The Word of the Day is: Herbivore. HERB-i-vore. (Or: Adventures of a Newly-Minted Summer Camp Instructor)

Today was the first day of summer camp. I've been waiting for this day for about a month, ever since they asked me to teach it.

Today's focus was on herbivores. You know, plant eaters. And BOY are there a lot of plant eaters at my job! We visited our gorillas, even though they weren't on exhibit (boo), and then went and set out enrichment for our elephants IN their enclosure-- that was amazing, and the highlight of the day for most of the kids! We fed an okapi. We toured the rest of the park (just about). We made special goggles to see what it would be like to have monocular vision (see like a prey animal, with your eyes on the sides of your head).

It was a great first day, and man-- if I were those kids' parents, I would be SO. HAPPY. right now. I mean, as exhausted as I am (and I'm relatively used to it!), I can't imagine any of those kids staying up much past eight o'clock tonight. Heck, I might not even stay up that late myself.

I get four more days of this awesomeness, and then two days off, and then start all over again. Can't wait!

Here are some highlights from today:

Camper: ... and they have these monkeys there that are extinct in the wild, and they only exist in zoos now!
Me (trying to read my schedule, listen to my radio, walk, and listen to the camper at the same time): Oh, cool!
Camper: That's not cool! You think extinction is cool?!
**cue MAJOR BACKPEDAL**


Me: *shows campers picture of a sloth skull* Can anyone guess what animal this belongs to?
Campers (nearly unanimous): A zombie!


Me: Sometimes this okapi will stick her whole tongue out for us and lick her own back! That's pretty cool, huh?
Campers: Yeah!
*okapi sticks her tongue out and licks her own back*
Campers (all together): EW!

So yeah. Can't wait for more! Kids are hilarious :)

WOO! Summer camp!