Day 28

Can anyone say heat? So not ready for this "feels like 100 out there" weather. I was sweating already before 10 am just walking to some of the exhibits. The pools for the penguins and otters were being cleaned out when we stopped by them this morning, but the kids still got to see the animals. Then, we trekked to the other side of the zoo to see the gibbons and big cats. The lions were just laying out in the heat. 2 of the 3 were actually inside the building later in the afternoon to get away from the heat.

 

Surprisingly as we turned around to head back, the snow leopard worked his way out of his air conditioned room. I've hardly seen him out as we've walked around the zoo these past few weeks, and now on hottest day yet, he comes out for a bit.

 The animal presenter brought the ball constrictor and a Chilean rose haired tarantula today. The kids didn't get to touch the tarantula. I've held the Chilean rose haired tarantuals many a times while at Morningside College. They were one of our key components in our 2nd grade program through Creature Outreach. I gave that spiel quite a few times, and one day I was at the mall in Sioux City and a little boy stopped me and said "Hey, you're the spider girl." Haha yep that was me :-)

Right as the animal presentation was starting for the day, we got a radio message that Daniela had the porcupine from the education department out by the pavillion if we wanted to bring our campers by. When I had went with the other interns on our tour of the service building at the zoo, where the education animals are kept, I got to pet this porcupine, which was cool. Kinda cute huh?

So, it's hot out, but we don't want to stay cooped up inside all day since it's zoo camp and all... so we make a few stops at Pete, the Pachyderm, for a refreshing spray of water to help us cool off. He has a motion detector and sprays water out of his trunk. The kids enjoy it and it's nice for us counselors, too. haha

This afternoon, we played for a bit on the caterpillar. 

On our afternoon trip to the big cats, I noticed this saying on the bench and thought it was pretty cool.

We did spend some time indoors reading books and playing games. This group of kids in the afternoon is really good at listening to a story being read. Gabe kept asking for another one at the end of the day. This is the alligator toss the kids like to play with, and it's not as sturdy as it was at the beginning of the summer; so, I sat and held it up, so this was sort of my perspective. haha

I also enjoy naturally framing shots like this with things around me or in scenes. Here's a framing shot I took last summer, when I visited cousin Aaron up in Minneapolis.

Thursday is Hero Pop day for afternoon snack, and if you get the Spiderman one like Grace and I did today, you end up wit ha nice blue tongue. Made me think of the giraffe's purple tongue. Anyone know why the giraffe has a purple tongue? Well... since the giraffe spends much of it's day foraging for food up in the trees, it's tongue is exposed to the sun a lot; the purple color prevents it from getting sunburnt.

Watched some Lion King with Averee tonight and talked on the phone with my good friend Cassie from college. Friday tomorrow! I'm sort of ready for this 3 day weekend, and I believe my parents are planning on coming to visit :-)

Day 27

Learned about wings and feathers today. After the lesson we went through the Discovery Center, so we split into smaller groups again, which has worked pretty well for touring this part of the zoo. My group today included Agasi, Jack, Eva, Jackson, and Miller. Here's my group crossing the rope bridge in the rainforest area:

Here's a picture of the waterfall, that is the backdrop of this rope bridge:

My kids were pretty good about stopping and taking time to look at some of the different animals. I remember watching them all just gander at the turtles here for a while.

We have some poison dart frogs down in the water lab. It's crazy how brightly colored they are, but that is there defense mechanism. It warns predators that they are poisonous, so you better not mess with them. I remember seeing a few of these in bromeliads while in the Amazon Rainforest during May Term 2009 in Ecuador.

The last animal we see in the Discovery Center is the scarlet macaws. Miller stopped and said, "Oh my gosh. I love the scarlet macaws! They are so beautiful." So, I told him I wanted to take his picture by the macaws.

Next, was animal presentation time after snack. The blue tongue skink, Marley, was shown first. Then, we actually saw a new animal today (and I mean even new for us counselors). We had not seen one of the tortoises yet from the education department, so I was excited. This is Bert, and he is a 14 year old gopher tortoise. They are known for burrowing in the ground, hence the name gopher. Bert is one of two of these tortoises that the zoo has. Can you guess what the other one's name is? haha

After the animal presentation, we split into two groups having half work on the butterfly clothespin craft project for the day while the others fed the parakeets. Next, was lunch time. I remember telling Gavin on Monday that I loved his lunchbox, and I asked to take a picture of it today. Scooby-Doo! Where are you?!

 Today was the 5th birthday of Reed, one of our campers, so we had a little celebration for him after lunch. I picked up some cupcakes at Hy-Vee this morning, and as you can see they were red, white, and blue. I think the kids had fun.

