Ok so I realize that I have kind of failed at keeping my blog updated. I have just been so busy. I am now back in school in Florida but I miss Indy. My last weeks at the zoo were great! I had visits from my mom and dad so that was a lot of fun. I also went to the state fair and tried to spend lots of time with my roommates and friends there. Plus I always had a great time working with all the wonderful people and animals at the zoo. I was so sad to leave but I am excited to finish school and graduate! Florida is just like I left it so it felt totally normal to be back home. I also have my cat with me again so I am so happy about that. I have a busy schedule but I think it will be ok. I am taking dance classes again and I am continuing to work at the zoo!

Hello Everyone!

Things here at the Indy zoo are great! I can't believe I only have 3 weeks before I head back to Florida. I will be so sad to leave. I have had a great time with all of the people and animals here and it only gets better with each day. I have been continuing to feed and work on some behaviors with the animals.

Outside of the zoo things have also been great. I have to admit I have not been great about running lately but it has also been raining almost everyday so I am going to blame it on that. Hopefully I can run tomorrow and get back to my regular schedule.

It is also my birthday week! I have already gotten some great birthday cards from my amazing family and friends. I also went to dinner tonight with some people from work and had a great time. On Friday I am going to a Jack Johnson concert with some of the other trainers and another intern so I am so excited! It will be my first concert and the perfect way to celebrate. Then Tiffany will be here and she is coming to the zoo! So many exciting things but I know it will go by way too fast.

Here are the pictures I promised.

I am doing my best to keep up with this blog but I have just been so busy that it is hard to post frequent updates. I am still loving my internship at the zoo! I am doing behaviors with the animals along with all my other regular internship duties. Yesterday I just finished a project for the curator of marine mammals that I have been working on (with a few other people) for almost three weeks! It felt great to finally finish it. I was also able to take some pictures at work with a few of the animals so I will try to post some as soon as I can use my own computer to go online. I was also allowed to visit the penguins in the oceans building and I got a painting from Tundra (the only polar bear in the world that paints!!!).

I have been staying at one of the trainers houses this past week while she was out of town. She has a dog and 2 cats so I have been taking care of them this week. It has been nice to spend some time with pets! For the 4th of July I went to another trainers house for a cookout and games. It was a lot of fun and I saw fireworks on my entire drive back to my apartment. I also went to see the eclipse movie this week with my fellow interns and the attendants. We had a great time. I can't believe that I will have to leave so soon. I have met some great people here and I will really miss them.

I can't believe how fast this summer is going by. I am already halfway done with my internship! Things have been going really well at the zoo. I was quizzed on the behaviors that I chose to do with the animals and earned my bridge!! It is a big deal in the training world but for those of you who don't know it is just a whistle that you use to let the animal know that they have done the behavior correctly. Tomorrow I will be tested on how well I can use it. I also participated in a practice diver down where I had to "save" the other intern who "panicked." It turned out to be pretty cool even though the water we were diving in was 50 degrees! I also got to go to the plains area of the zoo and one of the plains keepers let me feed some of the birds and foxes! It was awesome and the birds actually came from the Brevard Zoo!

Sorry it has been a while since my last post but I have been so busy! I have been feeding the animals at the zoo now for a few weeks and I am picking out the behaviors I want to learn. As an intern we automatically get to do waves, vocals, and piro (spinning in a circle) with all the animals. We also get to chose 7 other behaviors that we want to do with the animals. I think I have picked my final 7 and I look forward to learning the criteria and starting to do more things.

In addition to all of the things at the zoo I have started running! I know it's hard to believe if you know me. I just decided I wanted to get back into shape so I'm giving it my best try. I am now on my fourth week and have actually made some progress! I just hope I can keep up the routine.