Day 61 - Education

Today was honestly not the greatest day. I said at the halfway mark of this internship that everything was downhill from there but I didn't mean it negatively. Evidently today decided to take it that way because after so much needed fun with the other interns due to all the stress from the previous night; I personally felt as though I was thrown after the bus and then afterwards felt like I completely took the heat about everything. I really do not wish to discuss via public what all happened but it would have been nice to actually have fun with everyone for once without getting burned completely the next day. In short, I had to lock myself in a closet because I hit a point where I almost walked all my stuff out the front door this morning and head back to Ohio.

It wasn't because I was fired and in fact I wasn't 100% in trouble, everything was understanding and the fact I said "I'll fix it" helped. I stay true to my word and rather then trying to cover it up I knew the truth needed to be told. This I can say; I accidentally stuck duct tape on a wall and when it came off the duct tape peeled paint with it. It was an honest mistake but based on how some people feel around here = I keep making mistakes but never apparently learn from any of them.

Now this set me off and at that point, I had enough. That is why I almost walked out amongst other things. Others agreed it was out of line and I personally was ready to kick a door in. Rather then damaging anything though or leaving I locked myself in a closet as said. I happened to be restocking the gift shop at the time so being in the closet was a coincidence. I continued to restock and carried out my day afterwards. This consisted of mainly tours and of the course the public was awesome as always. I love people who are willing to listen to me about the birds and what's even better is when they ask questions and get involved too. All the people who walk through telling you how great you are and want to not only hear about the birds but also you as an intern makes things worthwhile. At one point a lady wanted to video record me making my Barred Owl call just because how real they all thought it sounded. If only Willow and Rhea would actually respond like they used too!

Of course all attention is focused on the center and birds, which is the goal, but it does feel nice to have people fully interested in you because of how much of a good job you're doing. Same applies to all interns as well. Each and every one of us have awesome tours, are very informational, and try our hardest to make the center look great. Generating enough donations and gift shop sales at the end of the day thanks to people is great but the fact everyone had a great time thanks to our hard work and the birds being awesome is even better. Today I got the chance to even give a tour to a lady I rescued an egg from weeks ago. When she mentioned it I knew right away the reason why she was so familiar and it was so nice to chat with her again!!! The fact some people look familiar is what's great, if only I could have realized why she looked so familiar sooner. It's great seeing people again though.

Besides tours and such, the other education intern and I had a Birds of Prey program today. This said program went very well. It was my first event actually holding a bird in front of a crowd. The other intern and I make an excellent program giving team! If only someone took pictures of us but oh well. She talked mainly about feathers and talons while I talked about skulls and other adaptions like good hearing/sight. We then took out our birds, one at a time, and talked about them. My particular bird was Rory! the Broad-winged Hawk. You all have definitely heard me talking about him bird. In case anyone forget, here's a picture of the sweetheart again.

Being held by another summer intern. You can see his eye injury here! He's missing his right eye.

After this I enjoyed pizza with other interns thanks to our executive director for all our hard work with the protocols, which a bundle was sent in today including my Long-legged Waders!!!, and then cleaned a carrier out before heading upstairs and falling asleep until 10pm due to being so tired.

Oh, and of course, the morning itself started with cleaning as always. Sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, and cleaning windows. I always mention it at the beginning so I thought why not mention it at the end this time!