Arctic Dip

I am now the newest member of the arctic chilled interns -- I was pushed into the med. pool of the whale exhibit today! I was caught completely off-guard and did not even see it coming! Since it was my last day working with my newly appointed mentor Justin, he made sure I took the beluga plunge and get thrown into the water. We went out to do a quick mini-feed with the whales. And as I was walking back across one of the gates, Justin came up to me and asked me "do you have your phone on you?" Crazy blonde me thought nothing of it and responded "no its in my locker." And as soon as I was saying locker, Justin said "good" and threw me right into the pool. I had no time to act or resist getting thrown in. And right before getting pushed in, Kim (another trainer) had very slyly took the fish bucket from me. That should have been another clue to myself that sometime was a little fishy. But as soon as I hit that water, it took my breath away! They keep the water around 50 degrees...so it was no dip a hot tub thats for sure. It was slightly hard to breath swimming in that water, but then again I was so caught up in the moment and amazement of what just happened that I really couldn't tell I was freezing my rear end off in that water. All this took place in front of visitors at the exhibit. Some people gasped as I got pushed in and then they all clapped after I climbed out. I of course then proceeded to give everyone wet hugs as soon as I climbed out. It was just unfortunate I had no extra change of clothes with me...

Presentation

Well my whole internship research came down to this one day. It was my big final presentation day today. I was a little nervous going into today but my nervousness actually subsided once I began my talk. There were quite a lot of people there to see the interns presentation and it was really awesome to have support from everyone in the aquarium, not just the whale team. Some people from my whale team even came in on their day off to see my presentation which was beyond amazing. I couldn't thank them enough for coming out just to hear my project talk! I feel I did very well with my presentation. Everyone commented on how well I did and that 'I killed it'. So I take it everyone had enjoyed it. And I too am proud of myself for coming this far with my project and giving the presentation. I didn't say too many 'umms' and was pretty animated during my talk -- major improvements from all my practice presentations I had given :) Now all thats left to do for my project is finish up some last minute editing on my paper. Then its smooth sailing from here on out.

My internship is officially over in one week. One week. I'm still in shock that it has come down to this already. I really don't want to think of it ending and just want to enjoy my last week here. I have so much planned during the last week too that its just going to be one fun last hoorah week before I make the journey back to Michigan. And til then I am going to enjoy as much whale time as possible :)

Crunch Time

Well, I am down to less than 2 weeks of my internship. A sad thought really. I can't believe the time is almost up and I still feel like I have lots to do and learn yet. I am starting to feel the pressures of getting my project finished. My presentation to the aquarium staff is on Friday so I have been working on getting that ready. I am excited to present my findings to everyone yet extremely nervous at the same time. There will probably be lots of people there since 3 of us interns are presenting projects. All my hard work and project observations during my internship have come down to this one day...so I hope it all goes well!

Other than frantically scrambling around trying to wrap up this project, I'm still having such a blast working with the whales. Kela has been in such an awesome mood lately and everything you bridge she does her 'weeeee' vocal. So stinkin cute! Her tongue rubs at duck pond window (where they do the Whales-Up-Close program) have been going amazing! I was watching one of the trainers do a program with her at the window and he had them all do tongue rubs. And sure enough, the guests reached their hands right over the glass one-by-one and Kela came right up to them so they could give her tongue rubs! It was so awesome to see something I had been helping work on become a success! I was so proud of Kela for doing that and it felt awesome to watch her do it -- I was like a proud parent! Naku is Naku...pretty much an amazing, solid whale with everything she does! She too likes to vocalize after everything behavior she does. And she LOVES doing tongue rubs after the feeding/training sessions. She would stick around all day for tongue rubs if she could! Its so funny during tongue rubs when she starts giving you her pec to touch and then she whips her head around for a tongue rub. I start to wonder if that has become a fun little game for her.

I had the chance to help with one of Junos 'lip sessions' -- the 'lip' where the encounter programs are. So I got to do some fun stuff with Juno in the water like his mimic spins, different vocals, and touch his squishy melon! And then I got to help with his hugs and kisses. For his hugs, he has a tendency to lean onto you when he comes up. I had to kind of stand with one leg behind me to support myself when he lunged forward. So I got him the hug Ds (cue) and sure enough he came right up and leaned on my body. It was a lot more force than I had expected! But it was cute -- I got to give June-bug a hug :) But thats not all...after that, I got to ask for his kiss behavior again. I was expecting a forceful pec on the cheek similar to what happened last time. I pointed to my cheek and waited for him to come bolting to my face. But to my surprise he came up nice and gently and very softly 'kissed' my cheek! Much improvement from last time when he almost took my jaw off :)

Silver Whistle

This past week our supervisor surprised us all with brand spanking new whistles. They are nice new silver metal whistles that you can adjust the pitches on. They are a step-up from the plastic ones that we all kept biting holes in. We were all like little kids with new toys. We were tweeting those whistles all day. The first setting we had the whistles on the whales could not hear the pitch. It was much quieter than our old plastic ones. So when we sent them off on away behaviors they would be out in the middle of the water and we would be blowing our whistles like 10 times before they finally caught on and returned. We ended up re-adjusting the whistles again to a pitch that was more similar to the old ones. They still have a problem hearing them on occasion during away behaviors but I think its just going to take time for them to pick up on the new sounding pitch.