At one point this afternoon, I was grabbing some supplies from the storage closet in the bottom floor of the Discovery Center, and a few ladies stopped me asking if I worked here. Yes, I do. They then asked if the alligators are dead. I replied that we get asked that all of the time at the zoo. They are actually caimans, and the reason people ask that all the time is because they really don't move much. They really conserve their energy and are what we call opportunistic hunters.; they sit and wait for the food to come by them and snatch it, rather than actively searching and hunting for prey. I have seen them swim around some as I've walked by, but most of the time you'll just find them sitting perfectly still. I enjoy these moments where I get to share some things I've learned about the different animals with people. I'm practicing for the day my zoology professor comes to visit the zoo in case I'm giving him a tour. haha

I had gotten a message from a college friend yesterday saying "Hey jungle girl!" and that she was going to be in Des Moines asking if we could get together and catch up. So, I ended up meeting with Megan and her boyfriend Jeremiah at Dairy Queen. Megan and I will actually be living together in an apartment on campus our senior year along with our friends Cassie and Karena (which I'm looking forward to, by the way). It was fun to catch up for a while in person. I'm really glad she thought of me when she was in town. I'd take an in-person conversation any day over a phone or internet chat when possible.

Day 26

Today went pretty well. Hard to believe it's already over again. Am I ever going to stop saying that this summer? haha Learned about flippers and fins this morning and some basics about aquatic animals. Then, we went and fed the Koi fish, which the kids always enjoy. The swan family was hanging out right next to the dock while we were over there.

As we took a bathroom break before snack, Grace asked me to hold her sunglasses and her bubble ring. So, I had a little fun with them. Not often I'm in a silly picture by myself.

We had animal crackers for snack today. I took a picture, cause that's what I do. I believe it was Reed sitting next to me that asked "Did you just take a picture of snack?" I replied, "Yes, I did. I always take lots of pictures." Then Reed added, "Too bad they don't make a camera just for food." I chuckled, "Yes, that would be cool." :-)

The animal presenter brought the bearded dragon and baby alligator today. I learned that the alligator comes from Gatorland in Florida and is sort of on loan. Since the alligator can grow to be about 15 feet long it doesn't make sense to keep it for educational purposes all those years. We need one you can hold in your hands. When this one gets too big, he will be sent back to Gatorland and then a new one will probably come back. They are very well tamed, and since they are opportunistic hunters they do not really sit there with their mouth open constantly hunting for food. They wait for the food to come by them and then snatch it. I touched the alligator today just for fun because I haven't really gotten the chance yet and I'm not afraid of touching anything since I went to Ecuador. haha

Before lunch, we went on our zoo tour. We stopped by the red pandas, first. They aren't really pandas like the panda bear you think of... these animal are more closely related to the raccoon. They actually aren't really big fans of the heat, so I was surprised to see them both lounging outside. They have access to go in- or outside all day long.

After lunch, we painted bags and worked on activity books for the day. There's always a few of those really good kids who want to work on the sentences about things they saw and learned about during the day that need help spelling.

After our part-day campers checked out, we played some games and did some coloring. I actually worked on some Dr. Seuss fish activity books with Kennedy and Devai. Kennedy kept telling me that she really loved my fish. :-)

We also spent some time at the dinosaur exhibit in the afternoon and went back through Africa, as well. It was really warm and sunny this afternoon, so we tried to not stay out in the direct sun all afternoon by breaking it up with some activities indoors.


We had grilled steaks, fried zucchini, rice, and fresh tomatoes for dinner. Yum yum. Then Averee's mom said to me, "You've been living here a week, and I feel like we know nothing about you." So, I talked a little about myself. She and I shared an interest in the world and cultural experiences. She talked about some trips she went on while she was working on a degree in Environmental Science through Simpson College. She traveled to Mongolia for May Term, did some research in Nepal, and went on a holiday in Borneo. I am jealous of all these experiences. One thing college has done to me is opening my eyes and sparking my interest in cultures and life experiences.

Day 25

Start of Animobility this week. 23 new faces this week. Jackson is a repeat from last week, and there are actually 12 kids that are coming from Child's World, a day care, together. We did a lesson about legs and feet this morning and read some stories before snack. Since it's animobility week, we're trying to do some exercises throughout the week to get our bodies moving like the animals do. Today, we did some basic calisthenics. I remember learning these from Mr. Mimick, my P.E. teacher back at Newman Grove Public Schools. Then, the animal presenter brought the ferret and the leopard gecko for the kids to see.

