First week accomplished!

So today officially marks my second week of EATM and I've already learned so much but am afraid of what I may or may not forget. There are just so many rules and what not. So this last week I got to watch and observe a baby siamang who was just irresistibly cute, which makes it even harder because until students get animal assignments we can't talk to, look/smile at, pet, touch or anything to any of the animals. For all us animal people it's probably one of the harder things to do especially when the monkies consistently howl at you, or the dog Sierra wags her tail and wimpers everytime you walk by, and even when Taj the tiger sits in her pool and looks like a little house kitten. Although it does makes sense why we have that rule, it allows for the animals to bond better with their trainers amongst other reasons but it just makes me more excited to get my animal assignments in the spring!
This last week I also learned how to do more things around the zoo, did some volunteer work, and did what we call "all day area". I learned how to walk and groom our mini horse Nick, learned how to properly place a choke chain on a dog, and ofcourse more cleaning. For volunteer work I helped dig some holes for our sea lion Schmoo who is getting a new deck and I also helped paint the 3 little pigs coral, which was pretty nasty since I kept getting paint everywhere including my hair. Then at all day area yesterday I learned how to do the ticket booth, answer phones and enter daily records, and watched the primates to make sure the public wasn't messing with or feeding our monkies. So all in all I had a somewhat eventful and somewhat tedious day, but somehow I still managed to enjoy myself and have fun. :)