Another day

It was another day at work with nothing terribly exciting happening. No ducks to save or crying to avoid. I had to give the Harambe presentation today which meant that I got to go to the lovely conservation station for 2 hours as well. It rained again today but only for about 20-30 minutes and it didn't cool anything down. As a matter of fact it was steamy, hot and humid all day long. :( We are having our first mentor meetings this week which is pretty exciting. We are divided between the 4 core team members into mentor groups that meet once a month or so. Its just a way for us to all meet up and talk about any questions we have or anything going on with our lives or in the world of Disney. Thats about it here.

DAK fun fact --> Disney's Worldwide Conservation fund has been established and giving out grants since 1998 when DAK opened and has awarded more than 12 million dollars in 110 different countries to date! You can best support DWCF by donating and receiving a button at many different Disney park and resort locations. 100% of your donation goes directly to our conservation projects, while Disney covers all administrative costs!

Monday, Monday...I mean Sunday!

So it was back to work today after a lazy weekend of laying out on my new pool float getting sunburned. It monsooned here today...major rain and lightening which meant that almost all of the attractions were shut down. The most exciting part about today was helping a hurt duck. A family stopped me while I was walking to the gibbons and asked me if I was there to help the bird. I smiled politely and asked what bird? lol they showed me the duck that was on the side of the path who had a hurt wing or leg and so I called it in to pest control and gentley shooed the duck into the bushes so that no one would step on it or try to catch/touch/pet/etc...(ps people are dumb!) but of course as I was in the process of helping the duck into the bushes then came the downpour so I end up rather wet. However, I think some of my fellow presenters had a more exciting day with a little baby alligator who showed up in the Siamangs moat. Needless to say it was a big day for pest control! Also, today we had our monthly morning meeting with a member of the primate keeper team. Since we do staff Siamangs and Gibbons they come to give us updates. Basically the big news is that the older Gibbon daughter is starting her color change from black to blonde and should be finished in about a month.
-sidenote: all baby white cheeked gibbons are born a pretty blonde color, when they reach about 7-8 months they all turn black and then at about 8 years the females change back to blonde because they have reached sexual maturity.
So its really exciting that our girl is changing because it is proving natural behaviors and it means that soon she will be able to take off to whereever there may be a mate for her and she can start a family of her own! I guess that's all for tonight! Hope everyone is well!

DAK fun fact --> Expedition Everest is the tallest building at WDW standing at 199 feet, 7 inches!

new picture!

I know there have been some requests for a picture of me in costume so check out my new profile picture! That's me in action during the morning lineup, teaching kids about the importance of tarantulas and spiders in our world! :)

Sorry!

Sorry its been so long since the last post! I promise to get better at this blogging thing! Well in the last week nothing terribly exciting has happened. I did have my regular two days off on Friday and Saturday and spent Friday wedding dress shopping with my friend Becky and she found a beautiful gown! Saturday I just spent lounging around and getting things done here at the house and it was my night to cook so I made tacos. Today is Tuesday so it feels like Wednesday for me. It was one of those long days. Possibly made longer because a group of the interns all went out to Hollywood Studios and stayed til 11 but who knows?! ;) Today I had two cute "magical moments" at work. First I was walking from Africa to Asia and I happened to see a little girl trip and fall. She was maybe 4 so I went over to her and asked if they needed to find a way to a band-aid and checked out the knee for her. She wasn't bleeding but you could tell the tears were bubbling inside just about to spill over and then I remembered I had an DAK butterfly tattoo in one of my vest pockets so I whipped it out and got her to smile and totally avoided the crying! The second moment was when I was at Camp Minnie Mickey I was helping a little boy who was beyond adorable and he was maybe 3 and I suggested that we got to the other end of the log (because at that KDC you reach your hands into 4 different holes in a log and try to get what each thing is) and when we started to walk down to the other end of the log he just reached up and held my hand and it was super cute and just made my day!! Other than that it was really hot today but it didn't rain. I guess that's mostly a good thing.

DAK Fun Fact--> there are 103,000 leaves on the tree of life in 5 different shades of green and they are made out of a material flexible enough for them to actually blow in the wind!

Also in DAK news, you may or may not have heard about the baby rhino that was born recently in Uganda but it is actually the first baby rhino to be born there in decades which is a major step for conservation of these animals! However, this baby also has ties to DAK because the mother was actually donated to the sanctuary it was born in from here in 2006. Both mom and baby are doing well as far as we have heard!

Hump day!

So I'm 3 days into this work week and feeling a little tired but pretty good. Today I got to work parade again which was really exciting! I just love being able to walk around and talk to people without worrying about teaching them anything or giving a conservation message...not that I don't love that aspect of my job because I do and I also think its really important, its just nice to take a break sometimes. I also love parade because watching little kids see their favorite character come dancing down the street just makes my day!

