Goodbye St. Louis

Today is my last day as a research intern with the St. Louis Zoo. It's been amazing, and now it's time to head on to new things. I can't believe nearly a year has passed already!

I'll miss the Zebras and the Asses of course. As an intern, I became very attached to them and also their conservation message. The fox videos, I may not miss quite as much. All of the people I've worked with, who have been absolutely amazing, and the building where something always seemed to happen. I'll miss the lounge with the magical table that everyone puts communal food on. My favorite days where when I'd walk into the lounge to find donuts. I'll miss intern bowling.

The stingrays, also my babies. When I first came to the zoo, I never thought I'd get quite so attached to equids and fish. I'll miss the people I got to know in the Education department as well.

Goodbye, churro-and-fried-ice-cream stand. Goodbye, ugly kid sign. Goodbye, giant hill that I trekked up and down to get to and from the intern home base.

Speaking of giant hill, I'll actually miss my walk to the zoo. I'll miss Forest Park in general, really. It's pretty much the most amazing thing in St. Louis.

Goodbye fun zoo events, like Jammin' and Zooquest. Goodbye crazy dancing butterfly lady. I'll miss Sofiya, the amur leopard, and that crazy ostrich in the giraffe yard. Goodbye protesters, nobody took your pamphlets anyway.

I'll miss Dewey's pizza, and the Loop, and Central West End. I'll miss the crepes that one could purchase in Central West End. Goodbye Wash U, I never found the pool that you supposedly have.

I'll miss driving from Illinois at night, over the bridge, greeted by the lit up Arch and the lights of downtown. It's an amazing sight, and I'm glad I got to see it one last time last night.

Goodbye St. Louis...I never really knew how amazing you were until I lived here. Goodbye zoo, I love you.

Hello Florida....

2nd Annual St. Louis Zoo ZOOQUEST announced

For anyone in the St. Louis Area who may stumble across this blog I'd like to announce the 2nd St. Louis Zoo "Zooquest" has a date set. Assemble a team of 4 and mark your calenders for May 3rd. Zooquest is a scavenger hunt/trivia challenge around the zoo. This is an event for adults (18 plus, since this thing is HARD) put on by the wonderful education department.

The first zooquest took place last November and I along with other interns got to be a part of it...actually competing! Zooquest is, for good reason, closed to employees but interns are still able to participate. If you think working and being at the zoo everyday gave us an edge though...you are SORELY mistaken. Out of the two groups of interns (three on each team) my team came in second place while the other team didn't place at all. I give our victory to the fact that we hustled around (without running, strictly forbidden) and really had to put our minds together on some of the challenges. Our team really got into it; with our matching t-shirts and team name "THREAT TO BITE" (TTB is one of the behaviors we look for in the equid study) we were pumped up and ready to go. Maybe a little overconfident, but we were quickly put in our place with the sheer complexity of some of the challenges.

While yes the challenges were hard and to an extent frustrating, our feet hurt after three hours, and it was bitterly cold outside we all finished realizing we just had an extremely fun afternoon. When all the teams met back at the start point you could tell every time was feeling the same as we; everyone was smiling and sharing what new things they found out about the zoo. This really became a unique opportunity to get to know the St. Louis zoo and I know everyone who participated had a fantastic time. It's fun to walk remember little things from that afternoon; such as pointing out to another intern as "Remember at zooquest when we walked all the way around Lakeside Cafe searching for the clockface that never changed?"

Already the interns (well, me and one other intern so far) are getting ready for the 2nd one...although we're not sure what to expect. With it being held in May, surely the weather will be more agreeable and even if we don't hold onto our title and take home the gold...er...silver at least we hope to enjoy a nice day at the zoo. Hopefully more teams will enter this time around; only 12 teams participated last time. At the end of the last event the education team that had organized the event were taking suggestions on different directions and improvements in the scavenger hunt so its sure to keep getting better and better.

You can get more information at the St. Louis Zoo website: http://www.stlzoo.org/education/programsforindividualsfami/springprogramsforadults/zooquest.htm