I never thought I'd say this, but I have too much time on my hands.

I washed my five Disney-issued costumes the other day and hung them all in my closet. It was then that I realized that I am a cartoon character. I think I know how Doug feels now.

It's great that my workday is 11 hours long. That gives me a couple hours to spend at home in the evening, but not too much time because I have to sleep. I like to stay busy. But because my workday is so long, I only work 4 days each week. Normal people would rejoice over a 3-day weekend. At the moment, I have nothing to do with my 3-day weekend. No Ashleys to hang out with, no one to go to the park with, nothing to study, no projects to work on, no dead birds to put into their designated trash cans. That's okay. I can make things to do.

I tried really hard to spend as much time sleeping as I could simply because I knew I had nothing to do, but my body started convulsing or something and I realized that too much sleep can be a bad thing.

Saturday, I found a library. It was a pretty crummy library, but what can you expect from the state of Florida? Their DVD collection was larger than their book collection. All the kids there were crying because they didn't want to be at the library, and the adults who were there never learned how to read because they were too busy talking. But I managed to block them out and search for scholarships. I found a few that I might be eligible for, and I found a low-interest loan for female GA residents that looked promising. Then I went home and printed applications and sent letters to those that didn't have websites.

I'm going to have to find something to do with all this extra time. I cleaned my apartment. I did some laundry. I knitted. I watched TV. I went for a jog. I looked up dual degree programs, assistantship opportunities, and curriculum at ISU vs. UGA (ISU is looking better and better, sorry Mum and Dad and Ashleyz). But I'm not in yet.


Tomorrow is Research Day! Yay! Last week we learned how to analyze hay samples on the Near-Infrared (NIR) Spectrophotometer. I was delighted to learn that I wouldn't have to apply my knowledge of organic chemistry to be able to use this machine (Katie, the research specialist, pointed out that I'll never have to use o-chem again. hallelujah!). Each of the four of us is responsible for updating the diets of certain animals in the park; naturally, I'm responsible for all the birds. :D And some other species like Axis deer or something. We're each going to have a big research project, too, but I'm not entirely sure yet how that's going to work. In the meantime, we'll also do hay samples and freeze-drying and stuff.

For the rest of the week, Bethany and I will be learning "Prep 2," or "Food Preparation Station Number 2." This is where a lot of the herbivore diets are made. Apparently this is the most time-consuming station. We'll see how it goes. Then I have another three-day weekend.

Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine

This has nothing to do with my internship, except in the sense that I was granted three days off to go to ISU to interview for admission into their College of Veterinary Medicine. Except that isn't actually why I was given three days off... I had already been scheduled to have those three days off, so I guess things work out really well like that sometimes.

I left early Saturday morning for Des Moines and arrived on time with no plane delays. My first view of Iowa from the plane window was surprising. The plane broke through the thick layer of white clouds to reveal sheets of snow arranged in neat squares between the black roads. To someone who has not yet been disillusioned to the horrors of snow, it was beautiful. I made it through the airport and had some horrible complications with the rental car. My dear parents graciously tried to help me resolve the issues, but in the end I ended up hitching a ride with a girl named Kara who, like me, was also interviewing at ISU. At this point, I'm starting to think it was more than just luck that got me to Ames.

Kara and I snuck in late with this other kid and caught the last half of the welcome presentation. She left to go on a tour and I stayed behind and watched the financial aid presentation. I learned a TON at this. First of all, I need to turn in my FAFSA by March 1st to be eligible for loans. Because I am a professional student, I have to file independently. This is good for two reasons: 1) I officially can't burden my parents with that financial responsibility, and 2) it increases my financial need, which makes me eligible for certain loans (financial need = tuition - expected family contribution; so maybe there is a slight benefit to the high out-of-state tuition). My expected family contribution will probably be zero if I can't get a part-time job in the hospital. There are two great loans with very low interest rates that are need-based, and there are two others that are not need-based. Plus, there's always scholarships! So. Since I have a lot of free time, I'm going to look for free money. :)

After the financial aid presentation, I had my picture taken for the class composite (it felt like elementary school picture day) and had my lab coat sized. Then I waited in another room for my interview. They had an informative magazine thing that told the history of the school. ISU has the oldest vet school in the country. It was founded in 1879. The black and white photos from that time were pretty fascinating. I don't know when the lab coat was invented, but all the vet students in this old pictures were dressed in 1870s garb, watching their prof float the teeth of this anesthetized horse that was lying on a huge wooden table. They have a very rich history, but they're also on the cutting edge of teaching. There are tons of learning resources available to their students, and one of my interviewers said that they continue to provide those resources even after graduation (i.e., one of his former professors agreed to do a difficult surgery on a cow that no one else could perform, but only if he would observe the surgery and thus learn how to do it himself).

