Well! Remember how I said there could be some upcoming changes in regards to my job? Changes, indeed! Today was my last day! Woah. I hadn't quite planned it that way, but hey, sometimes things just happen. I talked to my awesome boss about scheduling today and there were just some conflicts with all the stuff I have on my plate and the amount of time they needed someone, and sometimes, things just can't come together quite right. She told me to think it over, so I did, the whole day, before figuring out when I got home that it definitely wasn't going to work out. So I sent her the official email saying so. The funny thing is, because of upcoming finals and Spring Break, I'm not scheduled to work the next two weeks. So, in effect, I gave my two weeks notice during my vacation time! I'm a little bummed to not be going back there as an employee anymore, but I'm sure I'll get over it when I sleep in this Sunday. Two whole weekend days? What a treat!

I still don't want to explicitly say exactly where I worked here, for fear of search engines finding me. I will say I worked at a zoo. Consider what city I live in, and there you have it. I was in education, and today I got to teach a class, which was a nice way to end things. I love those classes! Man, those children are super cute. They were looking at bones with magnifying glasses and then taking turns, sharing them with each other. Two different kids told me that the hippo skull looked like a T-Rex! Too freaking cute.

And now, some fun work stories that I've been meaning to write about here.

One is that we have a baby orangutan at work. I loved going over there to visit her and her mom. Orangs are so docile. Even though they move really slowly and hardly at all, really, they're fun to watch.

The first funny orang story is that on several occasions, the mama orang would be sitting around watching her baby play, and must have suddenly felt like a drink, because she'd start drinking milk... from herself! That was certainly a sight to see! I couldn't stop giggling. Because I am twelve.

Then there was the day that we came by to see that the keepers had given them sunflower seeds. I figured, big large apes, sunflower seeds, gone in two seconds. Right? You should have seen them. Each orangutan sat with their paper bag, taking the seeds out one by one. They'd put the seed in their mouth, crack it open, eat the inside seed out and discard the shell next to them. They all did that! I had no idea they could act so delicate, or that they even knew there was a seed inside the shell. It was really fascinating to watch.

Even more fascinating was the day that we came by and the keeper was motioning the mama and baby to come to her. They were way up high in the netting, the keeper on the ground, on the other side of the netting. I didn't know why the keeper was calling them until I finally saw it - they had gotten hold of a Gatorade bottle that someone had littered. The keeper kept waving persistently, until the mama orang seemed to think, "Oh, all right..." She slowly grabbed her baby's leg, gently pulled her into her lap, and climbed all the way down so that she was close to the keeper. The keeper gave her commands and motioned with the grapes, and the mama orang looked at the bottle she was holding, then tossed it to the keeper. The keeper praised her, and the orang looked expectantly at the grapes, but the keeper didn't hand them over just yet. She was still pointing, this time at the baby. When the baby turned her head, I saw a bright orange cap sticking out of her mouth. The keeper kept pointing, and the mama orang made me laugh. She looked at the keeper, then her baby. Keeper, baby, keeper, baby. Then she gently reached into her baby's mouth, popped out the cap and threw that at the keeper, too, who instantly tossed tons of grapes to the orangs and praised them. By this time, a huge audience had gathered and everyone applauded. A few people came up to us to ask us what happened and how the keeper was able to communicate with the orang, so I explained how they train the animals to do certain behaviors (like trading) just in case of situations like this. It was really, really cool to be able to see the training in action, firsthand!

Another fun situation happened just last week. I sometimes like to take some skulls over to the chimpanzee exhibit, to show people interesting stuff to look at, while telling them about the animals. I usually take a chimp skull, and a human skull, to compare and contrast for people. (Which is how this funny story came about.) This time that I went over, something totally new happened. One of the female chimps saw me approaching, and for whatever reason, came racing on over to me! She sat on the other side of the glass, trying to look closer at me and my box of cool crap. "What, do you want to see what I have?" I asked. Everyone around me had seen her run up, and laughed. Some were saying, "Aww!" I pulled out the skulls and showed each of them to her, and she seemed thoroughly fascinated. She kept looking at them and at me, sitting really still, eyes wide, then pointing at them. It was really cool! She was also sitting facing the glass, so I was actually able to use her as a model and hold up the chimp skull next to her face for people to see how all the bones laid out. The skull and her head were actually a similar size, too. She stayed interested in the skulls and in all of us watching her for a while before scampering off to play. It was so incredible to have one of the chimps actually interact with me!

In related news, I have a potential animal care volunteer position on the horizon that I'm really excited about! I don't want to say more than that here, though. And for those wondering, I do still keep in touch with Little Zoo, but not as much as I used to. My schedule has been crazy busy. Next quarter should be better.

So anyway, I'll miss my job, but I'm sure this is ultimately a good thing. I mean, sleeping in on the weekends. On two consecutive days! I can't wait.