Million Dollar Question

For the past month or so, everyone has been asking me what my future plans are. And until today, my only response had been: That's the million dollar question. haha

However, as of today, I now have an answer to that million dollar question!!! I found out today that I got my internship with the Navy extended through the summer! The Navy works with stranding centers along the California coast, taking some of the newborn pups that are stranded without a mother and cannot be released back into the wild. In the next few months, we should be getting some newborn pups, and they needed advanced interns to help take care of them! So throughout the summer I will continue interning, and will be getting to help hand raise newborn California sea lions!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!?!?!?! Seriously though, how many people can say that they have participated in the raising and training of neonate sea lions?

My current internship ends in two weeks (May 13th) and right now my extended internship is scheduled to tentatively start on June 15th. It really just depends on when/if we get the neonates pups. So I will have about a month off in between the two. I will continue living with my family, since it is still unpaid, and I am so grateful to have family members that are so willing to help me reach my dream job! :)

Anyways, that's about it for right now! Just wanted to let everyone know! :) I'm going to dinner with some girls from work tonight, so I better go get ready!!!

Bye! :)

Cover letters

are seriously the worst thing ever invented.

April Already!?

Wow, looks like I haven't updated this thing in over a month!!! My apologies to my loyal readers (all 12 of you)! haha Soooo, what have I been up to these days? Well in the end of March I finished up my rotation with the sea lions. I spent the last few weeks with the pups crew, and actually got to work one of the little baby sea lion pups a few times!!! It was soooo amazing! The little guy is so precious and adorable! I got to do his med check, walk him around the pen, put on his harness, feed him and even rub him down/give him some love! :) I really enjoyed working with the sea lion pups crew because I was really able to see how the animals learn new behaviors, and it was pretty cool to see them learn how to swim freely in the ocean along side the boat! I seriously love those little guys!!!! <3

However, now I am working with the young dolphins, who are equally cute/precious/adorable! Right now the crew I am with trains the 2-3 year olds all the basic behaviors they need to know before they can become fleet animals for the navy. Similar to with the sea lion pups, there isn't too much hands on stuff, but it is really neat to see the animals learn how to do everything. And since the dolphins are just learning everything, I really get to see how behaviors are shaped and trained, which are important things to know if I'm going to be a trainer! And as much as I have developed a new love for sea lions, I still do really love dolphins and especially these little guys and gals!


Well that's pretty much all that I have going on in my life right now! Just working at this internship! And trying to get a freaking job! I had my swim test and interview for the Navy 2 weeks ago, and now I'm just waiting to see if any jobs are available! One of the other interns and I are taking an Advanced Diver course this weekend to make ourselves more marketable, so that should be fun (but COLD!) and I am getting a CA boaters license (watch out San Diego Bay! haha).

Anyways, hope everyone is enjoying April so far! Love you!

I finally touched a sea lion!!!!

As the title of this post implies, I touched a sea lion today!!! The rotation that I am currently assigned to is the research pier, so we have several dolphins and sea lions. I've had some hands on time with some of the dolphins already, but sea lions are a bit harder to manage, so we don't quite get as much hands on time with them. But today I got to help with a 2 person med check, which basically means that one person remains the focus point for the animal, while another person does a body check for anything that looks out of order. I got to be the body checker, so I got to ask for his flippers and rub him down! It was really exciting!!! :)


Also, I got to brush a dolphin's teeth today!!!!!! :)



(Fun fact: These pictures are actually from a LIFE article about U.S. Navy mine hunting dolphins, so this is in fact a navy dolphin, and this is pretty much exactly how I brushed their teeth today!)

Finally, I went to the pool after work today, and good news, I can do everything that is required for the navy swim test! Maybe I do have a shot afterall! The swim test consists of 10 mins treading water (easy), 75 feet underwater swim (not so easy, but I CAN do it, which is the important thing!), dive 12ft to pick up a weight (easy), and 400m in 20 mins (also way easier than I thought it would be- did it in 10 mins today)! It's a relief to know that I can pass this swim test, but I'm going to keep working out and improving my swimming skills since swim tests at other facilities are much harder.