I finally got called in for my interview. My interview committee consisted of three veterinarians. Two were practicing large animal vets (a man from Iowa and a woman practicing in Southwest Wisconsin), and the third used to be a professor at the university, but is now an administrator. I had prepared beforehand by finding previously asked questions on the internet... but they asked me a couple that I hadn't seen before and the rest of them were worded kind of differently. I think I managed to answer them all fairly well. The one that I hadn't seen before was whether I had ever seen anyone cheating before, and I told them I hadn't because I choose study partners who are just as dedicated to studying as I am. The dairy vet asked me about Proposition 2, which is a law passed last year in California that restricted certain agricultural practices. It was not supported by the American Veterinary Medicine Association and is widely accepted as the final nail in the coffin for California agriculture. I told them why I didn't support it, but if it turned out to do good things for California agriculture, then maybe we should look into expanding animal welfare programs. And now I'm thinking of other things I could have said... but anyway. That was a knowledge-based question, and the interview was supposed to be more behavioral-based. I don't know whether that really counted, but hopefully I gave them a good impression.

After the interview, I went on a tour of the school and the teaching hospital. ISU has just expanded their large animal treatment facilities and will soon be breaking ground on an expansion of their small animal facilities. The new large animal area is "open," but they're not using it yet. The first-year tour guide told us she hoped that she would be able to use the new small animal facility when she begins her clinical rotations in two years. It's kind of nice that everything is accessible indoors. It wasn't unbearably cold this weekend, but it was twenty below last week. It's nice that they have seasons, I think.

The office staff were kind enough to find me a cab to get me to my hotel. I spent much of the night on the phone with my friend Alyssa, who is currently studying at UGA's vet school, but applied to Michigan State last year as well. We fantastized about living in the midwest and the inconveniences of living in the cold and talked about Obama's inauguration and other random things. I got up early and took the same cab back to the airport. I waited in the airport for several hours because I couldn't get on an earlier flight (which is probably a good thing because it would've cost me $50). When I finally did get on the plane, I had a window seat. It was surprisingly sad to leave, but not because I was going back to the only state I might dislike more than California. I really like Iowa, and Ames is a charming town.

Unfortunately, I developed a sinus infection over the weekend (it started before I left--I can't blame it on the Iowa cold...). The plane ride was kind of agonizing, and I'm almost deaf in my right ear now. But I'm on steroids and antibiotics so hopefully it'll clear up soon!

Knives, Browse, TB, tour

We arrived today at 4:30 AM only to learn that the free coffee room would not be accessible until 4:45. They also have free hot cocoa, of which I am a huge fan. They gave us a free thermos on Monday, too, so we don't have to waste paper cups.

The first thing we did today was the 5:00 AM meeting. Then we went on a tour of the facilities and learned where everything is and how it's organized. We learned how to use and sharpen knives and we got our very own knife kit! I'm super excited about using cutlery every day.

Mike took us on a tour of the browse fields. Disney has the largest browse fields of any zoo in the country, with over 200 acres of browse that they harvest to feed to their animals, and most of it is exotic species that grow quite rapidly. For comparison, the 2nd largest browse field operated by a zoo in the U.S. is 40 acres. I'm beginning to see the benefit of working at a zoo that's as well-financed as Disney's.

After the browse tour was a tour of the recycling and composting facilities. Try to imagine how much garbage a resort as large as Disney creates in a day. Now imagine all that going into a landfill. Everyday. Disney World really is like its own World--it has its own composting and recycling plant. And it's massive. They sell a lot of their compost and recycled material to offset the costs of the facility. But they save some of the compost to give to their cast members (i.e., employees) for free. :D

Katie talked to us for a good while about the research component of our internship. We'll each be in charge of a group of animals as well as a list of several species that need close monitoring. We'll compile and update data on these species every week (if not more frequently). We'll also have our own research project and a presentation to give. Katie and the rest of our leaders are very open to questions and seem impressively organized, so I'm really excited to be working with them.