I have gotten the chance to work with Kela alot over the past couple weeks which has been great. I can see our bond growing and growing by the minute and she is the one that is hardest to win over. Every session I have with her she is a little more motivated and vocalizing on the littlest behaviors. Like simple targets -- I'll ask her to target to my hand, bridge her the moment she touches my hand, and then all you hear is 'weeeeeeeee' vocals with a little gurgling thrown in there. Or when I asked her for a retrival to get a toy out of the water. She left on a mission to find the toy, passed the toy, then brought me back a stick. I took the stick out of her mouth and she did her little 'weeee' vocal like she was proud of herself for bringing me a stick. Her attitude has gotten so much better now that breeding season is up and she is a million times more motivated during sessions. I have also been trying to work her at a place we call 'duck pond window' which is where all the whales-up-close programs take place. I am trying to make that area seem fun and enjoyable so she becomes more comfortable there during a program. Kela doesn't do tongue rubs during the programs because she doesn't really like to be touched by other people. So with the help from another trainer, Justin, I am working on her tongue rubs by the window and once again getting her comfortable there. She is making good progress. I am able to present my hand over the glass and she comes up to receive a tongue rub. And each time I work on this, she comes up closer and closer. Hopefully soon she will be comfortable enough with tongue rubs during a whales-up-close program :)

The other day I got to help with our supervisor Kristine's session with Juno. I got to do a couple of his behaviors like some vocals and mimic spins! He is so much fun! And then I got to do his 'kiss' behavior. I had to point to my cheek so that he would come up and essentially target to my cheek (or 'kiss' my cheek). So I pointed to my cheek. Juno dunked down as though to get a running (or I should say swimming) start then launched up and targeted on my cheek. It was cute even though he almost took out my jaw. I hope I get the chance to work a little bit with him before the internship is over :)

Bubble Rings

Juno our newest and youngest whale at the aquarium is such a little ham. He loves all the attention from everyone and always interacts with guests at the windows. This past week, we all discovered a neat little game he likes to play. He likes to blow bubbles rings. It is seriously the coolest thing I have seen. And these bubble rings that he makes are perfect circles and expand while underwater. Then he likes to play with the rings -- he'll try biting at them or try to get his pec through the bubble ring. I have seen a couple belugas do this on youtube and someplace in Japan they actually trained them to blow bubbles rings while underwater using diving regulators. I've heard some of the whales in Canada where Juno was born can do this. So he probably learned to make bubble rings while there. I hope he can teach the girls how to do it!

During this past week I got the chance to do a practice encounter program with Juno. I got to suit up in my waders and get in the water with Juno! He is going to be an awesome contact animal once he is fully trained for the contact programs. He is so comfortable in the lip (where contact programs are held) and is just full of personality. He has some big fins to fill in replacing Inuk but I think he'll do great :)

I learned a couple new behaviors over this past week -- a couple games, a vocal, and double high-5! One of the games I got passed was frisbee spit. This is where you hold a frisbee to the side and the whales are to spit water at the frisbee target. When I first did the frisbee spit with Kela, she missed the target completely and drenched my knee. Thanks Kela! But at this point I'm used to coming back home with wet clothes and pants -- especially when I'm working with Naku. She'll spit water out onto the beach or you knees after getting fish. Or when shes finished with a behavior and comes back to me for fish, she make a huge tsunami wave that comes crashing on the beach and soaks my pants and shoes. But I love every minute (or drop I should say) of it!

I had the unique opportunity to meet a National Geographic photographer the other day -- Paul Nicklen. The aquarium was offering tickets to staff to attend the photographer's talk about his adventures and pictures from the polar regions. It was very interesting to listen to him tell all the stories behind his pictures and how much he has gone through to get these amazing pictures. He shared many of his experiences he went through to get never before seen pictures of life in the polar regions -- like diving in the freezing water, standing on an ice float with a walrus, and getting a penguin offereing from a leopard seal. It was amazing. And he's such an awesome speaker and storyteller! He also talked about the issues surrounding global warming and the environmental effects in the polar regions. Its scary to think how much ice is melting and how its effecting life. After the presentation, I gave in and bought his new book, Polar Obsession, that he signed for me. Its a huge coffee table book full of his pictures and stories! And on that note, I will end the blog reminding you to help protect our oceans and save the polar life -- especially those belugas and polar bears! :)

The Great Flood, Ping Pong, and Easter

Time for an update! I just can't seem to keep up with the blogging demands ;) Hmm where to start with the busy last couple weeks?! I'll start with work! Work is going great as usually. It was a wet day today...pretty much rained the whole day. And by the end of the day, my clothes were pretty soaked! But its nothing compared the monsoon we had last Tuesday (3/30). It was an out of control rain storm! The beach where we feed the whales was completely flooded with almost a foot of water. The poor whales didn't know what was going on and are actually not too fond of the rain. They don't like the rain pouring on their melons and getting in their eyes! So we had to wait for the water to drain down a bit so we could feed them. The aquarium actually closed early because of the flooding. A lot of cities around the area were essentially underwater too. Streets and highways were closed and many shops where closed because of flooding. It was kind of mass chaos here in New England!

I've got my nice, clean, and crisp whistle bridges down now and am getting used to having a whistle to bridge with! It makes the feeding and training sessions so much fun! The whales really react to the whistle and its almost like a reinforcer for them! I got to do the start of session whistles which went really well. I was slightly nervous at first but now I have the hang of it! Just a bit of background on start of sessions: the start of session whistles are essentially 3 sharp whistles that signal the start of the feeding/training session. Once the whales hear that, they have been trained to find their shape and target on it. Also, since I have my whistle now, I have learned a couple of 'away behaviors'! I was passed off on fluke wave and pec wave on Naku! I love doing fluke wave...Naku dives down and leaves her flukes out of the water and waves them to the visitors! Then for her pec wave, she swims along the beach with her little pec (big pec actually) out of the water waving to the visitors! I'm hoping to learn some away behaviors on Kela soon and learn some more husbandry behaviors on the girls.

