Just finished up my second week's worth of work. We're actually starting to do stuff now! We've learned all about how to work all of the areas so next week we are starting the actual labor part, and I'll be in primates! I'm not really that excited about it, but it is an easy area and I get to see a lot of Chance, our binturong (look it up!), and the lemurs. We had our first slides quiz in Diversity this week, it was easy, but this next one is going to be pretty hard, I must study for it much more... I'm off until Tuesday now, which is nice to get some time to spend relaxing at home and doing something with the hubby.
On a slight side note, look out for my professors appearing on the Animal Planet! Both Gary Wilson and Dr. Stringfield will be appearing on a new show they are promoting now called something like weird animal videos or something. Not sure when it starts, but they're on it!
Aug 30, 2008
Aug 22, 2008
First Week Run-down
So, nothing particularly spectacular happened this week, so I'll just give you a quick run-down of my classes and maybe explain to you some terms I'll likely use a lot (I'll put those in bold so it'll feel like pulling out vocab words from your favorite text book!). Feel free to ask some clarifying questions in comments! Also, I'm dropping a loving happy birthday to my hubby!
Wildlife Education: This class will basically prepare us for doing shows at the zoo. We will learn facts about the animals used in shows, learn how to handle some of the animals, and then actually start doing some show appearances. There's also a lab associated with this class which is basically a repeat of any basic college speech class, but with an animal twist.
Zoo Skills: This class transforms into a phrase: "day watch". Everyone signs up for two hours a week to rotate through various maintenance tasks in the zoo. This includes answering the phones, doing rounds (checking on all the animals), entering data from the daily sheets (sheets of paper kept in each area of the zoo to record temperatures and anything strange or abnormal going on with an animal), taking out the recycling, and a multitude of other things that vary based on the day and time that you have it.
Animal Diversity: This class is somewhat of a repeat of any zoology designated class I had in college. I attempted to skip it, but since I've heard nothing about that, I think it didn't work. We'll go through all of the groups of animals and their various characteristics. In the lab section of this course, we are memorizing approximately 300 species names of animals (about 20 a week) as well as a few other taxon groupings for those specific animals. We also watch videos. Not sure how interesting or boring those are since the one we were supposed to watch this week didn't happen due to too much pointless question asking.
Wildlife Conservation: This class seems pretty awesome. We are basically just going to cover the concepts of conservation while also discussing new techniques and hot topics. There will also be lots of cool guest speakers from the world of conservation.
Animal Care and Handling: Here we are learning how to do all the work around the zoo. Cleaning, feeding, and even a bit of handling are all covered. The lab section of this course is code named "area". This is the class that causes me to be at the zoo at 6:30am three days a week, and coming in on weekends. Right now, we're just walking around hearing about what we'll do, but soon, we will actually start working. This lab also happens in the afternoon. This is the time that animals are checked in on first thing when we get there and last thing when we leave, and so much more.
Animal Health and Safety: This class is taught by our on site vet. She's super awesome! She is basically in charge of the logistics of the California condor conservation project! In here we're going to learn about how to keep ourselves safe when working in this zoo environment, as well as how to keep the animals safe and healthy. We'll learn a lot about general exotic animal husbandry, and also cover a large section at the end over zoonotic diseases (diseases communicable between animals and people).
Avian and Reptile Care: This class is covering very basic husbandry and vet skills for birds and reptiles/amphibians. It will have lots of guest speakers from the LA zoo.
That's what my weeks are looking like pretty much! I also have to squeeze in twelve hours of volunteer time over the course of the semester, but that won't be hard. Hopefully that wasn't too much info to absorb, but feel free to ask me questions!
Wildlife Education: This class will basically prepare us for doing shows at the zoo. We will learn facts about the animals used in shows, learn how to handle some of the animals, and then actually start doing some show appearances. There's also a lab associated with this class which is basically a repeat of any basic college speech class, but with an animal twist.
Zoo Skills: This class transforms into a phrase: "day watch". Everyone signs up for two hours a week to rotate through various maintenance tasks in the zoo. This includes answering the phones, doing rounds (checking on all the animals), entering data from the daily sheets (sheets of paper kept in each area of the zoo to record temperatures and anything strange or abnormal going on with an animal), taking out the recycling, and a multitude of other things that vary based on the day and time that you have it.
Animal Diversity: This class is somewhat of a repeat of any zoology designated class I had in college. I attempted to skip it, but since I've heard nothing about that, I think it didn't work. We'll go through all of the groups of animals and their various characteristics. In the lab section of this course, we are memorizing approximately 300 species names of animals (about 20 a week) as well as a few other taxon groupings for those specific animals. We also watch videos. Not sure how interesting or boring those are since the one we were supposed to watch this week didn't happen due to too much pointless question asking.
Wildlife Conservation: This class seems pretty awesome. We are basically just going to cover the concepts of conservation while also discussing new techniques and hot topics. There will also be lots of cool guest speakers from the world of conservation.
