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!