The past couple days I have gotten to work with Kela a lot. She was switched over to only staff working here for a little bit because of her attitude. We are nearing the end of breeding season and from what I've been told and have seen, Kela becomes a whole different whale during breeding season. She tends to be slow and unmotivated -- doesn't really want to participate during feeding/training sessions. She would much rather go off and do her own thing. But luckily I was able to still work with her. And already I can see a difference in attitude now that breeding season is nearing the end. Shes vocalizing more after behaviors and seems more engaging during sessions and even sticking around for lots of tongue rubs after feeds. We definitely had some bonding time over the past couple days :)

My cousins from Maryland, Becky and Steven, drove up to visit the last week in March! They got to tour around town a little bit and check out what little ol Mystic has to offer. We went geocaching and both times were in scary old cemetaries. I hope we didn't bring any orbs back with us! They signed up to do the Whales Up Close program at the aquarium. So I got to tag along and help with their program! Unfortuantely, it was pouring down rain for their Naku encounter. But what can you do. Regardless, they had an awesome time meeting Naku and making her do some vocal behaviors and getting to touch a beluga whale! I took them around to some of my favorite local restaurants. I planned on taking them to DPI (Daniel Packer Inn) which has delicious yummy food. But when we got to the restaurant, there were no cars in the parking lot, which was odd. There normally are cars parked everywhere and its usually hard to find a parking spot. And when we got to the door, there was a sign on it saying 'closed due to the weather'. We were totally bummed and had to find an alternate.

I managed to get a 5 day weekend vacation from work for Easter. So I decided to head down to Maryland to see family for Easter. This worked out perfectly because I could hitch a ride down to Maryland with Becky and Steve and then take the train back. So I tagged along with Becky and Steve on their road trip. It was fun -- Becky and I watched Uncle Buck and jammed out to Lady Gaga in the backseat. With all our singing I'm sure Steve wanted to drive off a cliff :) I stayed at their place during my visit which was awesome -- Steve always had yummy breakfast ready in the morning! (Thanks Weev) On April 1st, Gertie Bomb and I headed to Baltimore to check out the National Aquarium. It was a pretty nice aquarium but we got slightly annoyed with all the screaming kids running around like mad. It was spring break for some schools. So of course they all flock to the aquarium. But we got to see an enrichment session with an octopus which was really neat and the dolphin show. It was packed in that stadium -- a sold out show. But it was fun to see all the dolphins do flips in the air. After the aquarium, we ate at the Cheesecake factory. Michigan definitely needs to get some of these!

Another night, we ate dinner at my other cousins house, Sara and Johns, and had s'mores and played a very intense game of ping pong. The ball was flying every which way and we were playing it off the walls and floor and in some cases Gertie Bombs head. It was for sure a fun night involving spock ears, flaccos uni-brow, a croquet paddle, "eat ball", lost balls, Gertie Bombs 'concussion', and did I mention bottles of wine?! :) April 3rd we all gathered at my Uncle Chippy and Aunt Gerties place to watch State play in their final four game against Butler. The game was crap, the team didn't play very well, and the refs were dumb. We'll just leave it at that.

For Easter, I went with Becky and Steve to Steve's parents place for brunch and an easter egg hunt. You can never be to old for an Easter egg hunt, especially when there is cash money involved :) His parents hid eggs all over the house and some were in very tricky and clever spots! After brunch, we headed to Chippy and Gertie Bomb's for dinner (at 1pm promptly). It was nice to have a huge home cooked meal again! I stuffed my face. And we all enjoyed a nice whale cake in place of the lamb cake baked by Chef Steve with homemade buttercream frosting.

Whew! It was quite an eventful and exciting weekend -- never a dull moment with the Maryland clan! I'll just give them a little shout-out for all their wonderful hospitality and taking me in for the weekend! And of course for the O'henrys! :) But now I must wrap up this long post. Hope you all made it through reading this novel! I'll try to be more on top of things as the last 2 months go by!

Sweet 16

Michigan State is heading to the Sweet 16!! I can't shake the excitement and I can't seem to stop watching the replays of that incredible game-winning shot by Lucious! It was beyond unbelievable -- the classic buzzer-beater ending to an intense game! 6 seconds remaining State down by 1 point. State (Green) inbounds the ball dribbles down the court. Passes it to Lucious with 3 seconds left. Lucious shoots the 3 with the ball releasing his hand at 0.5 seconds left on the clock. Drains the 3 for the win! Amazing. Epic. Incredible. I still can't get over the win and it just sent chills down my spine after the victory! Up next: Northern Iowa. Bring it on!

The Whistle

March Madness has officially begun! My bracket is filled out and of course I have Michigan State going all the way. I can't turn my back to my alma mater even though they have been placed in the bracket of death with a bunch of other big-wig teams! So as I watch the first round games I will share with you all my exciting week!

On Tuesday, I had to the chance to shadow another department at the aquarium. I chose to follow around one of the veterinary interns at the aquarium and see what veterinary medicine is like at an aquarium. We started our rounds doing physicals on the stranding seals. At Mystic Aquarium, they have a stranding department where they take in marine mammals and rehabilitate them back to health prior to release. Currently, the stranding department has 4 grey seal pups. They are all so cute and have the biggest eyes! Since these pups are wild, untrained animals with super sharp teeth, physicals are limited. So once the seals were restrained, just blood samples were taken and their lungs and heart beat were listened to. I was lucky enough to listen to one to the pups heart beat and lungs! Next on the appointment list was a sick lizard. It's a filled lizard and was having digestive issues and regurgitating his food. So the vet gave him some sub-cutaneous fluids and some medicine to help pass food. After that we had to investigate the cause of death of a fish. So I got to experience my first fish necropsy. Interesting I know. They scrapped an abrasion around the fish gill and looked at it under a microscope. And low and behold we determined the cause of death to be flukes -- which is a parasite. It was what the vet had believed based on observations. So I got to see what parasitic flukes look like -- pretty gnarly. And then to top off the dead fish, we went to examine a fish with an infected eye. Who would of thought eye surgery could be conducted on fish?! But its possible and that fishes eye was so bad looking that the vet had to schedule to a time to get it removed. Too bad I wasn't able to witness the fish eye surgery! In the afternoon we took a trip to my territory for a whale ultrasound. Its currently breeding season for the belugas, so the vets are keeping a close eye on follicle development in their ovaries. We examined Naku and discovered she had a nice size follicle developing in one of her ovaries. Our final stop on the veterinary rounds was with the stellar sea lions at PI. I got to go on PI's beach for the first time and see how they feed and interact with sea lions. Then I got to see a session with Kodiak, which is the largest sea lion on exhibit. He is massive! And everytime I hear his name, I always think of the movie 'Surfs Up' when all the penguins say "cody cody cody cody". But anyways he was getting a mock injection to help build up that husbandry behavior so he can take needle sticks for blood or meds if need be. Overall, it was a super awesome and fun day. I got to see many different aspects of marine animal care at the aquarium and see animals I really haven't gotten a chance to see since I have been there.

