Time is flying by...

Hi friends!

It has been quite some time since I've wrote in my blog or even done a video blog, and I apologize for that. I've been pretty busy and my boyfriend was also visiting me for a week as well. So here is a little update on what I've been up to! :)

Nash arrived on Wednesday the 27th in the late afternoon. I picked him up from the airport and we had dinner and made our way back to Key Largo. It was late by the time we got home so we went grocery shopping and then just relaxed the rest of our evening. The following morning we headed down south to Marathon, which is about an hour away, to go to the Turtle Hospital. It was very eye opening and informative. We learned so much and got to see all sorts of ways the hospital is working towards rehabilitating the turtles. The majority of the turtles were hit by boats, it was so sad :( They even have some turtles that are deemed unreleasable and are therefore permanent residents at the facility. It was really neat to see how much their hospital (working with marine reptiles) is so similar to the pet hospital I work at at home. They use similar blood machines, drugs, and surgery set up/equipment. I thought that was very interesting!

awww :)

I had to work the next two days but I came home for lunch everyday to spend more time with Nash. I came home every day to a cooked meal already waiting for me, it was wonderful! :) (thanks baby)!!! We spent most of our evenings just spending quality time together. We went out to dinner a couple of nights and other nights bought red box movies. My next day off with him was Sunday and we chose to go jet skiing on the ocean. We rented a jet ski had a great time speeding on the waves, it was a blast!!!

Taking turns driving ;)

On Monday I had to work again but Nash came in after lunch and watched me give a briefing to the public swimmers and then stayed to watch that swim session. I think he really enjoyed himself as he had this huge grin on his face the entire time he was watching the dolphins. But hey, that's just what they do to you :D I worked again on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I had to take him back to the airport :( The week went by really fast but we had a good time!

After driving back home from dropping Nash off it was basically evening and all my friends down here were getting ready to watch the fireworks. Holly and I met up with Stacy and we watched the fireworks from her work, Cabana Breezes, out on a pier. It was a lot of fun. After the fireworks were over we had dinner there and just hung out the rest of the time. It was sad to be away from my family for the second year in a row on this holiday, but I was glad to have my girls to spend time with still! :)

Happy Fourth :)

At work the interns have really been focusing on observing the trainers during sessions so we can move on to becoming a B-point. Basically the trainers can send us a dolphin and we hold them there for a little bit until they are ready to have them sent back. During this holding point we can ask them for behaviors. I have been trying to make sure I know all of the SD's (the hand signals to the dolphins) so I can move on to this step. I have already been able to hold two dolphins on a target (which means they rest their mouth on my hands) and then I asked for them to put their heads up and sent them to their trainer. It was a small taste of being a B-point and I'm ready for more haha! Things should be getting more and more exciting at work, so I will let all of you know as I go! :)

On Friday Holly and I went and saw Magic Mike. It was a really good movie and so funny! Last night the girls and I went to a going away party for one of the trainers. She is moving to Clearwater, FL and will be training at Clearwater, where the famous dolphin Winter resides! I'm so excited for her and I am hoping to plan a visit to the facility sometime while I'm here!

Stacy and I at Julie's going away party

Today was my day off and I went to the gym, the pool, and then came back home and have been relaxing since. I did get some laundry done, where I spotted this crazy looking caterpillar with spiky hair all over it. I made sure I just took a quick picture of it and then left because I've heard most caterpillars with hair are poisonous (YIKES!). I have been trying to look it up to see what kind of caterpillar it is, but have yet to find anything. I also had a lovely conversation with my Aunt Renee and I found out she booked her flight to see me, yay! She is coming on August 1st to August 6th and I am already planning fun stuff to do. We are going to have so much fun and I am so thankful and excited for her to come! :)

Well, that pretty much sums up everything since I've wrote last. I'll try to keep you all posted more often from here. I hope everyone has a great rest of their day!!

Happy Birthday Sissy!

Woo hoo, it's my sister's 26th birthday and I just wanted to give a special shout out to her! You're the best sister in the world and you deserve to have a great day so party it up and have a lot of fun! :)

I decided to do another video blog, so I'll just copy the youtube link onto here! Everything I have to say is in the video, but I also recently posted some great pictures to my facebook so go check them out! Have a great night everyone! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vj3PCxB_HI&feature=youtu.be

Creating a lifestyle down here in the Keys!

