IT'S DONE!!!

My gorilla project is done!

I just need to proofread it one more time and turn it in!

A huge weight on my shoulders has been lifted!!!!

YAY!!!

too tired for a title

... manchmal vergesse ich, wie viel ich Deutschland vermisse, bis ich wieder Radio Salü höre, ein Buch auf Deutsch lese oder deutsch sprechen...

... sometimes i forget how much i miss germany until i listen to Radio Salü (a radio station from where I studied in Germany), read a book in german, or speak german...

this week has been stressful. I took a test this morning where I had to know 70 latin species names for mammals (did you know a striped skunk is Mephitis mephitis? And don't forget my favorite: Urocyon cinereoargenteus which is a common gray fox), plus all of the other stuff we've done that sememster and be able to identify a skull and/or a skin and tell you it's respective species name. It was really really hard and I also studied really really hard. I studied so hard I dreamt about studying.

Then today I worked...came home and have been working hard on my gorilla project. My paper is almost complete and will be finished and turned in tomorrow! I'm excited that it's down... it didn't turn out completely as expected, but it was definitely a learning experience!

Next week I have a paper and presentation to give and the week after is finals.. then I'm "free" for three weeks... which really means I'm working, have the zoo to go to, and will be doing research for my next big project - a comparison fo conservation policies in Germany and the US, due at the end of next semester and about 50 pages long.

My life - it's so exciting.

Y.U.C.K.

I did my study skin for my mammology class today, and let me tell you - it was disgusting. I notice sometimes that I have a weaker stomach than I used to have for such things, and tonight was no exception. Though cute on the outside (well, except that he was dead) his insides were anything but cute. Unfortunately the car (or cars) that hit him mashed him up well and ripped huge holes in his body cavity walls. This made some portions particularly disgusting - especially the part where the intestines were ripped open. All the more unhelpful was the fact that instead of it taking 2-3 hours like I had planned, it actually took 3.5-4 hours, as removing the skin from the mashed body cavities was extremely difficult. So not only was it gross, but I haven't gotten any time to do anything else I had planned to do tonight.

Story of my life.

But on the upside, the squirrel is mostly done and all major body parts are intact. I have a leg to sew back on partially, along with a couple of holes to sew up and then he's completed. I could do that now, but I am all squirrel-ed out, and therefore refuse to do it until tomorrow. I also refuse to try to do any more homework tonight.

So what am I going to do?

Go lay down in my bed (I have a bed frame now!), read harry potter, and then turn in early. I work at 6 am tomorrow. Woo... hoo...

It was a success

Thanksgiving was a hit. My mom, step dad, sister and brother in law came up to my apartment where we had thanksgiving dinner for the first time. I made the bird and the salad, both of which were great! The rest was made my my mom and sister and quite yummy. Then we spent the night at a hotel, swimming and playing Uno.

Today we visited and went out to lunch before they headed home and I had to go to work. There were no work orders to do at work today, so except a few phone calls I spent my evening learning the scientific names and their respective looks and skulls for my test on Wednesday. That means from here on out I need to learn 10 more a day to know them all for my test next week. I also wrote the rest of my methods section on my Gorilla Project paper and started the data analysis and discussion sections.

Tomorrow I work, then I am doing my study skin of a squirrel, studying for my test and writting more of my paper. I'm actually on top of things for once... it feels nice.

That'd be cool...

I got off of work early tonight so that I could do a ton of homework, but before I started working on it I decided to check all of my e-mails really quickly. At first there was nothing interested, but I decided to open an e-mail from my professor with a subject line "Education Internship." Upon opening the attached file I found an information sheet for a bird of prey education internship at The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota. As I read through it I had this feeling of, "wow.. that would be great" so I went to the website, where I found another internship available there entitled raptor care and management internship. After reading through that one, I was really excited.

I've been slowly looking at possible internships or ideas for the summer, and as of yet I haven't found anything really interesting. Tonight I wasn't even looking for anything, and I found something that I think I would really love.

Now I realize that I haven't even applied for the internship yet and even if I do, it doesn't mean that I would actually get the internship - but as I already have 4 months experience at a bird of prey park (in Germany) and am really considering going back there for another few months (if they'll take me back), wouldn't it be awesome if I got the chance to get this internship during the summer as well?

I've been considering taking my career in the direction of education and showing animals - maybe even raptors (though I never originally thought that's what I would want to do). Wouldn't it be awesome if God had that in store for me?

Like I said.. I know it's a long shot and there's a very good chance I won't get the internship, but I think I'm going to try my best to get it.

I was just so excited over the mere possibility that I had to tell someone about it.

My Normal Life

Woke up this morning, and headed to the zoo - running behind agian...

on the way to the zoo I take a side road instead of the main one through town and see a dead squirrel** in an intersection. I stop, go back and snatch him up - of course I checked him to make sure he was in good shape first. Pulled his hair, none came out. I decide he looks good and stick him in a plastic bag I had been keeping in my car for just this purpose.

