And more photos

Photo updates

Random photos :)

During the seal dance, while I was tube feeding my roommate wine with assistance from Guillermo from Spain.




Snow! It usually doesn't reach freezing here, and even so it only was there for about an hour, but the seals enjoyed some white fluffy stuff.

It is very windy here! Especially on top of a windmill

Pancake boat

We finally made it to the pancake boat! To celebrate my roommate Anna's last day we had dinner at the pancake boat. It was beautiful, made delicious food, and is just a wonderful random thing to find in a small town in the Netherlands.

Seal dance

Today was interesting; the dutch equivalent of icarly is filming an episode at the seal center. She was privileged enough to get to wake up 16 volunteers with a spoon and pot at 6:15 in the morning so we could all have breakfast together (of course this is a normal day...we always wake up bright and shining and eat together; no one rolls out of bed 5 minutes before their shift downs some coffee and stumbles into work).

This afternoon was the goodbye party for the volunteer coordinator. She has worked here since she was 12 in some capacity. To give her a proper show off, the volunteers created a seal dance for her; this involved several volunteers dressing up as seals, and others catching and force feeding them. I have pics of them trying on the seal costumes :) Nofar, from Isreal, is a very sad sick seal. Michelle, from Alaska, has wicked baby-seal anger and flipper flapping. I am not sure about Anna (Austria) and Nofar are doing in the last picture...During the show I was a feeder; I tube-fed my roomate Michelle some wine.

1 second of fame

A tv crew came and did a short clip of the center, I got a second of fame where you can't even really see my face :)

http://www.hartvannederland.nl/nederland/noord-holland/2011/zeehondencreche-overspoeld-met-huilers/

Delightful Sunday

I had a wonderful day. I woke up to breakfast in bed courtesy of my Austrian roomie Anna. It was a sunny, but chilly day. The local windmill was open, and we went up and saw the inside of one of Hollands historic windmills. We also played on a zip line that is randomly set up here ^_^ Worked outdoors in the afternoon, feeding some very nice seals. They are closer to release, and are starting to realize eating is not such a bad idea after all so they don't fight it so much. A lovely homemade quiche for dinner, and more wonderful baby seal work at night. There are three baby grey seals in a quarantine that follow you every where hoping for a fish. You have to lock them up to work with just one of them, otherwise they are crawling all over you. Just precious.

A very nice Sunday ^_^

Emmen Zoo

I went to the zoo today, it was beautiful and sunny. The zoo is large, and gives a lot of space to their animals. They seem well cared for, and only the tigers exhibited any kind of stereotypic behavior. Several of the animals were very attentive to the visitors; they would follow visitors and position themselves as close as possible (especially the giraffe :) )

Gronigen

I have been a slacker and haven't posted much since I got back from scotland. I will work to remedy this!

Yesterday I wandered around Gronigen with volunteers from Hungary and Italy. Gronigen is the biggest city up north, and I am surprised we made it out without being run over by bicycles. They are all over and seem to flock in large groups. Under the train station is a massive parking lot for bikes, I don't know how anyone remembers where they park it in such a maze of bicycles. In the canal, there are house boats lining both sides. It would be wonderful to live there!

Pumpkin Pie and Scotland

Before leaving for a few days to visit Scotland, I made pumpkin pie for everyone at the centre. The idea of a sweet dessert made of pumpkin was surprising for other cultures. Everyone seemed to like it though ^_^ Next I think I might introduce them to smores...or veggie haggis. Something along those lines

Exploring

I have wandered around all the small paths and roads within a 5 km range of the hospital, and wanted to share some of the pretty pics of the towns and scenery.

Release!

Again, I am a nerd. Another day off? I went on a seal release, and couldn't be happier with the way I spent my time. 6 juvenile grey seals (Snoopy, Fleur, Neils, Buddy, Veerle, and Yvonne) were released into the North Sea yesterday. We ferreyed the seals up to an island off of the northeast coast of the netherlands, Schiermonikoog. Several people who had adopted the seals and had financially supported their stay at the hospital came along, including 5 children from a school that had held a fundraiser to help a seal they named 'Snoopy'. On the island, the kids from the local elementary school were brought in a fire truck to help with the release. There was huge community involvement, even though this happens once or twice a week. The seals scouted right to the ocean, staying together in a group. After, we had lunch with the mayor of the island, and explored the shops and tourist spots. The island is very similar to those in Florida, heavily dependent on tourism and was very quiet this time of year.

Introducing: Jort

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We have a wonderful baby grey seal named Jort. Jort enjoys suckling anything that comes within reach, be it a toy, his room-mate, or your knee. I had my first stupid moment, where I slipped and fell on a very slippery tank floor. Any other seal, and it might have ended in a bite. But it was with Jort and his similarly nice roomies, who simply nuzzled over and started suckling wherever they could find. It is odd they do this...grey seals are weened within a few days of birth, so why would a few month old need to suckle?