I think it has been about a week since I've blogged, sorry about that! Lately I've just been enjoying my days at work and spending time with my new friends down here.

Last Friday we went to a dance recital that was based off of Peter Pan. There were dancers of all ages, ranging from 3 years old to seniors in high school. It was entertaining and fun to do something different.

Saturday was probably my favorite day at work I've had so far. There are three main types of swimming programs offered at Dolphin Cove. The structured swim is a more "high energy" program, it involves behaviors such as foot pushes, dorsal toes, and superman through the water. The shallow water encounter is a program that takes place on a platform. It's great for younger kids who want to interact with dolphins. They get to do behaviors like rubs, kisses, handshakes, but also get a close up of the dolphins to see their anatomy. The last main swimming program is called a natural swim. It is actually unique to Dolphin Cove and their sister facility, Dolphins Plus. It's a program where swimmers get to snorkel wearing a mask and fins with the dolphins in their own environment. The trainers are not asking them to do any behaviors nor are they feeding them any fish. You have the chance to swim along side with them and sometimes if they invite you, you can dive down with them and swim side by side underwater. So far I have participated in a structured and a shallow water program, but, on Saturday I got to participate in all three! It was my first time doing the natural swim as well. I felt like I was in the water more than I was working. After the natural swim the trainers and I got to hang out on one of the platforms for a good half hour just playing, holding, kissing, and rubbing the dolphins as they came to investigate what we were doing. It was very enriching for them, first we all get in the water to swim...and then we stay and hangout to play some more? They loved it, but probably not as much as I did! :)

For my day off on Sunday I went to the Wild Bird Center here in the Keys. We actually donate any fish we don't use for our dolphins to their facility. The guy that works there recognized me from when he comes to pick up the fish and he gave me a behind the scenes tour of the facility. He saw me trying to take pictures through the gates of each of the birds and decided to let me go in each of the cages to get some better shots. It was awesome. I even got to feed some of the pelicans they have there. However, I couldn't leave with out a little bit of an incident. He let me hold one of the cockatoos so I could get a picture with it. The bird decided not to stay on my arm and climbed his way up my shoulder. After the picture, the guy tried to take the bird off of me and he wouldn't move. His talons were digging into me so hard he was making me bleed. He was also violently trying to bite the guy anytime his hands came near to grab him. The guy's exact words were: "He must really like you..." (hmm, the feeling was not mutual). He finally grabbed a towel to take him off of me, and as a last effort to stay on me the bird turned around and tried to hold onto my shoulder with his beak, leaving a nice puncture in my skin. Despite all of that, though, I had a great time LOL!

Work is still as awesome as ever. I am getting cleared on more and more things every day. I definitely have the hang of the routine and all of us interns can initiate tasks throughout the day without being asked. I have also been giving a briefing to the public at least once a day. I am completely comfortable with it now, and I have had many people compliment me telling I did a great job! :)

Last night was Holly's 21st birthday. The girls and I went to my favorite restaurant down here called the Big Chill. Coincidently, they have Ladies Night every Tuesday from 6-7 pm, free drinks! I think she had a good time lol. I was driving so I enjoyed watching her while I sipped on my diet coke :) It is a great place to hang out at. They had live music and some of the songs we just had to get up and dance to (cupid's shuffle and the electric slide!!). There is also a magician that does a show there every Tuesday night as well. This guy was AMAZING!! He was even on America's Got Talent. His name was Michael Tricks and was pulling live birds out of thin air, it was very entertaining!!

Today was another day off for me and I just relaxed and got some stuff done. I cleaned my entire place and read a lot too. It was a very relaxing day. I go back to work again tomorrow, so it will probably be an early night for me. I finally have some pictures to attach from recent adventures, yay! :)

Goodnight!

 My new friend...kind of...

 Feeding a pelican :)

 Magician going crazy with some fire!

Love<3

Weekend Recap

Hi everyone! I haven't wrote a blog for a few days now so I'll catch you up on what I have been up to.

Saturday I had my first class, which I though was going to be about research but instead it was about an organization called Seafood Watch. Anyone ever heard of it? If not, you should definitely look into it! This organization gives new updates everyday about the best Seafood choices to make. They base it off of how the seafood is caught, where it is caught, if it is overfished, if it was farmed, and much more. They do all the work for you so YOU can ensure you are making the best seafood choices when you purchase some from a menu or even by some from the store. They have a free app on smart phones which I have recently downloaded, but they also have mini brochures that get updated every 6 months so you can carry it around with you at all times. I highly recommend you all look into this and start making some SMART seafood choices :)

Okay, I'm done with my conservation talk now hehe. Saturday night I said goodbye to my good friend Lizzie who is now off to her next adventure, teaching marine ecology in the British Virgin Islands. It was sad, but we hope to meet again some day and definitely get a few dives in together.