Today was also an interesting day because I got to see first-hand some of the mating behavior of our siamangs. lol We had been warned that it would happen and that it would happen right in front of guests for everyone to see but no matter how prepared they try to make us it is still an awkward situation. But no worries, I had a little girl tell me that the "mommy and daddy monkeys were kissing" haha and if that works for her and her parents that works for me! Other than that it was a pretty good day...I made a new friend, a little girl who turned 4 today and talked to me for like 10 minutes about all the animal noises she knew and how lions were bad and how at rainforest cafe the thunder and lightening comes! she was adorable!

The only bad thing about today was it was hot! really, really hot! I will be glad for october when the days are much more bareable. Only 2 more days until my weekend!

DAK fun fact...Animal Kingdom has the largest herd of Nile hippos in the Western Hemisphere (and as you ride Kilamanjaro Safari they are separated by sex, boys on the right and girls on the left!)

Week Update...

So I'm very sorry it has been so long since my last update. The fam was here last weekend so when I wasn't working we were out playing in the parks which was very fun! This week I worked Sunday through Thursday. I have not gotten to do parade again yet. They are trying to rotate it so that everyone gets a chance and gets trained. However I did get to do my Harambe School presentation, which was one of the scripts I had to learn, and even did it while my family was still in town so they were there to watch. It went much better than expected. For whatever reason I can talk to thousands of strangers a day and have no fear but you give me a mic and the butterflies start flying, but at least its over for a while. It has rained a lot here this week and its the week after a holiday so crowds have been a little lower. Other than that nothing terribly exciting has happened...I'm just enjoying the life of a Disney cast member, although my voice and feet are still adjusting! Now I have the next two days off and hope to enjoy it being lazy, maybe catching a movie with some friends and getting my errands run!

On another note, I'm sure you have all heard about the tragedy of the monorail accident. Unfortunately we did lose a cast member who was only 21 years old. The whole Disney company is very sad and I'm sure that the monorail and its employees are being thoroughly examined and retrained to make sure no one else is ever hurt.

Now that the sad note is over, here is your DAK fun fact --> Our elephant herd at Disney's Animal Kingdom park produces over a ton of manure a day which we recycle and use as fertilizer all over Walt Disney World!

Friday

So Friday was the last day I had working as any kind of group. It went really well...except for a kid pulling our rubber catepillar off of the tree at conservation station...lol Other than that nothing terribly exciting happened. It was hot but that's normal. My family got here sometime between 4 and 5 so they were waiting for me when I got off. I was very excited to see everyone including Layla. I think it may take some adjustment for her and we are still working out all the kinks on where she is going to stay while I'm gone during the day. hopefully she will get used to it soon though. We had dinner at Bahama Breeze and then went to Downtown Disney for a bit. We bought tickets for the family and browsed World of Disney. Today we have already hit the parks for a while then we came back to the apartment to check on the pup and rest a while and we are headed back out for dinner, shows and of course fireworks!! More updates soon!

Also get excited I will soon be starting Animal Kingdom fun fact of the day so be on the lookout for that!

oh one last thing...yes Mrs. Collins--our SUE replica is the an exact copy of the well-known fossil on exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago. When it was auctioned off 3 different groups split the cost, the Field Museum, Disney, and McDonalds!

On my own...almost

Hey yall! Sorry its been so long since my last update. I had the weekend off so I spent Sat roaming around Animal Kingdom mostly to help myself get my bearings since during training we kept going back and forth on-stage and off-stage. On Sunday I spent most of the day learning my script about SUE the dinosaur and laid out by the pool a bit. Monday was our last day of classroom training which everyone was pretty excited about because we were all ready to just get out there and see how it all goes. So starting Tuesday we were out in the park working KDCs all day. Tuesday and Wednesday were "shadow days" which just meant that we worked in groups of 5 with a core team member who was there as kind of a safety net for any questions or issues we might have had. Those days went really well and I got more high-fives in two days from little kids than possibly ever in my life! lol Today and tomorrow are paired days. So we still have a bit of a safety net but its another intern instead of a seasoned presenter. So today I was letter C and that meant that one of my stations was parade! it was really fun...I got to interact with people and not have to worry about conservation messages! lol and here's an insider tip--the parade at DAK starts in Africa then travels in a circle around Discovery Island and then ends again in Africa so if you want a really good viewing area go to Africa after the parade has been through the first time and all the people have cleared out! We have one more day of pairs tomorrow and then I have the 4th off and then starting Sunday I will be on my own! I'm pretty excited! I'll try to be more regular about updating this from now on!