Animal Care and Handling: Here we are learning how to do all the work around the zoo. Cleaning, feeding, and even a bit of handling are all covered. The lab section of this course is code named "area". This is the class that causes me to be at the zoo at 6:30am three days a week, and coming in on weekends. Right now, we're just walking around hearing about what we'll do, but soon, we will actually start working. This lab also happens in the afternoon. This is the time that animals are checked in on first thing when we get there and last thing when we leave, and so much more.
Animal Health and Safety: This class is taught by our on site vet. She's super awesome! She is basically in charge of the logistics of the California condor conservation project! In here we're going to learn about how to keep ourselves safe when working in this zoo environment, as well as how to keep the animals safe and healthy. We'll learn a lot about general exotic animal husbandry, and also cover a large section at the end over zoonotic diseases (diseases communicable between animals and people).
Avian and Reptile Care: This class is covering very basic husbandry and vet skills for birds and reptiles/amphibians. It will have lots of guest speakers from the LA zoo.
That's what my weeks are looking like pretty much! I also have to squeeze in twelve hours of volunteer time over the course of the semester, but that won't be hard. Hopefully that wasn't too much info to absorb, but feel free to ask me questions!
Aug 15, 2008
End of Orientation
Let's quickly recap my last few days:
Wed.: It was a pretty boring day as we were just talked at about how to be successful in the program and not let ourselves get kicked out or burn out. The big highlight was they discussed and demonstrated their technique for euthanizing pigeons (which I'll have to do eventually). Eight people got to go ahead and do it, but I wasn't ready and there were plenty of volunteers. Tearing the head off of a pigeon sounds barbaric, and it is somewhat, but it's also pretty painless for the bird. In a few weeks I'm sure I'll have done it and hopefully I'll be over it too since all of that bird is going to good use, not just being thrown away.
Thur.: A lot more being talked at. We signed up for our "day watch" shifts, which is really our zoo skills class. It's pretty weird how it feels like we should be getting paid as employees or something, yet in reality we are paying them to let us do all of this and it's all a big class... Anyways, we also got our nifty new uniforms that we'll be wearing nothing but for the next two years! Then we did a pretty fun scavenger hunt around the zoo to see how much we remembered from our tours, and my team won!
Fri.: Today was work day. Yes, it's just a fun as it sounds. We broke up into teams and worked on various tasks that needed to be completed around the zoo. I mostly hung out with Wendell the goat. He was pretty cool and seemed to want to take an active role in the filling in of uneven areas in his pen. It was extremely difficult to follow the rules of not interacting with the animals when I was in there with him and he seemed to be really wanting me to talk back and hang out with him. I also did some weeding, which is always a blast... At the end of it all, all the first years were told to gather for a picture, and it turned into a roof-top ambush of water by the second years. I didn't get too wet, however, my roommate was drenched and her phone has suffered for it.
That was orientation week, it was busy but cool. Next week, we get elbow deep in it all...
Wed.: It was a pretty boring day as we were just talked at about how to be successful in the program and not let ourselves get kicked out or burn out. The big highlight was they discussed and demonstrated their technique for euthanizing pigeons (which I'll have to do eventually). Eight people got to go ahead and do it, but I wasn't ready and there were plenty of volunteers. Tearing the head off of a pigeon sounds barbaric, and it is somewhat, but it's also pretty painless for the bird. In a few weeks I'm sure I'll have done it and hopefully I'll be over it too since all of that bird is going to good use, not just being thrown away.
Thur.: A lot more being talked at. We signed up for our "day watch" shifts, which is really our zoo skills class. It's pretty weird how it feels like we should be getting paid as employees or something, yet in reality we are paying them to let us do all of this and it's all a big class... Anyways, we also got our nifty new uniforms that we'll be wearing nothing but for the next two years! Then we did a pretty fun scavenger hunt around the zoo to see how much we remembered from our tours, and my team won!
Fri.: Today was work day. Yes, it's just a fun as it sounds. We broke up into teams and worked on various tasks that needed to be completed around the zoo. I mostly hung out with Wendell the goat. He was pretty cool and seemed to want to take an active role in the filling in of uneven areas in his pen. It was extremely difficult to follow the rules of not interacting with the animals when I was in there with him and he seemed to be really wanting me to talk back and hang out with him. I also did some weeding, which is always a blast... At the end of it all, all the first years were told to gather for a picture, and it turned into a roof-top ambush of water by the second years. I didn't get too wet, however, my roommate was drenched and her phone has suffered for it.
That was orientation week, it was busy but cool. Next week, we get elbow deep in it all...
Aug 12, 2008
It Begins...