But on to the more exciting news that every whale intern strives for. On Wednesday I was scheduled to take my 'whistle exam'. This is just a simple and easy quiz they give to the whale interns to make sure they understand the basics of training and how its applied. So I took my exam and it was like being back in school. A lot of pressure to obtain a little, but very important, whistle. I finished my 'exam' and turned it in to my mentor and we went over the answers. She was extremely pleased with my answers and said I had passed. And in her hand was my shiny new whistle! I could not help but be in awe with a perma-smile glued on my face! I never thought I would be so excited over a whistle but its a big deal! I now can feel like a trainer and have endless possibilities with behaviors! It was like an award ceremony and Lynn my mentor placed the whistle on the lanyard around my neck like I was receiving a medal! And everyone clapped and congratulated me! It felt so weird yet so good to have that whistle around my neck -- I couldn't help but just stare at it in amazement! So then during the next feeding schedule, I actually got to use my whistle as a bridge on the whales. My whistles were a little soft to begin with but as soon I get use it more and get more comfortable with it, they will become nice clean whistle bridges! Its definitely fun having the power of the whistle! I now have a good excuse to go shopping and look for the perfect lanyard for my whistle!

Family Invasion and Bubblahs

Epic fail at the updating. Over the past couple weeks a lot has happened! My family came and visited me last week! I was so glad to see them and it seemed like forever since I had seen them, even though its been like 2 months! We all had a great time and I'm pretty sure they enjoyed touring around and visting my work too! Last Monday (3/1) I was able to get them into a behind the scenes tour of where I work and even have them do a whales up close program. They got to see how much I have learned already because I was actually placed in charge of their program! And of course Naku (the tank) was a rock star and did very well for the program. They were able to give her tongue rubs, feed her ice cubes, and touch her melon. It was a lot of fun and I hope they had an amazing experience! 'Cause I know for sure I enjoyed showing them how much fun it is working with these whales!

Last Tuesday (3/2) my mom, Jordan, and myself went to visit the Big Apple for the day. We drove down the New Haven (which is like 45 minutes from New London where I live) and took the commuter train into NYC. We had planned on taking an early train in but when arrived we found the train station but no parking lot. We drove around turning down one-way after one-way streets and finally found a sketchy parking lot. We parked and walked 10 minutes to the train station to find a huge 6-story parking lot right next to the train station. Fail. So we went and bought our train tickets for the next train because we missed our first train. Double Fail. After getting our tickets, we sped-walked to the car and moved it to the parking garage. We got back and boarded the train and were en route to New Yoorrrrrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkk (concrete jungles where dreams are made of). About halfway there, the train starts to slow down. And since we sat near the front of the train, we heard a buzzer going off. The train would start to speed up again only to hear the buzzer go off again. Appearantly they were having communication problems and could only travel at the slowest speed possible for safety reasons. Super. So here we are going what seemed like 10 mph down the track. We finally arrived to Grand Central Station a little bit behind schedule. Grand Central Station is huuuggee! There were like a hundred different tracks that leave the station and go every different direction. The inside is just amazing -- pretty architecture and lights. We walked out into the city and were immediately surrounded by big buildings and people everywhere. First stop on our tourist list was Times Square. I have never seen so many buildboard and animations! One thing that makes New York so unique is it feels 'bright' when compared to like Chicago. And I can't imagine Times Square during New Years Eve -- but it would be fun to see! We went into M&M world with walls full of ridiculously priced M&M's (12 bucks per pound) and checked out Hersheys. M&M world is by far the cooler of the 2. Next stop: Rockefeller Plaza. We saw Radio City Music Hall, NBC studios and the ice rink. I wanted to go take a couple laps on the ice but it was a little pricey -- a common trend in NYC. We continued on our journey and stopped at St. Patricks Cathedral. Its so pretty inside with all the stained glass and tall ceilings. On our way to Central Park, we stopped in at FAO Schwartz the toy store with the giant floor keyboard. So of course I had to try it out! I was able to play the beginning of Fur Elise but it was a little bit harder since I had to literally jump to the keys! Right across the street from FAO stood Central Park. Its a lot bigger than what I had anticipated! And I never realized there was a small zoo inside the park as well! We found the ice rink that is of course sponsored by none other than Trump and I couldn't help but think of Home Alone 2 when the 'sticky bandits' were skating there. Our day was coming to an end sadly and we had to hoof it back to the train station. There is so much we didn't get a chance to see like ground zero and the statue of liberty. It's hard to take in the whole city in one day. But I'd say we did a decent job of getting a taste of the city! And to top it off no train issues on the way back home!

Wednesday (3/3) my dad wanted to check out one of the casinos nearby called Mohegan Sun. And poor Jordan was the only one to young to gamble! But we all tried our luck at the slot machines. My mom and I walked away losers but my dad managed to win some cash money. Those slots seem alot tighter than those in Michigan! I was hoping to win some money to buy a new coach purse :) But no coach for me this time around :( I had to settle for some Ben and Jerrys instead!

