There's only 9 days left until I go home! That means I have to start packing...yay. I'm definitely getting excited to go home. I just want to see my family and my friends and most of all my cat. I've been craving cuddles from that fuzzy.
I have so many things to look forward to coming up! I get to shadow HOT on Tuesday, which is the same day that the new interns arrive! Tara is using the scavenger hunt that Celina and I made for the new interns to get to know their way around the park. She's also using the "Dolphin Directory" I created! Then on Thursday I have my LAST FISH PREP YEAHHH. After lecture I get to take my picture with Hi'iaka, my 2nd favorite dolphin in the whole park. That means I get to get IN the Cove pool! On Friday I'm going to see if Shelly will take me to work early so that we can swim in the Cove pool. I've been told that if you have a trainer with you, you can do that. Then there's my last weekend, two more days at work, and then on Wednesday morning I'll be leaving the islands.
There's more fun stuff when I get home, too! I have Thursday to relax and finish packing my clothes, and then Friday I'll get to move into my lovely brand new apartment. With...my own room and bathroom!! That also means I'll get to see my roommate Hannah that day, and whoever else is in Fort Collins already. Then my other roommate Ana moves in that Saturday or Sunday (on her birthday, probably!). Then I have to go to classes for a week, bleh. But after that I get to take a mini-vacation to the Netherlands for a week to visit my family for my grandparents' 50th anniversary. I'm really excited to see my cousin Sven, and to eat dutch food and my grandpa's soup. And my mom said that we can go to the Dolphinarium! She keeps telling me it's not that great compared to Sea Life Park and Sea World, but I don't care because they have dolphins, and by then I'll need to get my dolphin fix again.
After that I go back to school and it'll be a while before anything super fun and exciting happens again, but hopefully time will go by fast, and it'll be December (my favorite month) before I know it!
I also just want to reflect a little on Hawaii and Sea Life Park in general. I feel like I've learned so much in my time here, not only about the animals at the park, but about teaching and how the whole park runs, and even a bit about showmanship and things like that.
I also noticed that one of the things I love most about Hawaii is how nice everyone is. And it's not just because it's a touristy place and you have to be nice. All the employees smile or say hi to the interns, even if we don't know each other. There's a girl who work in the food department that always asks us how our day is going, and she gives us a little extra food, even though we already get it for free. Even complete strangers are really nice. Yesterday I was at a bus stop with a tiny bench, and there was a guy, his daughter, and another guy there. They scooted over on the bench so I could have a place to sit and we had a friendly conversation until the bus came.
I love Sea Life Park too. I love the location, how you can see the ocean while you're in the park, how it's kind of secluded and not in the middle of a city, and the drive home from work was beautiful. The only other marine park I'd been to was Sea World, and SLP is so much different! I feel like Sea World is like the big guys, who have everything down pat and things run smoothly and exactly according to schedule every day. But since Sea Life Park is a lot smaller, it takes everyone that works there to come together and make sure that the park runs smoothly. Jeff, the curator, is probably the hardest working guy I've ever met. He's been working with marine mammals his whole life and he has so much knowledge. I would never want his job though, there are so many things to take care of. He has to calculate how much fish to buy and when and pay for it, and where to store it. He has to watch over every animal in the park to make sure they are healthy and happy, and he has to make really important decisions all the time. It was really cool to see everything that goes into making a marine park work, and how much time, effort, and money goes into the animals' well being. From the dolphins to even the tiny fish in the reef tank.
Another thing I like about SLP being a smaller park is that everyone knows each other. All of the staff members are friends, and not just with staff in their own areas. Sometimes I'll get up in the morning and some trainers from Aloha will be asleep on the couch, or they'll come over for dinner, and Cori always has people from reef visit too. It's just like a happy little family even though everyone has different tasks and interests.
As far as shows go, SLP is less about entertainment and putting on a super spectacular show with fireworks and lights, and more about education. They have a segment in each show to teach about marine debris, and they throw in some animal facts and manage to make it interesting and entertaining at the same time! But the shows aren't completely structured either, with behaviors and what to do at what time. They kind of just improvise and pick whichever behavior comes to mind for the dolphins to do, which is interesting because then the show is slightly different every time you see it. I think that a smaller park like this lets their employees do more advanced and responsible things sooner than a big park might.
I love Sea Life Park and I'm so grateful for the time I've spent here, but I don't think I could work here, just because it's so far away. I've only been here for three months, and I'm more than ready to go home. I can't imagine having to be here a whole year or more without seeing my friends and family. I just want to pick up the park and move it to somewhere like California!
Even so, I'm sure there are parks similar to SLP that are closer to home, I just have to find them! I can't wait to start applying for internships again and experience a different place and learn how they run their park and take care of their animals.