Orientation week started yesterday and it was pretty overwhelming. We pretty much got shown everything imaginable at the zoo and how it works all in the time frame of about 2 hours. Naturally, we remember nothing important. It'll all get picked up as we go along, and we're not worried about it either since we don't have any super important duties given to us right away. Most of yesterday was spent really sizing up our classmates. I've discerned two distinct groups: the younger, lack-of-a-real-college-experience, wants to party hardy crowd and then the more mature (either in age or just personality) laid back group. Roomie and I are definitely falling into the latter crowd as we are both over the "party till you drop" atmosphere. I only hope that between their squeaks and squawks they are a reliable group when it comes down to safety and awareness.
We also learned about the most excellent butterfly conservation project going on in the zoo. It is a totally outside project, but it was cool to learn that something that hugely important and successful is going on right there and that, if I wanted to, I could be a part of. (I don't want to, but I could.)
Today was the health day. We all traipsed through the health center to be checked out, tested, and vaccinated so they're sure we're all ready to go into this crazy zoo world. Other people were meeting up with their buddies to watch them do some area work, but my buddy and I got that out of the way yesterday, so I'll be chillin' at home for now. Tonight, we go ice skating!
We also learned about the most excellent butterfly conservation project going on in the zoo. It is a totally outside project, but it was cool to learn that something that hugely important and successful is going on right there and that, if I wanted to, I could be a part of. (I don't want to, but I could.)
Today was the health day. We all traipsed through the health center to be checked out, tested, and vaccinated so they're sure we're all ready to go into this crazy zoo world. Other people were meeting up with their buddies to watch them do some area work, but my buddy and I got that out of the way yesterday, so I'll be chillin' at home for now. Tonight, we go ice skating!
Aug 10, 2008
Roomies!
I got my roommate in on Thursday, and she is awesome! She may not be a cook, but I can tell we're going to work out just fine. Jon ran away this weekend so we've been hanging out and getting to know each other. I introduced her to the excellent In and Out Burger last night and then we went to a party full of other EATM students. We went mostly to see what kind of people we'd be spending the next two years of our lives with, and we were not too dissapointed. Obviously, when you have a group as large as 52+ people, not everyone is going to be best friends, or even kind of friends. They were all in last-ditch party mode last night, too, so that might have had an influence on a few personalities. All in all, we're super psyched to start orientation tomorrow and get this show a rollin'!
Aug 5, 2008
Ready for Back to School!
My adventure is about to begin. A few months ago, my husband and myself moved out here in hopes that I would be starting school soon. He had gotten a good engineering job to support my educational endeavor and I attempted to find a good temporary job, but without a car, it just didn't work out like we'd hoped, so I've been playing housewife. It's not the most fun in the world (I'm imagining that it's better when there's kids to look after, but we won't be getting those for a while) but I'm not complaining since he works and commutes so far everyday. We did find out that I was accepted to school and that was a relief to know that it would only be two years we needed to spend out here.
Let me explain this nerve-racking acceptance process for the program. All applications must be submitted by November. After that, everyone that meets the base requirements laid out by the program on the website (and on the application if you're really thick) is invited to the information meetings in March where they try their best to scare as many people as possible out of the running. I already knew this was going to be a tough, time-consuming program; I've more than prepared myself for that. After those meetings, 52 names are randomly drawn out of a hat and we are notified that we made it in! At that point, you can still drop out if the money situation doesn't work out for you and the alternates they've drawn get their chances at getting in too. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait for that, I made it on the first draw, on my first try at applying. (I've heard of people that have tried up to four times to get in!) I'm a big believer in fate and destiny type stuff, so this was a clear sign it was meant to be.
Now it's August, I've just had a birthday and I'm ready to go! My husband and I decided it'd be good for us to put that second bedroom to good use and got a roommate (another EATM student). She's moving in this Thursday! I'm pretty excited; it's going to be weird as we haven't really talked much, and we've never even seen pictures of each other... I'll obviously post again to update on how she'll work out once she gets here.
Next Monday, orientation begins! Then class the next week. I am so excited to get this ball-a-rollin'!
Let me explain this nerve-racking acceptance process for the program. All applications must be submitted by November. After that, everyone that meets the base requirements laid out by the program on the website (and on the application if you're really thick) is invited to the information meetings in March where they try their best to scare as many people as possible out of the running. I already knew this was going to be a tough, time-consuming program; I've more than prepared myself for that. After those meetings, 52 names are randomly drawn out of a hat and we are notified that we made it in! At that point, you can still drop out if the money situation doesn't work out for you and the alternates they've drawn get their chances at getting in too. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait for that, I made it on the first draw, on my first try at applying. (I've heard of people that have tried up to four times to get in!) I'm a big believer in fate and destiny type stuff, so this was a clear sign it was meant to be.
Now it's August, I've just had a birthday and I'm ready to go! My husband and I decided it'd be good for us to put that second bedroom to good use and got a roommate (another EATM student). She's moving in this Thursday! I'm pretty excited; it's going to be weird as we haven't really talked much, and we've never even seen pictures of each other... I'll obviously post again to update on how she'll work out once she gets here.
Next Monday, orientation begins! Then class the next week. I am so excited to get this ball-a-rollin'!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