Currently, I am about halfway done with my internship! I can't believe it! It has all gone by so fast but I am looking forward to what lies ahead! I finished up my data collection for my project. So now the paper writing and statistics can come into full swing! I am continuing to learn more behaviors and next week sometime I take my whistle exam! Pretty soon I will have an awesome new whistle and feel like an official trainer! Juno, our newest addition, is making significant progress. He has come a long way since getting here in January but the young whale still has a ways to go! Junos arrival kind of got put on the back burner since the whole Inuk issue came about. Hes a 7 year old male that came from Sea World. He is so stinkin cute and has kind of a cleft lip! I can't wait til I get to work with him sometime in the future! Hes going to be a lot of fun!

The other day I got asked thee weirdest question. I was walking back with Margaret (another intern) and Brittany (a volunteer) from lunch and this lady with a death grip on her childs hand asked, 'wheres the bubblah?' I looked at her as if she had 15 heads! What the heck is a 'bubblah'?! I was thinking to myself "Is that a fish?" Thank goodness Brittany was there to help her out. I guess a bubblah (actually called a bubbler) is like a water fountain. And people make fun of me for saying pop...

Inuk

As most of you probably know or have heard by now, Inuk sadly passed away last Saturday February 20. It was a rough time for not only the whale team, but staff, volunteers, and the community as a whole. The whole day felt like my head was in a fog. No one could really comprehend what had just happened. I was pretty upset he was gone, but what really hit me was seeing the trainers. You form such incredible bonds working with the animals they essentially become part of the family. Many worked with him since the time they started working at Mystic. So it was hard to see them lose an animal they loved. He touched so many lives during his time here. Everyone will never forget his wonderful and charming personality! He truely was an amazing animal! I am so grateful I was able to spend some time with him during my internship and get to see how awesome of a whale he was! I will never forget his victory 'head nod' with both eyes closed, mouth wide open, and strands of drool hanging out the corner of his mouth! It's definitely going to be different around the exhibit. It will always feel like somethings missing -- the unused triangle shape for start of sessions and the empty red/white buckets sitting on the shelf :( But we must look at the bright side of things and carry on! I hope all find comfort in knowing we gave it our all and provided him with the best care possible! We all fought just as hard as he did, but it just wasn't meant to be. He passed on his own terms and we really couldn't have wanted it any other way. He will always hold a special places in many peoples hearts including my own and I will cherish all the great memories I had in my short time with him!

Now that things are slowly getting back to normal at work, my list of behaviors on the girls is growing! I have lots of different vocals including low and high range, chirps, clicks, and beluga style foghorn! I also learned head nod yes, ball/ring toss (where you place a ring on the lower jaw and they fling it up for you to catch!), and my personal favorite high fives! Thats right...I said high fives! Its not everyday you get to high five a beluga whale :) Pretty soon I will be doing my 'whistle exam' where I will get a training whistle to use as my bridge! I never thought I would be so excited to get a whistle! But once I get it, my behaviors are endless! I will be able to send the whales out to do lots of stuff away from the beach! My mentor, Lynn, was talking to me about the seasonal position during the summer. She said I should look into it and it sounds like it would be a lot of fun! They help with all the encounter programs during the summer and its paid! I will definitely have to think about it! It would be a fun summer job -- a lot better than pop testing thats for sure!

My family is coming to town tomorrow! I'm excited to see them! I am going to try and get them into the aquarium on Monday and show them around so they can see where I work! But other than that no big plans! I just hope we have pretty decent weather while they are here. The past 2 days it has been raining and now today it started snowing! Crazy!

I will leave you all with some thrilling pics from Boston since I didn't post any last time..

Old City Hall

Quincy Market

Boston Skyline from Bunker Hill Monument

Cat and Myself in the Boston Common

Where everyone knows your name!

Shipping Up To Boston

Yikes! Almost 2 weeks since my last post..whoops! But its alright, everyone can relax now because I am finally updating! Between caring for a sick whale and still managing to take care of the other whales, work still has been keeping me super busy. I literally have been working, eating, and sleeping with an occasional break thrown in there! They just switched up my schedule and changed my days off. So I worked 7 days in a row and am now finally enjoying my weekend! With all that has been going on with Inuk, I still am pressing on with the internship and learning behaviors on the girls. So far this week, I have learned station spins, low vocals, chirps, and melon shake. Melon shake is one of my favorites so far. I will be learning some more behaviors this coming Thursday! It's so cute, after every behavior Kela does, she makes this 'yay! i did it' vocal! And Naku just makes vocals all the time, especially during after session tongue rubs. All the routine work is just becoming second nature and I can get them done in no time now.

Last Monday, another intern and myself went and checked out the good ol city of Boston (or Bahston). It was about a 1.5 hour drive from New London to get to a subway station known as the Boston T. From there it was like another 20 minute ride into downtown Boston. Along the way into Boston, we passed Fenway park -- home to the Red Sox. I would love to check out one of their games while I'm here! The city of Boston was really neat -- lots of really old brick buildings. It was not the typically big city you think of (like Chicago). Its not as tall and you can walk majority of it in no time. We did the typical tourist trap of walking the Freedom Trail. It basically took you through all of downtown Boston to all the different historical places. We got to see Paul Reveres house, the church where the lantern was hung to warn of the British coming, old burial grounds, the site of the Boston Massacre, and other places. It took us through different neighborhoods like a Pub alley and little Italy. We stopped at Quincy Market where they have different food vendors lined up and down the building. They had every type of food imaginable and I tried a canolli for the first time -- delicious! We went across the harbor into Charlestown where we saw Bunker Hill. They have a monument with 294 steps to the top. I thought of the brilliant idea to climb up all those stairs to see the top (spiral staircase nonetheless). By the time we reached the top both of us were huffing and puffing and my legs could no longer move. But the view from the top was worth it. You could see all of the Boston skyline and the inner harbor. We walked back to downtown and had dinner at the place where Cheers was filmed -- the place where everyone supposedly knows your name, but they didn't know mine. By the end of the day, our feet were aching from a good walking trip in Boston! There are alot of places we missed that I will have to go back and see!

