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.