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...