On Sunday my landlord invited me to go boating with his family and close friends. They live in Miami, but they have another place down here that they stay at from time to time when it is not rented out. The house is literally right around the corner from my place except it is on the canal. We went to two different sites out in the ocean where everyone parks their boats, anchors, and basically BBQ's and relaxes in the water all day. It was a GREAT time! When we came back they cooked some burgers and we all just ate and swam in the canal channels. They were so nice to me and fed me all day long. I was so thankful that they invited me! They told me they would invite me to go boating in Miami some day soon (they live exactly an hour from here) and they also plan on coming down July 4th to watch the fireworks on the boat out in the water. They invited me to that to, so that is something to look forward too! :)

For Memorial Day I was kind of bummed I wasn't with my family relaxing by the pool, but I still had a good day. I had a great day at work (it's always a great day when you get to see and play with dolphins), and at night Holly, Christina and I got together to have a small cook out for ourselves. We had burgers, chips, and some fruit and hung out at their place all night. It was nice to do something different and we all three had a fun time.

Tuesday I went to work again only I was on fish duty so I had to get there an hour earlier. This time I felt much more comfortable, I actually can recognize which fish is which (there are nine different kinds and many of them look very similar) and the flow of things went much faster and smoother. I got to get in the water with the dolphins again yesterday and more and more I get to assist the trainers with different husbandry tasks which is always cool. I love knowing that they trust me to help them out. I figured it must be hard for them to have to constantly re-teach the interns every time they get new ones and I'm sure some people are better at different tasks than others so they have to be careful with us. However, we try our best and if there is ever anything we don't know how to do it usually just takes a little more practice and they completely understand that! I also had to give my first briefing to the public yesterday. Honestly, it was easier than I thought and I did pretty good. From here on it will only get easier too :)

Today was my day off. I tried to sleep in (although I can't sleep in past 8 now) and then I went to the gym. After the gym I went to Holly and Christina's pool in their little gated community. I was planning on tanning and getting rid of my shorts tan, but it was so hot I could only stay outside for an hour or so. Yes, I still have my shorts tan :(

Then I went and got a pedicure and came home and cleaned my place. I also made some yummy chicken salad (however, it tastes nothing like my mom's no matter how hard I try), so that will be yummy for lunch tomorrow! I have another class tomorrow and this time it really will be about research haha.

Tonight Christina, Holly and I are driving up to Homestead (which is about 40 minutes north) to go to Michael's so we can buy some crafts :) We're also going to have dinner at Olive Garden, since there is nothing like that here in the Keys. It will be fun to get out for the night!

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and is having a good week as well. Bye, friends! :D

Buggy day...

Hey everyone!

Since it poured yesterday all morning and then again later at night, I woke up to a lovely mosquito infested day. I had to get up an hour earlier today because I was scheduled for fish duty in the fish kitchen. Once a week I will have to do this. Myself and another trainer measured out all of the 9 different types of fish that each dolphin gets throughout the day and made all of their buckets. Each dolphin has a different diet depending on their needs. It was actually kind of fun :)

The rest of the day consisted of slapping myself and the other girls at work constantly throughout the day. I have never seen so many mosquitos at once. Usually as long as you put on some bug spray you are fine, but today the spray did not seem to help unfortunately. Now I feel itchy constantly and I always think there is one landing on me (yes, I am seeing things). Not to mention I know I'm going to look like I have major chicken pox in the morning!!

BUT...if I can have a day like I did yesterday everyday then I would sacrifice my body to the mosquitos from time to time ;) Yesterday was amazing!! The sister facility to Dolphin Cove, called Dolphin Plus, has a California Sea Lion named Wono and the trainer needed some more assistance in her training and asked us interns to go over there. She was adorable!! We didn't get to feed or touch her yet, he said we would be able to once we do a few more training sessions with him, but we got to see some of the cool behaviors she knows. Wono very recently had cataract surgery and can see just fine now, but before a lot of her behaviors were taught by voice instead of using hand signal. I thought that was pretty cool because even now that she can see she still knows the behaviors by voice. The trainer said we will get the chance to come back even more throughout the summer so I am very excited for that.

