HO! HO! HO!

Happy holidays everyone! I hope christmas morning finds all of you rested, happy, and of course surrounded by food. As it should be. Over here the holidays are slightly less than traditional, as this morning was spent feeding macaques, cleaning the otter pool, and photographing the tiger. Last night we had a HUGE christmas eve dinner, which was really really wonderful. Beautiful tree and decorations, delicious assortment of food, and of course a massive kareoke session at the end. I put in a picture of the enormous grill being skillfully manned by an aussie named Bek. With all the staff and volunteers, there were about 40 people there, and even though this is just my first experience with christmas away from home, I'm not sure it could have been any better. Then after going to bed around 2:30am, we were all up ready to work at 6am this fine christmas morning. Well not so much "ready to work", but close enough. :)
After all the morning jobs everyone opened their gifts under the tree (we did secret santa, so everyone had at least one), and then we went off and scrubbed the otter pool. I told you it was less than traditional. And though everyone is pretty much worn out, I think we're going to try and have a relaxed night tonight and watch a movie or something. I'm wondering what new years will be like...
So I hope your holidays have been good as well, and I cant wait to hear all the stories! It IS strange not to be home eating shrimp cocktail and sitting in front of a crackling fire, or wearing funny hats and downing latkes. Perhaps we will have to have a make believe holiday season next time I come back to CT. Yes that sounds good. Well I think thats it- I wish you all a very merry christmas! Stay warm!

Bear cub

Hello again! Thanks to those I've gotten emails from- Its so nice to hear news from home. Time at the center is flying by, though i am loving every minute of it. We started getting plans together today for christmas dinner, which it looks like is going to be a very big to-do. There are going to be about 30 volunteers here over the holiday! Lots of varied international dishes and deserts and drinks and all that. Tomorrow is our first day off, which we will all be taking together to Hua Hin. Should be a relaxing day of beaches and shopping - i think all of us are looking forward to it. After that we'll probably take our days off separately, and go off with people we've met here - its a good bunch of volunteers as usual.
So this morning I had the "animal planet" bears, and included in this job is cleaning up after and feeding the bear cub Gallamir.
I noticed in the AM that she didn't have much green stuff in her cage, so after lunch Melissa, Bethany and I went poking around near the compost and found a big leafy branch to put in there with her. After we locked her up, put it in, and then let her out again, it was really interesting watching her figure out what to do with it. She was completely afraid at first, hiding from it. Then she got bolder bit by bit, and within ten minutes she was chewing on it, shaking it, and trying to climb on it. By the time we cam back for the afternoon feeding, the whole thing was shredded! I think it was a really good enrichment for her- we'll have to find more branches she can destroy over the next few days. Then, with her afternoon feeding, she got an ants nest that one of the other volunteers had gotten for her in the forest. Funniest thing ever watching her switch back and forth from diving in and licking up all the ants to furiously swatting at her face and paws. But thats what bears do, so its good to see her having normal behavior. The three pics are of her standing next to Melissa so you can see how big she is, then one with the branch, then a close up of her sucking her feet, which is a nervous behavioral pattern that comes from not having a mom. She does it constantly, which is why we were trying to find stuff to keep her a little enriched. Alright, well I just wanted to put in that bit about Gallamir, because she's wonderful, but now I must go. Happy almost xmas!

Back to work!

HI! So I'm back in Thailand, which is amazing, but it also means very limited internet access, so bear with me keeping in touch please. Being back at the center is wonderful, seeing all the animals and staff and doing all of the jobs again. But let me back it up a bit. Finals finished up ok- I got my grades and I did pretty well, considering the mass havoc that finals wreaked on our class. Some friends are repeating, others are going home. Im very glad that this semester is over and I'm quite ready to start up next next semester strong.
So we all got on our first plane(of four!)off St. Kitts on friday afternoon- the travel agency messed up our tickets, which I wont get into here, but we managed to have our first crisis before we even left the island. Then we stayed over in Miami, flew to DC on saturday morning, and made our connection to tokyo with minutes to spare. I have never run so far in an airport (in flipflops!) before in my life. Crazy. So, wheezing, we got on our fourteen hour journey across the pacific, and made friends with the flight attendants. The first is a picture of us about 7 hours in (somewhere over alaska) having a social hour in the galley at the back of the plane. Quite fun. Then after a quick stop to eat airport sushi in Japan, we headed to Bangkok. Ok I gotta speed this up. Got to Khao San Rd. around 1am, found our guest house, and then went out for a few hours to witness the late night drunk fools that were still running around the streets. Good introduction to Bangkok I bet. :) The next day we shopped around a bit on Khao San, then caught a bus down to Cha-am, then a WFFT taxi to the center. A looooong journey, and I woke up this morning for the first time not so jetlagged i couldn't see straight. So we are here, everyone is adjusting and working hard, and as I said, its wonderful to be back. I must run or I will miss dinner and that is no fun. The other pics are of the girls at a restaurant in Cha-am two nights ago, then working cleaning out a bear pool yesterday morning. And there is a tiny little baby gibbon here from bangkok, so I had to put in a picture of him too.
There is also a one year old bear cub and a baby elephant. Too cute to even imagine. Pictures soon! Miss you guys- keep in touch!!!

Rough week

almost done almost done almost done almost done...
Well the exam count here is 6 down, 1 to go. The week has been...difficult to describe. I have been up all night the last three nights, with short 3 hour naps in the mornings after each final. Plus the power was out for two hours monday night while we were studying for physio - see pic. Monday's exam (Parasit) was harder than it should have been. Tues (physio) was worse, and today (Immuno) was if possible, 10x worse than physio. Given that about a third of the class was failing one or both of these two classes going in to finals week, this is not good. At all. Considering we have 12 repeaters who cant repeat again, and many people who may be under the mark in more than one class, Saturday (when grades are released) may be a very difficult day for some. You should see the looks on peoples faces as they walk around campus - a subtle mix of indignation and nausea. We are all hoping for a decent curve from both professors, but one is a known (insert expletive), so only time will tell. I'm very excited for this semester to be finished and done, and to start fresh in January.
Ok, thats it about exams. Tomorrow at 11am we are free :). Nothing else is really going on beside school, and this constant crazy stormy weather. I know I have too many pics of the goats on here already, but this is the view north from my apt, and as the storms come in fast and intense over the mountain, you can see the goats lined up along the south wall of the creepy looking house next to us to stay out of it. Always an entertaining bunch. I've also been busy putting on some finishing touches for the Thailand trip- I can't believe we are actually leaving in two days! I've been back and forth with Simon at WFFT arranging the dates, money, taxis and living arrangments for so long that its weird to think we will actually BE THERE in a few short days. Very cool. I will do my best to keep this updated while I am there - I'm sure there will be stories and pics aplenty.
Well I must get going. Gotta get some cleaning and packing done before Renee comes and gets me for some dinner and then back to the lib (my car is broken...again!) Anatomy tomorrow morn, then dinner at Spratnets and drinks at Ziggys. It is time for this semester to be OVER!

Game Time

"Today we salute you Mr. Stressed Out Vet Student during exam week(s). As you sit in your lonely cubicle in the library, doped up on double grande mochas and aderol, you think to yourself, am I ever going to need to know this stuff in practice? The distractions are tempting and you have suddenly diagnosed yourself with ADD along with advanced delusional schizophrenia with involuntary narcissistic rage. By now you know exactly what everyone is doing because you have checked your buddies' away messages 800 times. Break is just days away, and your Prozac prescription will be in tomorrow. So crack open an ice cold Bud Light, you academic warrior, because you'll be spending break in rehab.

0 down, 7 to go