Come Sail Away With Me

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I have just been so busy. Last weekend I flew home for my brother's graduation. It was a busy weekend, but I enjoyed visiting with family and old friends. Congrats David!

When I got back to work, I took and passed my safety guidelines test, and my scrubber test. Now that all of my tests are over, I can dive and scrub without a trainer present and I can begin to work with the animals. It was a stressful week! I even had to scrub one of the pools by myself the day after I passed my test. It was definitely an experience. The scrubber was having problems so it was only after many attempts and some assistance that the scrubber finally worked. And the pool I was diving in is one of the coldest pools in the park. Talk about a shock at 8 in the morning. But hard work pays off. That same day, I was able to feed one of the dolphins during a training session! The next thing I have to do is finish memorizing my feeder pool script. I have to know it by Monday so I guess I should start practicing.

This weekend I was surprised with a visit from my mom. Today we visited the Seaquarium so she could see where I work. She even met some of the trainers that I work with. Tomorrow we are planning on just relaxing and maybe going to a movie. That's it for now :) Bye

Orientation at the Miami Seaquarium

I have just finished my first week of work at the Seaquarium. I began the internship on Monday along with 3 other girls. The first two days involved a lot of paperwork, reading materials, and a dive test. The dive test was fairly easy and I passed! After the orientation days, we were all sent to specific areas. I am assigned to the Top Deck and Seal and Sea Lion areas. I will be spending 3 days of the week at Top Deck and one day at Seal and Sea Lion. Everyone has been very nice and I am working hard to learn the day to day routine. I have already learned how to do fish prep in Top deck by myself and I have learned how to ID all of the 4 dolphins in the Top deck area. I have also completed three buddy dives (the check out dive, a dive in sea lion show pool, and one in the top deck pool with the dolphins). The internship involves a lot of diving, and I have to complete 12 buddy dives before I can dive without a trainer. I will also be learning how to use the underwater vacuum and scrubber. I have quite a few tests coming up to make sure I am ready to dive and use all of the equipment safely. This internship is definitely going to leave me in great shape, but for now I am just exhausted and sore. I am working 4 10 hour days, and they definitely wear me out. I will be happy when I begin to adjust to the demanding schedule. That is all that has happened so far, but I will keep ya'll updated!