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...