Then we toured the African Boardwalk and fed the giraffes. Now today, we must have had a giraffe with a shorter neck because I had to hold every single camper up so that the giraffe could reach the lettuce, and when I say every single camper,  I mean every single camper.

As we waited in line to feed the giraffes, we started singing "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" like we have every week before giraffe feeding. Well, since Averee whipped out the French version last week, I brought out the Spanish this week.

Lunch ran a little long today, so we didn't do a craft project and worked on our activity books instead. After the 1:00 checkout we were left with five campers. We started by decorating some binoculars, and then reading some books before snack. After snack, Averee took the kids to Kids' Kingdom, and I got some other stuff ready for the week. 

After playing outside for a while, we came back in and talked a little more about Africa, and then danced a little like the Egyptians do (another way of moving around). We also sang some Kumbaya - animal version. For instance... Kumbaya, my frog. Kumbaya.... Kumbaya, my frog. Kumbaya... Kumbaya, my frog. Kumbaya.... Ohhh frog... Kumbaya. :-)

I also spur of the moment found a video of "Rain down in Africa". I found one with some scenes from the Lion King on You Tube, which worked well because we were able to discuss some of the different animals in Africa.

Here's a link to the video if you're interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoHGFRdfBEY

It was 4:00 before I knew it... I stopped at Hy-Vee to grab more bags to prep for future weeks crafts, while I have some time this week. When I got back to my room at Averee's I decided I wanted to get back in the habit of reading a little every day. So, I started reading a couple chapters from Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam, which had been recommended to me by a couple people. I actually read outside on the deck for about an hour, since it's been a pretty nice day. Then, I ate some hot dog macaroni and cheese with some peas for dinner. Averee and I then watched The Illusionist with her dad. I totally should have seen the ending coming, but I didn't haha Good movie. Averee's dad had asked me what sort of things I like to watch on TV, and he mentioned liking sci-fi, and I agreed that's a good category. So, he said I needed to watch The Illusionist sometime, and we ended up just watching it tonight, which was cool.

Another thing I did today that I haven't done in a while was look at things on stumbleupon.com. I like to write down different quotes in a book for inspiration and thoughts about life. Here's one I added today:

I also stumbled upon this webiste: http://dearphotograph.com/
Read at least a couple if you get a chance. I went through all four pages, and I thought they were really cool photos; plus, the little notes tell really cool stories. Wish I was that inventive some days.

Sioux City Weekend

Saturday morning, I woke up and went to the Life Serve center to donate blood. I reached my gallon point today. Then, I drove around and looked at  the flooding. It was really hard for me to picture it and believe it until I saw it in person. Wow! It was so unbelievable.

I also did a little shopping as I had some free time. I met up with Matt and Kyle at noon to head to Diamond Thai where we were meeting Dr. Heyborne and another friend Amy for lunch. This was my first time having Thai, and it was good. We discussed our summers, gave Dr. Heyborne a photo book we made for him of some Morningside Memories, and just had some fun discussions, one of which was skydiving. Dr. H told us about his experience with it, recommended it, and the guys said we need to do it before we graduate. I'm sure some of you who are reading this are thinking "you're crazy". Maybe I am, but what's life without experiences with some of your best friends and family.

Dr. Heyborne said he was still going to try to come visit me in Des Moines sometime before he moves to Utah. He's been my professor and advisor while at Morningside and great at what he does. I'm glad we were able to do lunch while I was in Sioux City.

So right around a year ago, I had headed to Sioux City for the weekend to spend some time with my friends, and Kyle had invited me to join his family boating near Onawa. Matt also joined us, and we had a blast. Although, this day taught me to always have a swim suit along, cause you never know when you might want one. I went tubing behind the boat, swam in the lake, and everything with them that day and had a blast! Here's a photo we took together on that day last summer.

So, let's just say I almost didn't bring my swimsuit this weekend to Sioux City but figured I'd better. Guess what? They asked me to go swimming with them Saturday afternoon. Good thing I brought my swim suit haha. Another cool thing about that day last summer was that I met Kyle's sister Sarah, who now goes to Morningside, and she has become one of my great friends as well, and it was fun getting to spend some time with her and the guys this weekend.

The four of us spent a good couple hours at Lewis Pool, which is right next to campus. The water was ice cold, but we swam a bit, went off the board, and soaked up some sun. We even started going down the water slide, which ended up being really fun. I think we went down at least 10 times each haha. Definitely felt like really big kids at the pool having too much fun haha. Gotta love my friends.

Then, I hung out with my friend Shalimar, which is where I was staying over the weekend. She and I went to dinner with our friend David, who is from Paraguay. One of his friends happened to be visiting, so we all went to Applebee's together and chatted up a storm.

