Worthwhile experiences

So a few interesting things have happened since I last updated! Plus one that I forgot to write about during my last update that I will tell you about riiiiight.... now.

We have these adorable monkeys called cotton-top tamarins at DAK and they are adorable.

They're one of the animals we stand by to talk about with the guests and not give out a Wilderness Explorer badge. Anyway, one day recently when I was there, the keepers came out and did some training with them, which was really cool. I learned an interesting (and somewhat adult) fact about the tamarins from the keepers: when they aren't on a breeding plan, the females require the same dosage of birth control as an adult human would. By the way, the tamarins weigh about one pound. So yeah. They're good at having babies.

A few nights ago most of the Presenters went to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for a team building event. We got to have dinner at the lodge, and then we did a "Cultural Safari" with one of the Cultural Guides from Africa. We learned about their program and then he told us about South Africa, his home country. It was really, really interesting and the Guide was very nice and funny. We then went to some of the savanna overlooks to see some animals. We tried to use night-vision at one spot, but there weren't many animals. We did see some giraffe and zebra at another spot though, so that was fun. The Lodge overall is beautiful and I'd really like to go back during the day and do some activities with the Cultural Guides and see the animals in the light.

One day last week when I was standing at our Headquarters location with coworker Cali, the Vice President of DAK (!!!) came up and introduced himself. He asked how everything was going, and he mentioned that he got an email about some of the problems we've been having, and said he's going to start talking with the right people about getting the bugs worked out. It was really nice to hear, and he seems like a guy who's genuinely interested in what's going on in his park.

Yesterday I found out that Android (and Apple) has a free phone app called DuoLingo that gives mini language lessons in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and German. So I'm going to learn all those languages, in that order. I'm about a fourth of the way through the Spanish lessons, but it's all stuff I did back in 8th grade, so I'll probably slow down as I go through it. But it's really good practice to get my brain thinking in Spanish again.

Finally, an update on my pin obsession. Here's a picture of my collection as of tonight:

You'll notice a lot of Bambi because it's Bambi. I'm sort of fond of Haunted Mansion pins, as it's my favorite ride, but I like some of the older sets more than a newer ones. I really like my "DOOMBGY" license plate, and I found a matching "SPACMTN" one tonight. The one with the giraffes is a 15th Anniversary of Animal Kingdom pin, so that's really nice. And the one with Stitch in the bottom corner has a Komodo Dragon on it!! The pins on the cardboard are ones I'm not willing to trade; the ones on the lanyard I'm not as attached to. Basically I just like pins a lot. I'm attempting to make my own pin bag, so I don't have to display them on cardboard, but I will update on that as it progresses.

And to end, a couple of pictures.

Big Thunder

Tehe!

Big storms and cute kids

Everything is going great as usual! After almost a week of no rain, we got some really huge day-long storms. Most haven't been terrible, just very wet, but one day while I was work we got hit with a big one. I was standing at the Flamingo Badge with a few guests and other Presenters. The rain kept getting heavier and heaver and the thunder started to get really loud... I'm pretty sure lightning struck just a few hundred yards away, it was the loudest thunder I've ever heard. Pretty scary, but as far as I know, no one was hurt.

I've been teaching some really cute kids recently, but here are some of the more memorable:

• Real Life Russell: a boy who came to DAK dressed in a spot-on Russell costume. I was a little bit star-struck. It was apparently his Halloween costume from last year, and it was amazing.
• Scared of Storms: a little girl who was with me at Tracking Badge and was starting to get scared when some dark clouds started rolling in. So I knelt down and asked her if she knew that Mickey Mouse worked here. She said yes so I asked her if Mickey was magic. She said yes again so I asked her, "If Mickey is here, and he has aaaall that magic, do you really think he'll let something happen to you if it storms?" And she said no, and I told her that she would be okay, and she seemed a little better. :)
• Spider Girl: I think about this girl every day. She was probably 11-12 years old, and was with me at Insect Badge. I went through my whole spiel about how bugs are important, and even though spiders and kind of creepy crawly, it's important not to squish them because they have an important job to do. I have her and her siblings their badges and I expected her to walk away but she kept looking at the house spider we had on display. I asked her if she had anymore questions and she said something along the lines of: "I'm really afraid of spiders but I didn't know that they were important so I don't think I'm going to kill them anymore." And I was like, "You know what, I used to be afraid of them too, and I still think they're kind of creepy, but they are so cool!" She was smiling when she left so I think I changed her mind. I hope she can convince her friends to feel the same way!
• The Jellyfish Girl: This girl taught me/tricked me with a hilarious jellyfish "handshake" that had me cracking up. I will try to record a video of it and post it.

In non-work news, I've turned my friends into Pin Trading addicts. It's awesome. We also went out for Indian food the other day, and it turns out I like Indian food! It's very similar to the food we had in Tanzania.

Now to end with some random pictures! Katherine and I went to visit the DAK animals we never get to see while working.

Baby geese!

Buffalo weaver!

Rhino mama and baby.

My new best friend goat. We bonded.

Handsome green tree monitor. :)

Photo dump!

Hollyword Tower Hotel of Terror

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster!

Favorite new pin. :)

Watching the Fireworks at MK for Independence Day. :)

Roommates! In the rain and getting stuck on Splash Mountain.

Some sandhill cranes chillin' out after work.

Fourth of July special fireworks. :)

I lied.

Sorry, pictures will be up on Tuesday (my day off). :)

Hydration

I love my job, and my new place of residence so much. But I'm not sure I'll ever be properly hydrated again.

Sorry for the delay in posts! We are finally done with all of our training and we've been on our own for about a week now. Every single day I get to teach lots of little kids about really cool stuff. Kids are so awesome... they say the most unexpected things sometimes, and sometimes they really surprise me with how much they know! It's always really fun. I'm also starting to pick up my Spanish a little bit, mostly because I actually get to use it. I think I'm going to look up some lessons online and really get better at it again.

So here is what my job actually is: we're Wilderness Explorers! There are badge sites all over the park where kids can do activities and earn badges (stickers) for a handbook that we give them. Most of the badges they can do by themselves, and then they get the sticker from a merchandise Cast Member. We teach at a few of the badges: Flamingo, Insect, Tracking, Gorilla, Animal Call, Forestry, Animal Find, and Wilderness Explorer Call (the caw-car-roar that Russell does in the movie Up... go watch it). We also stand at different animal exhibits and talk to the guests about them. It's pretty awesome.

I've also gotten all four parks under my belt as a guest. The other night my roommates and I went to Magic Kingdom and watched the special Independence Day fireworks, which were really great. I haven't been able to go to the pool since week 1, because we're really into summer now and it rains every single day. Usually around 3-4:00, but a few days ago we had some crazy storms.

I'm also still totally addicted to Pin Trading. I had to move pins off of my lanyard because it was getting too full. Whoops.

Umm. Two of my roommates have had birthdays in the last couple of weeks, so that's been cool. Our wild parties mostly consist of going to a park and/or going to bed early because we have to work in the morning. Wooo.

I guess that's the quick version of the last few days, but in general: I'm still having a great time! It's hot, it's soggy, but I really am loving it. Since I want to go to bed soon, I will put pictures up tomorrow! Thanks for reading!