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.