A minute later I'm talking on the phone with my step-dad, letting him know he doesn' t have to shoot me a squirrel anymore.

By ten I'm scrubbing away black gunk in a spider monkey's enclosure, being serenaded by the sound of gibbons and lemurs, while the two spider monkeys play in the enclosure next to me.

At noon it's off to subway to pick up lunch for Aram, the other keeper at the zoo I worked with today, and meanwhile I talk to my fiance in Germany, for a quick hello before it's back to work.

In the late afternoon I'm up giving a bottle to one of the spider monkeys, and feeding the others before giving hay to the Elands and Zebra...

Then it finally occurs to me as I walk up the stairs to my apartment, carrying my dead squirrel and feeling it's fur in awe - my life is anything but normal.

And do you want to know the funny thing? Other than having a dead squirrel - this was a normal day in my life!


** Just so you all don't think I'm crazy - the dead squirrel is for my mammology class. I have to make a study skin; which means I get to skin it and stuff the skin.

Under the Weather

hello, all. I apologize that it's been so long since I've posted anything. My life has been a dizzying whirlwhind of tests, homework, work and interning and I'm suprised I'm still alive through it all. The next couple of weeks are just as busy, so my posting in the next few weeks will probably be minimal.

Right now I'm a little under the weather, something I can't afford to be. I slept 10 hours last night though, so hopefully that will help.

That's about all.. I just wanted to let you all know that I do still exist.

My Big News

For those of you who I haven't told yet, I have BIG news!

I will be graduating college on May 11, 2007 with a Bachelor's Degree in Zoology and International Studies, along with a minor in German!

Don't ask me what's next on my agenda after graduation...I'm looking into some different ideas, and when I know I'll let you know!

My Own Stupidity

I hate it when my own stupidity costs me money...

Both cars that I have owned have had problems with their blinkers, and until now neither of my cars had blinkers which really worked. After spending a lot of money to get them fixed back in the end of September, my left blinker recently stopped blinking. I thought, gee - I just spent a lot of money on that, why isn't it working again? And I made an appointment to get it checked out.

So there I sat this morning at the auto shop, waiting on how much my car is going to cost me, when the guy comes out and tells me that my tail lights had been out. That's why the left blinker wasn't working...it was a sign that my lights needed to be changed.

I paid them $15 to replace my lights. I could have done that myself. But did it occur to me that maybe the lights just need to be replaced? Of course not...

I hate when my own stupidity costs me money.

Update: Ever feel like its just too much?

As an update for my last post, I want to say that I still feel like overall I have too much going on - or at least, that I have more going on than I would ideally like. However, I did want to add that I still love the zoo...

Ever feel like it's just too much?

That's what I feel like right now - that everything going in my life is just too much. Right now I currently work 30 hours a week, have class full time, and go to the zoo 2 weekends a month and one 1/2 day during the week. Until this last week I wasn't doing the zoo during the week, because I felt like it would just be overloading myself.

And guess what?

I think I may be right. Right now I've already gotten off from work a few hours early both last week and this week, but now with the thought of going down there I already feel exhausted. I'm not sure if it's really too much or if I just need to get more used to it. I would go back to not going during the week, but then I'll lose my internship (they already threatened me if I didn't go during the week, which is why I am now going during the week). I totally understand their point of view - they need us to be there weekly, to keep up on what's happening at the zoo and everything. And I want to be there that much.. in face, I'd love to be there more. But with everything I have going on, I just feel overwhelmed.

I'll get through it though. I have to. I'll just take one thing at a time. And right now, that one thing is going and getting gas and then going to the zoo. I hope I don't have to clean primates again.

No...really?

Heard from a commercial for Linestra, a sleep aid:

"Side effects may include drowsiness."

No... really? You mean, this pill - which is supposed to help me sleep - might make me sleepy? Geez, am I happy you told me that, cause I never would have guessed.

The gorillas are taking over.......

Okay, so it's more like the data about the gorillas is taking over. Yes, that's right... lucky me is doing data analysis for her Gorilla project! It's sooooooooo exciting. For those of you who don't really know what I mean, let me give you a background. Back in June/July of 2006 I studied the effect of visitors on captive gorillas in Zoo Saarbruecken, in Germany. This involved me sitting outside the gorilla enclosure for 24 hours over four weeks, writing down how many people were present, where the gorillas were in the enclosure, along with a bunch of other information.

And now I get to go through that data and find out if I have any results at all. I'm crunching numbers. Which means I'm going through not 100, not 200..but over 900 observations, in an effort to get the proof to back up my hypothesis. Or to disprove it.

I've spent many many hours doing this data analysis, only to be getting no where. At least I feel like I'm getting no where. In reality I'm getting somewhere, but it's awfully slow work. And I don't know how to speed it up... and I'm going crazy doing this.

Once I get the data analysis done, it won't be so bad. Then all I have to do is write up the paper, more or less. And I'm good at writing papers. But this number crunching stuff?

It's driving me craaaaazzzzzyyyy..........