When we got back our trainers needed some help with the training of some of our dolphins so we got to get into the water again :) They were working on separating Samantha (mom) and Isaac (baby) during a training session. Since Isaac has been training and working the interaction programs he has never done one without his mom. We were put into the water to practice this. I was placed with Samantha and Alfonz and the other intern was placed with Isaac and Julie. It was interesting to see if Samantha was going to allow her baby to be trained without her, and she did! The interaction went great. I got to do things like a dorsal toe (holding onto the two dolphins dorsal fins while they glide me through the water), superman (where they push me through the water by my feet while I lay flat on my belly), and back pushes (where they push me through the water by my feet only I am laying on my back). They were all so much fun and I got to do them a bunch of times!! I even got to do other behaviors like rubs, kisses, telling them to speak, dance, spin, and have them jump over a pole. It was so much fun and was a great end to my day!!

Today I got to participate in the enrichment for the dolphins which is always fun. They like to keep the animals always guessing and excited so they will bring out a new toy or something fun for them to do almost every day. Today was "fishsicle day". We made ice cubes with little fish sticking out randomly (like a popsicle with fish in it) and through them into the lagoon for them to play with and then eventually eat. They loved it!! :)

Tomorrow I have my first class. Almost every Saturday the interns at Dolphin Cove and Dolphin Plus will meet up to take a class on research, training, or any other topics that have to do with the field. Tomorrow I will be learning about research, so I will let you all know how that goes.

OH! And everybody wish Emma luck, she will be learning how to use the bathroom on a toilet starting today. I ordered a kit and it just came in. It is designed to teach your cat how to use a toilet just a few steps at a time. It basically puts a litter box on the toilet and you slowly make holes until the hole is big enough that you can take it away. I REALLY don't want to deal with the litter box, so I am trying this out lol. She seems very smart so I think she will get it down.

For tonight I plan on watching movies in bed the rest of the night until I fall asleep. I am exhausted today! Getting up and hour earlier is really hitting me haha. Have a good rest of your night, friends!

Dolphin Love

I had two great days at work on Monday and Tuesday (greater than usual) because I got to interact with the dolphins and receive some dolphin love :)

On Monday the interns and I had to take a quiz and I knew just about everything on it. I'm pretty sure we all did pretty well on it which is good! For the last swim/training session each intern was allowed to interact with the dolphins on the platform with the trainer. I got to play with the big boys, Kimbit and Alfonz. They are both 18 years old and they are the head of the pod in the lagoon. I got to do some back and belly rubs, have a dance and singing party with them, and even get some big boy kisses ;) It ended with them turning around and splashing the water hard at me with their tail flukes, let's just say I went home soaking wet!! LOL

That night Holly, Christina (two of the interns) and I got ready and went up to Sharky's for $5 burger night! We met my friend Lizzie there again and I introduced them to her. Now we are all sad that she is leaving on Sunday! :( She introduced us all to a lot of the people that work there and more of the dive staff. Pretty much everyone in the dive industry hangs out at Sharky's, especially for $5 burgers lol!

Holly, Christina and I at Sharky's

Tuesday I actually got to go into the water and played with some of my new friends! :) It was just Holly and I working and we were asked to get into the water to help one of the trainer's work on Isaac's training. Isaac is the 11 month old calf at Dolphin Cove. He was born June 1st of last summer and is already participating in interactions with his mom, Samantha. However, he still needs a lot of practice because he is still training on a lot of behaviors. Holly and I were asked to do some back rubs, hold the hoop for them to jump through, receive some kisses, and even sing and dance with them in the water (BTW, singing and dancing means they twirl in a circle making noises with their blowhole at the same time). Baby Isaac is soooooo cute, and so tiny in comparison to the rest of the gang there. I'm pretty sure I haven't mentioned this yet but there are 8 atlantic bottlenose dolphins at Dolphin Cove, 5 males and 3 females. As I said before, Kimbit and Alfonz are the big boys (18 and the only sexually mature males in the lagoon). Samantha, Isaac's mom, is 29 years old! She is the oldest of the group, but she is not "old". Dolphins can live anywhere from 35-55 years old, but there is a dolphin at Marineland who just celebrated her 59th birthday! :) Back to the dolphins at cove...Leo is almost 9 years old and was the first dolphin born in the lagoon. Elvis is almost 8 years old and he was the next calf born at Dolphin Cove. Nica is also turning 8 this summer. She has a really long rostrum (mouth/beak) and resembles a "super model" in the water. Julie is the youngest female at only four years old. Lastly, is baby Isaac who is the cutest little monster I have ever seen! :) I'm sure you will here more about all of them as I continue working throughout the summer.