I hung out with Kyle, Sarah, and Matt again for a while, and then stayed up talked for a while with Shalimar. Gotta love some late night chats.

 
She and I maybe slept an hour before waking up super early to do a favor for our Paraguayan friend. His friend needed to get to a bus by 5 am to go to Wyoming for a week to volunteer at a camp. So our yawning faces took them, and then went back to sleep til about noon. I got up, packed my things, and now I'm sitting back on my bed at Averee's house outside of Des Moines. It felt good to be back in Sioux City for a few days spending time with some of my best friends from college. Looking forward to the next time I see them again and hopefully will be able to catch up with a few more of my great friends, as well. Great weekend!

Day 24

Discussed the importance of water in the world and some ways we can help save water first thing this morning. We went and saw the macaques, gibbons, tiger, snow leapord, and lions this morning and worked on coloring some World Ocean Day crowns. World Ocean Day was back on June 8th this year, but the zoo had these left over crowns we could use. I missed the animal presentation today because I was setting up the sprinkler for the kids to run through since it was Splash! week, and we finally had a sunny day. So, after the animal presentation, that's what we did. The kids had a lot of fun, and even those who didn't want to get wet had fun running around in the grass and playing. Jase was my buddy this morning hanging out with me wherever we went.

After lunch, we fed the parakeets, and then it was time for most of our campers to head home.

Another great week and a great group of kids that I got to know. There were some parents that made a point of telling me that we had done such a great job this week, which was really cool; I thanked them. Cate and Will's mom actually told me that Will had been telling her that I was always really nice to them. Made my day to hear that. Cate and Will were two of our more quiet and scared kids at the beginning of the week. I totally was that kid, and I wanted to make sure that I had a great time. They didn't even need me to sit with them at lunch today to feel more secure; we did it!

A few of our campers weren't there today, so I had only four left this afternoon. We played some games inside before afternoon snack, and then headed out into the zoo. We pretty much walked the whole thing, and it felt like I was just spending an afternoon at the zoo with my own kids.

It was actually a special events day at the zoo, so there were lots of people, so we made the kids hold our hands this afternoon as we traipsed around. It was a good afternoon though. Kinda fun to walk through the zoo in its entirety again. I still can't wait for the Austrlaia exhibit to open up... the finish date was pushed back two weeks. It looks so huge, and then there is also the new sea lion pool that is under construction. Good old construction during the summer.

After work, I headed to Sioux City to spend some time with a few of my friends from college. I went and saw a movie with Kyle and Sarah, and then just hung out for a while with Matt, Kyle, and Sarah -three of my really good friends. I'm spending the night with my other good friend Shalimar. It feels kind of good to be back on campus for a few days. I haven't been here in probably close to seven weeks...

Day 23

Started out by discussing the differences between tortoises and turtles today. I also shared some photos from when I was in Ecuador back in May of 2009. I showed them the Galapagos penguins, giant Galapagos tortoises, and marine iguanas. We went and visited the lemurs quick before snack, but the tortoises weren't out because it was probably too cold out for them yet. Everyone also worked on their craft project for the day - a paper fish.

The animal presenters brought the bearded dragon and baby alligator today. Kelsey, the presenter today, spent a lot of time discussing the animals with the kids. It was the longest presentation we had so far. Next, we went and fed the giraffes.

We also walked along the African Boardwalk to see the rest of the animals in that area. Then, we headed back in and spent some time with our activity books before heading to lunch. Charlie was playing around with his brown paper lunch sack, and he stuck it on my head at one point haha.

After lunch, we wen and checked out the dinosaurs for a while and spent a little time playing in the sand box and maze area outside.

Jase fell back in the maze and walked out with muddy hands. So, I took him to wash them off, and then I realized he had it all over his butt, too. Not much I could do about that haha.

In the afternoon, we started by doing traces of one another. My hair must have been laying funny on the paper, cause I sorta look like Medusa or something. The boys had fun with this, though, and it kept them occupied for a while. Alec told me I did such a nice job :-)

We went back out into the zoo and revisited Africa, the dinosaurs, and the maze. We also stopped by the caterpillar...

and played a bit in Kids' Kingdom. At one point, you couldn't here any of our kids shouting or see them running around, so I was curious and walked around looking for them. I found five kids playing nicely together as a group in the tire swing. Nice moment.

I can tell it's nearing the end of the week because I'm feeling tired, but I'm off to do a little grocery shopping for now. Oh, and I just remembered... At one point this afternoon, I went downstairs to grab something and on my walk back, I ran into Kelsey and Joel from the cross country team at Morningside.