Monsoons and Earless Bunnies

So today was my 4^th day of training. I still love my job, but I’m tired of going over the same animal facts over and over. I’m ready to be out there and on my own. But today was fun. Earlier this week Carol told me that if I was good (meaning if I didn’t pass out anymore LOL) we would check out Maharajah Trail in Asia and see the Flights of Wonder show. So after we went over some Pangani stuff like how to open (which is totally pointless because as a CP I will never open) we headed over to Asia. MJT is ok, but I think my trail is so much better. We have more animals. They do have tigers, but we have gorillas. Lol. We did have this one lady who stocked us though. Carol and I were in the bat area where they have the big bats (I don’t know their name lol) with the six foot wing spans and Carol was explaining them to me and we were off kinda to the side by ourselves, but I noticed this lady was standing right behind us. Like in our personal space. So we go to leave the area and she’s like, “I’m just going to follow you guys because I’m learning so much by eavesdropping on your conversation”. I was like ok, creeper. Lol. So her and her whole family followed us through the whole trail…it was kind of annoying, but I guess we did our good “magical” deed for the day.

Then we headed over to Flights of Wonder. It was pretty cool. They are all birds of prey and they fly over the audience and do different tricks and things. So we had a pretty laid back afternoon. Then we went back to our trail and did all the different positions again and I’m comfortable with all of them. So I’m worried about tomorrow just because it’s going to be kind of boring because it’s just more practice…

We did get to actually see the hippo today though! That was amazing. Hippos are nocturnal so he’s usually just in the corner sleeping, but today it was relatively cool because it was rainy all day so he was swimming around the tank. It’s always easier to interact with guest when the animals are actually moving and doing something. But he’s an amazing animal. He’s huge. 5,000 lbs and 11 ft long and the most dangerous animal in Africa. We also got to do the Meerkat position this morning when they were actually out and about. (We did it yesterday when they weren’t out and it was absolutely boring). It’s easy to tell people animal facts when they can actually see the thing you’re talking about. But it was funny because there was a stray rabbit in the Meerkat exhibit and people were more interested in the rabbit than the Meerkats. I’m like seriously people?! Here are Meerkats that live in Africa that you never get to see in person and you are more entertained by the rabbit that you probably see everyday! Lol. But there is a rabbit who likes to hang out in the Colobus Monkey habitat that has no ears. Yes, a rabbit with no ears. He is really funny/weird looking. We have no idea why he has no ears, but he is interesting to look at.  

So if you don’t know, it rains EVERY day in Florida during the summer season. And I literally mean EVERY day. And at the same time every day! So every day I have trained the parade has stepped off and then it starts raining. Like no joke. It’s a daily thing with the parade. But today was the worst! Carol and I went out behind the training trailer to watch the floats line up just because we could. Lol. And the sun was out and it was super hot. Well 10 minutes later we’re back inside and we hear over the radios that the parade has stepped off. Now when the parade steps off there is no going back or stopping. For anything. Once they’re off they have to finish. So they step off and literally three minutes later the sky opens up and rains like I have never seen it rain before! Every time it thundered Carol and I would jump because it was so loud. I felt so bad for everyone who was outside. They came back into the trailer SOAKED! They looked like they went swimming with their clothes on. Like they were leaving water trails down the hallway. It was awful. It was raining so hard that they didn’t even clean up after parade. They left all the ropes up to clean up later. So I’m hoping tomorrow is a little better because day five of training includes parade training. And it has rained EVERY day at parade time. And I can’t carry my rain gear because costuming doesn’t have any more fanny packs!! I’m like seriously…so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Carol and I got done with everything kinda early today and we weren’t going to go back out to the trail in the rain so we played a game. We have flash cards of all the animals on the trail and we would take turns saying one fact each about an animal until one of us ran out of facts. It was kind of fun and better than reading a fact sheet. She’s awesome. Everyone I talk to says I have the best trainer. She knows so much!

So it’s kind of become a thing where at the end of the day the roomies who are home sit around and talk about our days and tell stories of our jobs. Well I’ve kind of been banned from talking because I have the best job and every one is jealous. Lol. I don’t have any horror stories of miserable guest or horrible hours or any of that. I get to stand around all day and watch animals. lol. But I love my roommates! They are an awesome bunch of girls and we get along so well. We sit around and watch girly shows and eat constantly. Lol. But our schedules do suck because there are a couple girls I haven’t seen in days just because our schedules are completely opposite. Lol.

One more day of training and then my assessment day and then two days off!

 

OMG! I didn’t tell you…yesterday getting home was complete hell. I got off at 5 and the bus was suppose to come at 5:20. So I walked to the bus stop and there are more people there than there usually is which was weird. So we’re waiting and 5:23 rolls around and the bus isn’t there. Well this girl behind me calls the bus headquarters and asked where the bus was. And in my mind I’m like well give it a few minutes before you call! The buses usually run a little late to begin with. But as I’m listening to her phone call she says that the last bus didn’t even show up. The one that was suppose to be there at 4:50. Hence the reason there are so many people at the bus stop. So she gets off the phone and the lady told her that only J1 was running and it was in route (there are two J buses). But this still didn’t explain why the 4:50 (J1) bus didn’t even show! So the 5:20 bus never showed. And more people keep showing up. The park is closed at this point. So the next bus to show up should be the 6:10 bus. Well 6:10 rolls around a no freaking bus! Everyone is super pissed. The cast parking lot is almost empty and I’ve been off for over an hour now…well FINALLY a bus show up and 6:30. And we had to cram on there like sardines because there are so many of us. It reminded me of MK days and I was not happy! It was awful….