Shannon took us to have our TB tests read, then we went on a quick tour of Walt Disney World. She told us about secret passageways and showed us where they fired the fireworks over the castle in the Magic Kingdom and let us in on the exciting discounts and benefits we get as Disney cast members.

I guess that doesn't seem like much, but it made for a long day. I'm going to have to get used to going to sleep at 7 PM and getting up at 3 AM.

Smile!

My cat has these funny spurts of energy that she likes to expend by running like mad around my little studio apartment, leaping to the top of the enormous playground that my dad and I built for her, or climbing her 4.5-foot-tall scratching post as if it were a small tree. At the moment, she is perched like a hen (as Mike would say) atop her cat tree on the porch, looking around in short, rapid motions. She really looks a lot more like a bird than a cat at the moment.

It's my day off, and I've been spending it watching my cat and thinking about Iowa. I did some laundry and watched Juno, but mostly I've just been lounging. Probably a good idea because I'll be getting up around 3 AM for the next six months.

Yesterday we went on a tour of the Animal Kingdom park. Our trainers were very enthusiastic, like everyone who works at or visits the happiest place on Earth! We learned about some of the animals, heard the story behind Dinoland, U.S.A. and the Yeti(!), learned how the dragon idea was scrapped from the project back in the day, saw Festival of the Lion King, got greeted by Chip, and listened to Guitar Dan sing a song about our fellow interns Jess and Jess in Camp Minniemickey. They took us to Pride Rock for lunch and to meet our leaders, who were kind enough to pay for our meal.

We (me and the three other nutrition interns: Stephanie, Kim, and Bethany), met our leaders: Gary, Shannon, and Katie. They're all really nice and I'm excited about working with them. They took us to the health center for our TB test in a full-size van, then we went to the costuming and auditions building so that we could pick out our uniforms. We wear this lovely green outfit with cargo pockets all over the shirt and pants or shorts. It took a while for three girls to pick out the clothes that fit right, but we all made it out eventually. After that, we finally got our first glimpse of the Animal Nutrition Center. Our quick tour showed us that the carnivore diets are prepared on a separate table than the herbivore diets, that the fruits and vegetables fed to the animals are of the same high quality as that which they serve at the resort, and that the forage has its own freezer. I'll start my area-specific training tomorrow... if I get home in time to beat the Coconut Palms internet rush, I'll write a quick post about it. 4:30 AM - 3:30 PM! Yes!

Animal Kingdom Internship: Day 2

I think it's about time for an update, even if nothing exciting has really happened yet.

Wait--that's not entirely true. I found out yesterday that Disney will be paying me a relocation fee, which I didn't expect but that I'm extremely grateful for!

Anyway. Today I went to a four-hour orientation class that outlined the history of the company; the sexual harassment policy; the importance of safety, courtesy, efficiency, and show; among other things. I got my name tag and my ID, so that was cool. Yesterday I received my schedule and met some of the people that I'll be working with for the next six months. There are four girls interning in the nutrition center, including me. We'll all have an Animal Kingdom orientation with the other animal interns tomorrow from noon til five, and I'm looking forward to it.

Everyone here is really enthusiastic and happy, which is great. On the other hand, they aren't afraid to threaten us with "termination," as they like to call it, if we show up one minute late to any of these things that we're supposed to attend. It's like Jekyll-and-Hyde terrifying.


I'm looking forward to meeting my leaders, in part because I want to thank them for giving me a few days off to go to my vet school interview at Iowa State. I'm extremely excited about this interview, but also extremely nervous. I was practicing last night, and the longer I practiced, the more relaxed I became (that's good because the interview will be one hour long). It's hard to answer questions like, "Tell us about a time when you overreached and overloaded yourself and what you learned," or "Discuss a change or uncontrollable event that occured that caused you great stress and how you reacted to it." I met a vet student this summer who goes to Iowa State, and I was able to convince him to show me around the small town Ames this weekend. That's right. It's exactly seven days to the hour until I introduce myself to the interview panel. Yikes. I need practice.