Time does fly

I have been here for a little over two weeks...and the time has flown! I am fully checked off on the outdoor cleaning and closing procedures. I am working on getting checked off on fish prep. I am three days into fish prep training, and I will admit...despite all of my experiences sorting dead fish I needed some refreshers. :) I can not stress how supportive and amazing the other volunteers/interns/and especially the training staff are. They have been nothing but positive. I really feel like I am part of a little family.

One thing I am not used to yet...Milwaukee = cold = lots of snow = ice. Last week it was in the single digits...tomorrow night it is going to be in the negative double digits. I have done a lot of shoveling...and deicing of the facility. We need to keep the facility snow/ice free incase we have to relocate animals...and also so we don't fall on our butts!!

I layer when I go to work...long underware under jeans under sweat pants under "swooshy" pants (they reflect the water). I also bought thermal socks, dive rubber gloves, jacket, 4 pairs of gloves, two hats, and a face ski mask warm fleece thingy.

When it gets really cold out- we work in spurts outside...do as long as we can, run in, warm up...go back out.

Today it was 40 degrees out though...odd. Needless to say we spent the day super cleaning what we could not clean during the coldness...making sure ice was away from vital areas and putting salt down to keep the melted snow from becoming glare ice. They are calling for neg 20-30 below tomorrow night...with freezing rain tomorrow.

It is all worth it though. Being around these awesome dedicated people and these incredible animals. I will hopefully be getting pics soon! :) I will definetly post them.

First day!

It was my first day as an intern at Oceans of Fun! The first day is always kind of crazy for everyone, not just the interns. There is a lot of learning on both sides- from the intern and trainer perspective. Just getting to know the individuals, the duties, basically everything. Starting out as the new kid on the block is a scary yet exciting thing.

They started me out on the most basic and important thing...cleaning. I have met a lot of people who totally under estimate the amount of work that goes into working with these animals. It is far from "jumping off Flipper's nose" all day.

I was on my hands and knees a couple of times cleaning a pen...there is a lot of scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing, and rinsing. It is part of what you have to do to keep a healthy environment for the animals.

I skimmed the pool, brushed the pool, cleaned some pens, scrubbed some buckets...and I got to watch some sessions too. :)

I really felt weird watching the sessions, though...I am so used to not being able to stop and watch a session like I was able to do today. I am sure that there will be days where I am unable to- because it will be busy once shows begin...but they made a point to tell me today that I am welcome at any time to watch them and "that was what I was there to do" to learn training techniques by watching examples...and also watch and learn each animal's personality.

I also got my project topic for the research paper I need to work on. I am also going to be using this topic as the research proposal/presentation for the Ohio State Psych research symposium in March. I am to do a poster presentation as part of my independent study. Whew! Lots of work a head of me! I better start reading some papers right away. :)