Also during this past week I survived my first Nor-easter! These are the big storms that occur in the Northeastern part of the US (hence the name). They were predicting about a foot or more of snow to fall in the area. It was weird to see everyone kind of freaking out about this snow storm. Everything began to close way before the storm even came. Back in Michigan, its not uncommon for us to get lots of snow and snowstorms. And they tend to cancel things as the storm hits or after. Here it was a little bit different and it probably didn't help that the DC/Baltimore area was getting hammered with snow. Everyone was closing up shops the day before and stashing up on supplies. The aquarium was declared closed the day before too. The storm finally arrived and hit was pretty heavy, thick snow that was falling. I shoveled the beach on the exhibit and 5 minutes later you couldn't even tell I shoveled. It was nice to see a good snowstorm -- reminded me alot of back home :) Driving back home was a real treat. I was averaging about 30 down the highway and since I live on a hill, I had to gun it up an unplowed street. I thought I was going to get stuck a couple times but I made it back safe and sound! The go figure the next day it was 37 degrees and all the snow began to melt.

Since its Fat Tuesday I'm off to go find a yummy paczki!

Birthday Weekend

What a crazy, chaotic, emotional, and stressful week this has been! I am so lost on my days since I have practically lived at the aquarium since Saturday. A situation arose on Friday that caught everyone off-guard. Inuk, the male beluga, wasn't acting like his normal self and was showed no interest in his food. It was a clear sign that something was wrong. We were able to run a blood test and it showed he was going through renal (kidney) failure. Not the best of news to hear. He has been receiving care and fluids throughout the day. And everyone has been so awesome and going out of their way to help and be supportive -- its truely amazing! I felt it necessary that I help out as much as possible. So I have been going in as much as I physically can and helping out with the procedures. From a veterinary aspect, this is great experience to see how whales are treated and see how marine mammal medicine is conducted in an extreme case. Everyone keep their fingers crossed for Inuk and send prayers and positive thoughts his way for a speedy recovery :)

On to other news, Gertie Bomb (my aunt Gertie) came up to visit this past weekend to celebrate my birthday! I went and picked her up at the train station and we went to eat at Mystic Pizza. Famous place because of the movie, but the pizza is alright. Its no Peppinos like back at home though! After lunch we decided to do some road tripping and try to find a local beach. During our travels down Route 1, we came across signs for a winery. So wouldn't you know it, we went looking for a beach and found a winery instead ;) We were left with no choice but to do some taste testing from the Stonington Winery! For the most part, most of the wines were alright -- there were only 2 that I really liked and would recommend buying. We then visited downtown Stonington and randomly came across the Old Lighthouse Museum (although it was closed) and the DuBois Beach.

We headed to Newport, Rhode Island on Monday for a day trip. It was a little over an hour away and we crossed some pretty neat bridges with awesome views. Newport is an interesting place but in a cool way! A lot of old buildings from the 1700's and even cobblestone streets! Some of the streets are just wide enough to fit one car down. So driving downtown Newport was a little tricky and had skinny streets going in everyway possible. Luckily with my driving, we didn't get lost :) We had planned on having a nice lunch at the White Horse Tavern which is one of the oldest operating taverns! But we arrived only to find a sign saying 'Winter Hours Thurs - Sat'. Just our luck. So we looked at our tourist map and picked out another resturant just up the street. We walked along an old cobblestone street with cute little shops. Got to the resturant and it was all boarded up for repairs. Strike 2. Finally we found a nice pub to eat at and enjoyed a nice lunch after a couple epic fails. We went and walked the Cliff Walk a little bit that went along the ocean and the Newport Mansions. Gertie Bomb yelled at me a couple times because I playing on the rocks and getting to close to the edge. We saw some pretty huge houses such as The Breakers which was owned by the Vanderbilt family and was their summer 'cottage'. Some of the mansions had tall fencing around them making it hard to gawk at them.

My birthday was on Tuesday. Another year older! I'm getting to be an old fart! I received a nice surprise at the aquarium. The rents ordered a beluga cake that was delivered to the aquarium for my birthday. It was delicious and had this yummy chocolate mousse type stuff in the center! It went over pretty well too with the staff and volunteers. It was a huge sheet cake and over half of it was eaten. But I think the best present I got was a good nights sleep! Up til then, I was running on little sleep and exhausted from caring for Inuk the whole weekend! So a nice 8 hour sleep felt wonderful!

I apologize for the lack of blog posting lately. Things have been crazy lately as you can tell and I just have been a little pre-occupied with other things! But now that things are beginning to become a bit more organized, I will continue to update with everything going on at the aquarium! Time for some pictures! Enjoy!

Old Lighthouse Museum -- Stonington, CT

Old Cobble Street -- Newport, RI

Beach on the Cliff Walk -- Newport, RI

The Breakers Mansion -- Newport, RI

Sitting on the Cliffs -- Newport, RI

My Birthday Cake

A to B's

Wow, its been awhile since my last post! This week has kept me super busy at work and everyday has been packed with things to do (but in a good way of course). I have almost put a month's worth in the internship and I can't believe it! This week, I have been working on A to B's with the whales. A to B's are when you send the whale to someone else in a different part of the exhibit. Once again, Inuks is fairly easy to pick up since it is similar to his point follow signals. Naku and Kelas are a bit different but I'm starting to get the hang of them.

I have been doing quite alot of solo feeds which have been going swimmingly. I get to bring out lots of fun toys to play with and I feel like I am keeping pace with the trainers as far as bucket levels go. The other day Kela was very spooked and easily startled during the day for some odd reason. When she was having a training/feeding session with one of the volunteers, she ended up swimming off for a minute. I was scheduled to have a session with her near the end of the day so I was a bit worried that she was going to do the same for me. But she ended up doing amazing! She was extremely engaged and vocal in the session and I tried to make it as fun as possible for her with props and variety in the feeding. Also the supervisor was watching me during that session and she said I have come a long way already and she can tell I am more confident and comfortable with things and was doing a great job. Sweet!

