Netherlands

Made it to the Netherlands safe and sound, though I am very glad I studied Dutch before leaving. One of Marc's friends who grew up here said it wasn't really necessary because everyone speaks English, but that is definitely not the case, and the majority of signs are not translated either.

The seal hospital is wonderful. They have over 200 seals at this time, with about 20 people like me volunteering and living on site. The other volunteers are from all over; Australia, Isreal, England, Dominican Republic, Germany, Austria....it goes on and on. The hospital itself is room amazingly smoothly, with better disease control than I have seen at any other facility. It has to be with that many sick animals. I feel like I am working for the CDC during an outbreak, we wear full suits, booties, masks, etc. All clothing is changed between working with different enclosures, complete with shower. It is the ideal most facilities would love to be able to do, but practically don't.

I have never seen anything nearly as heart breakingly cute as a seal pup begging for food. Dogs at the table don't stand a chance compared to a baby seal looking at you with hungry eyes, slowly scratching at the air pitifully.