour the facility, paperwork and meetings. Not too exciting, but definitely neat to see where we will be working!!! The place is soooo cool, and I'm excited to get going! This whole week we still have orientations, but we are also learning our jobs for when we start our rotations next week! Starting tomorrow, I will be starting work at 6 am, meaning I will be leaving my apartment at 5 am!!! Yikes, early! So I'll need to start getting in the habit of going to bed much earlier if I'm going to be waking up at 4:30 every morning!!!

I can't take any pictures at work (since its a naval base with classified stuff and all haha) so during this internship I'll be pulling pictures off the navy marine mammal website to make my blog more festive. haha

This is an aerial view of the base where the navy marine mammal program is located! You can see all the ocean pens and the piers!



A group of young dolphins lined up and ready to work! I get to work with the youngsters for my third rotation! :)



A California sea lion on a stand for training! I am working with the sea lions for my second rotation in Feb and March! :)



It's only been one day, but I can already tell it's going to be awesome! :)

VW Beetle!

I had to leave ol' blue (my Toyota Corolla) in Florida due to smog reasons and the fact that I just didn't have the time to drive all the way from FL to CA between my internships. So for the past three days my dad and I have been running ourselves ragged trying to find a decent used car in a reasonable price range. Tonight I called a girl about her VW beetle, and we went to go check it out! Everything seemed in order and it wasn't too pricey, so I ended up buying it! I know its not a very grown up car, but its so cute, and I've always seen myself as a VW bug driver! :)

4 hour layover in Tampa

Thank you Tampa airport for having free Wifi! :) Officially on my way back to California right now! The last couple of days have consisted of packing and lots of goodbyes. :( I'm glad to be coming home, but I really will miss all the friends I made here.

My roommates and I went out on Tuesday night for Amy's birthday and as a last hurrah! It was only the second time in all 6 months that all 6 of us could actually be together! Wednesday night we all stayed up late packing and drinking and crying. haha (So pardon my horrid appearance.)




At work on Wednesday, the trainers made us a surprise lunch, since all 4 of us were actually there! Then we got our Animal Programs Mickey ears and paraded around taking pictures in random places in The Seas. haha The day was pretty fun, I got to play with Malabar one last time and got to do some other fun stuff!





I'll be back on the west coast in just 10 hours!

Last Day at Disney! :(

I seriously cannot believe that it is my last day at The Seas already! How has it been nearly 7 months since I started!? I'm really going to miss working there, the animals, the people, and all the friends that I've made! :( I'll probably cry at work today. haha I still have to return my costumes and ID tomorrow morning, so at least I'll get to say hi to everyone one more time!



Time to move on to new adventures!!!

It's 2011!

Somehow 2010 zoomed on past, and here we are in 2011! I was going to do a recap of 2010, but then I realized that all you people already know the major things that happened to me this year! Moorea, UCLA graduation, & Disney World! One really important thing in 2010 was that I decided to pursue my childhood dream of being a marine mammal trainer! It's one of those jobs that kids always want to have when they grow up, but then they do grow up and get real jobs. I always wanted to be a trainer, but figured that it would never happen. Now that I've had some experience though, I know it is possible, and so I'm going to go for it!!! I know I won't be making money, but that's not really the most important thing for me in life. I just want to be happy, and enjoy what I do. I want to wake up every morning and be excited to go to work and see what will happen!!!

Maybe one day I'll be working with all of these guys!!!! :)



As for 2011, it's just getting started! I've got just 2 more days of work at Disney (SAD!!!) and just 5 more days in Florida! I'm flying home on Friday and then I have a week at my parents' house before heading down to San Diego! I start my internship with the Navy Marine Mammal Program on January 18th! I love my job here at Disney, but I'm excited to start something new!

Here are some goals for 2011!
1) Exercise and improve my swimming ability. (I know people always say they will exercise, and I'm the same way, but I legitimately need to exercise and hit up the pool if I'm ever going to pass a swim test and get a paying trainer job.)
2) Stay in contact with friends. (I'm really awful at keeping in contact with people, so I'm going to try and work on that this year!)
3) Apply, apply, apply to jobs! (I always get deterred when I don't have the "required qualifications" but everyone keeps telling me to apply anyway because you never know you won't get the job unless you try!)

Happy 2011 Everyone! :)