The weather here is crazy and unpredictable..much like Michigan! Monday it was like a monsoon with wind and heavy rains but it was super warm (a high of 52). Today the cold swept in bringing with it a small blizzard. Snow began to collect everywhere after it just melted away. But it looked pretty nonetheless. And tomorrow its supposed to be a high of 20. 20. My fingers may be suffer frost bite and freeze off during feeds tomorrow.

Well, this weekend looks like its going ot be a blast. My Aunt Gertie Bomb is coming up for a couple days for my birthday and we are going to check out Cape Cod!

Bridges

Saturdays always seem to be the best days of the work week. Maybe because its technically my 'Friday', but its fun to see the aquarium come to life and actually have more than 10 visitors a day! I got to visit with each of the whales during the training sessions and work on my point follows with them. I'm pretty sure I have those down to a T now! Lynn (my awesome mentor) introduced me to bridging today too. This is a hand signal (or a whistle for experienced trainers) that is given to the whales to tell them to basically stop doing a behavior because they have done it correctly and will receive a fishy reward. I got to practice bridging during my attention thresholds I have been working on with each of the whales and during point follows.

I was a little skeptical when assigned to work with Kela today. This morning she was miss grumpy gills and seemed to be having a bad morning. When I was brushing the exhibit pools, she was being aggressive towards the brush pole and jaw popping at it (which is a sign of aggression). Then later on in the morning she 'yelled' at Naku for some odd reason. But when I got to work with her one-on-one for our feeding session, she seemed perfectly fine. In fact, it was one of the best sessions I have had with her so far! She stuck around a lot longer than normal for tongue rubs which I was very happy about since shes the one its takes a while for her to warm up to newbies.

No new pictures to post this time :(

Pine Cones and Point Follows

My weekend is fast approaching and once again I'm having a super fun work week! I am getting the hang of toy play sessions with the whales and thinking of different things to incorporate into the sessions to add more variety and fun for the whales. It's definitely a lot easier to extend the session times and keep pace with the other trainers now that I am able to use toys instead of free feed the whole time. On Wednesday, while cleaning the exhibit, Inuk brought me a special surprise. He swam over to me in hopes of getting some tongue rubs and I happened to notice something in his mouth. It slightly resembled a piece of poop. But I reached in his mouth and pulled out a slobbery pine cone. Its almost like he purposely put it in his mouth to get my attention and get tongue rub reinforcement. It was like a dog bringing over a stick!

Over this week I have been working on point follows, which are hand signals that you give to move the whales to different location. Both the females (Naku and Kela) have the same hand signals but Inuk has a totally different hand signal. The girls hand signals are a little more confusing because you do the hand signal in the opposite direction you want to go. So if I wanted to move Naku to the right, I would have to give the signal with my left hand. For Inuk, his signals are directional. If I want to take him left, I give the signal with my left hand. But I'm sure after I do the signals for awhile I will get the hang of it and it will all become natural.

I have noticed the whales starting to play favorites. Just like the trainers said, "pretty soon the whales will tend to pick you over the volunteers." And sure enough it has started! A volunteer who was helping feed Naku today got in a couple tongue rubs before Naku left and followed me around to get tongue rubs from me! To have her come to me when I had nothing to do with her training and feeding session was quiet amazing!

I don't have any more pictures from the aquarium, but I will leave you with the sunset I saw coming home today! Another thing Connecticut has going for it...the sunrises and sunsets! And you can also see the San Francisco-esque street I live on!

Play Time

I started my third week at the aquarium already! Today, most of the other interns started in the PI department. The PI stands for Pribilof Islands which is the exibits that deal with sea lions, seals and penguins. It works closely with the AC department, the Arctic Coast exhibit with the whales, which is what I am in. I am the only intern with the AC department which is kind of nice because I get more one-on-one time with each of the trainers. The PI department will have 4 interns total which is quite a lot especially for the winter session! Anyways, today I was introduced to toy play with the whales during their feeding sessions. This makes for a much more fun and interactive feeding session for both us and the whales. So I had lots of fun today playing with different toys and I think the whales enjoyed it too! They, especially Naku, were very vocal and responded well to the different toys! The only tough part is trying to think of different creative ideas and ways to use the toys and not be repetitive. I think the whales are starting to know who I am and getting more comfortable with my presence. Today as I was taking down some window decals that were put up as some visual enrichment, Inuk came over to check things out and wanted my to give him some tongue rubs! It was too cute!

My 'weekend' -- consisting of Sundays and Mondays -- was spent traveling around. On Sunday, I went with the family I'm staying with to Trader Joes. We had to go all the way to Warwick, Rhode Island to get there too (which is about 45 minutes away). I've only been to the one in Chicago once or twice. So this one was a lot quieter and I could actually look around a bit and not get pushed around by crowds of people like in Chicago. They have alot of organic type food which is something I usually don't buy, but all their other stuff is nice and cheap! I picked up some soups to bring to lunch and some snack foods. I should have picked up some 2 buck chuck...oh well I can always go back later to get some!

Yesterday I visited the town of Groton which is the town across the river from New London. Its known as the submarine capital of the world and made the worlds first nuclear powered submarine in the 50's. I managed to find the Wal-Mart where I got some pictures developed. I also found one of the beaches. And of course the day I decide to see a beach, its super windy and cold. But it was still pretty and there are alot of rocky islands off the shore.

Well I think that is enough for one post! Enjoy some pictures!