Today was my day off and it was very productive. I got laundry done, went to the gym and did cardio, weights, and an hour of power yoga (which was much harder than I thought!!). I went grocery shopping, bought Emma a collar (which she hates) and a scratching post, cleaned my house, and wrote an outline on the briefing I will be presenting soon. By the time I was done with all of that it was only 3 pm and I had all this extra time to relax and catch up on my favorite tv series, Once Upon a Time. Now I am just relaxing with Miss Emma :)

I did take some pictures of the facility and some of the dolphins as well (FINALLY!). If you haven't seen them on my facebook yet, here are a few good ones. Have a great night, everyone! :D

 Welcome to Dolphin Cove :)

 Well hello there!!

Just checking us out!

First day off!

Well, I have had a great first 5 days working at Dolphin Cove so far, and today was my first day off! Even though it was nice to sleep in, I still wanted to be at work lol! I just love seeing the dolphins everyday and learning more and more about training. This week I got cleared on even more tasks and I'm almost finished with the phase 1 stage (there are three phases I need to be cleared on), which is very exciting. I am now cleared on more sanitary duties, and I have even started being cleared on some of the husbandry tasks that I am allowed to assist the trainers with. The way things work around the facility is getting much easier and I am getting more familiar with the schedule every day now. I am really enjoying myself, and I am still so excited for what more awaits this summer!!

For my day off today I got some cleaning done around my place and finally finished unpacking haha. Then, this afternoon I went diving again!! I went diving with one of my friends, Lizzie, who was actually my intern when I studied abroad last summer in Turks and Caicos. She now is working at a dive shop here called Ocean Divers. All of the staff and interns at Dolphin Cove get to dive at Ocean Divers for free which is awesome, so I'm definitely going to take advantage of that this summer.

Lizzie took me out on my first deep dive today, we went down to 92ft. We first hit the famous dive site here called the Spiegel Grove. It is an artificial wreck that was placed here for recreational diving back in 2002. Fun fact: it was originally placed on its side but a hurricane that hit in 2005 was powerful enough to completely flip it right side up! It is actually only off by a few degrees to being perfectly straight upward, that is AMAZING! The dive site is way below 100ft and the fact that a wave could flip this GIANT ship upwards just astonishes me. Anyway, back to my dive. I saw a small spotted eel, lots of fish, a few barracuda, and an ENORMOUS (probably over 100 lbs.) grouper that was just hanging out on the side of the ship. Lizzie has dove this site many times so she knows her way around, and she even brought me in through the vessel and I was actually inside part of the ship. She brought me in and out of some doorway areas, it was so cool! The only thing is inside of the ship some of the areas were very dark and we didn't have lights on us, so that kind of creeped me out lol!

The next dive we went to was a site called the Wreck of Benwood. This site is actually a natural wreck, however, a hurricane that hit had really thrown various parts of the ship all over the place so there are pieces of it scattered surrounding the main part of the ship. This ship was no where near as big as the ship at the Spiegel Grove, but there was a lot more life there. The coral was stunning as well, there was a lot of different sorts of brain coral. We saw a moray eel swim right in front of us, a large crab, and even a nurse shark! We got about 4 ft. away from the shark and then it swam away from us. There were all kinds of other fish that we saw and I took a ton of pictures of both dive sites so go look at my facebook! :)

The rest of my evening I spent with Lizzie and some of her friends she introduced me to at a famous restaurant here called Sharky's. I had a great time meeting new people and I even became friends with a lot of the staff that works at Ocean Divers! Tomorrow I have a quiz on the facility and some of the frequently asked questions from visitors. So tonight I'm just going to relax in bed and study until I fall asleep, which will probably be very soon lol. Diving makes you exhausted!!!

Okay, this time I REALLY promise I will get some pictures of my work and maybe even some for the dolphins for the next time I blog. However, I do have some good ones from my dives today. Good night my friends!! :)

 Can you see the giant grouper to the right of the pic?

 I took this while inside the ship

 Me :)

 Moray Eel

 Nurse Shark

 Brain Coral