Lighthouse in the middle of the river with New London in the background

Rocky island off the shore

The Ocean

Solo feeding

I am officially able to free feed the whales by myself, unsupervised! I was checked off today on the full feeds and did my first solo feeding session! It went really great and Inuk my buddy was a champ. I was able to keep pace with the other trainers during the session which happened to be a longer training session. Since I am strictly full feeding and the other trainers are working certain behaviors and feeding every so often, I have to be sure not to overfeed to quickly or run out of fish before everyone else. But it went really well and I was able to work on Inuks attention threshold a little bit. I was able to get him up to 10 seconds of waiting patiently for his fish and reinforcement. I think next week we are going to start incorporating toys into the feeding session :) I also got to help with an ultrasound on Naku today. Since its breeding season, a lot of ultrasounds are performed to look at the follicle developments in Naku and Kela.

The aquarium was hopin' today. There were a lot of people out and oodles of kid running about. There must have been an overnight sleepover with a boy scout troop last night. Lucky them they got to sleep right next to the shark lagoon!
My weekend is here and I will leave you with some exciting pictures from around Mystic Aquarium!

Stingray

Turtle

Clown Fish (Nemo's)

Full Feeds

Well, I have been here in Connecticut over a week now but it really doesn't seem like it. I am getting the routines down at work and getting more comfortable doing them on my own. This week I have been on full feeds with all the whales. This means I am in charge of picking up the whale I am assigned for the session and feeding them on my own (with someone watching of course). I am getting better with my fish aiming skills and learning different ways to feed the whales to make it a funner feeding session! While full feeding, I am learning the different bucket levels and call those out every once and a while. Bucket levels are a way the trainers communicate to one another during sessions to make sure everyone is at about the same point and no one is too far behind.

Today during the feeding sessions, I worked on the whales attention spans. The goal is to hold their attention (with no props or anything) for as long as possible and then reinforce them. For both Kela and Naku, I was able to reach 8 seconds and they responded very well. They were both very attentive and stationed very nicely. I was especially happy with Kelas session and how I was able to keep her attention for the 8 seconds. Kela is a little more reserved when it comes to new people and it tends to take her a little longer to open up and trust new people. So me being able to keep her interested and have her patiently wait 8 seconds for a food reinforcement was a great step in building her trust!

I started my research project too this week. I am kind of continuing an interns research from last semester dealing with respiration rates. I observe the whales for 10 minutes 3 times a day and record how many times each whale takes a breath. Then, over time I will look and see if there is any changes and it will help to establish a nice baseline respiration rate for each of the whales for the aquarium to have and know.

Naku

Tongue rubs for Inuk

Thats all the updates I have for today! Tomorrow its supposed to get into the 40's here! Woo heat wave!

Dunkaroos

Since I didn't have to work yesterday or today, I decided to hit the town and do some exploring. When my mom, Aunt Beth, and Gertie Bomb were here, we did some sight-seeing around Mystic and went to see the worlds largest casino -- Foxwoods -- where we donated some money sadly and drove up and down the parking ramp for at least 15 minutes trying to find an exit. So I decided to try and learn my way around the towns a bit and not look like such a tourist (despite the fact I am probably one of few cars with a Michigan license plate). I did successfully find downtown Mystic with the help of my GPS of course. The town of Mystic is really a neat place. It reminds me alot of Mackinac Island, but with cars and less horse poop. They have alot of really cool shops right near the water and an old drawbridge that was made in the 1920's I believe. I'm sure this place is hoppin' once spring/summer comes around.

Mystic River

The Drawbridge

The highlight of my day had to come from my trip to the grocery store. I was in desperate need of groceries and needed things for lunches this coming week. As I'm cruising the aisles with my 'buggy' (as they are referred to around here), something caught my eye hidden on the bottom corner of the shelf. Low and behold it was...wait for it...Dunkaroos! One of thee greatest snacks ever created! I mean kangaroo shaped cookies with frosting to dip them in...it doesn't get any better! This was my all time favorite snack during my elementary school days! They are nowhere to be found in stores back home. Because of this, Connecticut was bumped up a couple more notches in awesome-ness!

Well my weekend is officially over and its back to work in the AM!

Week 1 Under My Belt

So many of you have asked for updates on my adventure and how things are going with the internship. So I set up this blog for all your reading pleasures! Just a little background on the internship I am doing. I intern at Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration in Mystic, CT with the beluga whales. Mystic Aquarium has 3 whales; Kela, Naku, and the only male Inuk.

During this week, I have already learned how to do so many things that I would have never imagined doing! I have learned most of the daily routines done around the aquarium. Brushing and cleaning the exhibit is much like cleaning the pool back home only on a much larger and deeper scale. I knew all those years of cleaning the pool would come in handy! I have learned to prepare the diets, stuff meds in the fish, and check the fish. There are 3 different types of fish that is fed to the whales: herring, capelin, and yummy squid. Each fish in the whales feeding bucket must be examined for any cuts or tears in the skin that could potentially harbor bacteria. I have already given all 3 whales tongue rubs! How awesome is that?! I would have never thought by my second day I would be patting a belugas tongue!

Today was an amazing feeding day! I was able to feed and visit with each of the whales throughout the day. I learned how to vary feedings to make it more fun for the whales. You can throw a couple fish into their mouths, place some fish into their mouths, throw fish in one by one, or holding a fist-full underwater and having them suck the fish in. Its like they're underwater hoovers. Today, I was also put in charge of semi-starting the training session and picking up my assigned whale. Each whale has been trained to go to an assigned shape after a training/feeding session has been started. Its sooo awesome to see how these whales are getting used to me being around and beginning to trust me a little more each day. They all have different personalities that I am starting to pick up on! Also today, during one of the feeding sessions I was dive bombed by a sea gull. I had dropped a fish onto the ground and that dang seagull spotted it and moved in for the kill scaring both poor Naku and myself!

One week has gone by already and each day seems to get better and better! And before I know it I'll be able to start doing behaviors myself! Its time to call it a night and wrap up this blog premiere!