A Day in my Life

Here was what my Thursday looked like. Hope you enjoy!

5:30 am - Fabian gets up to get ready or work. I go back to sleep.
6:40 am - The phone rings, startling me out of sleep. I groggily reach over for the phone. "hello?" I say quite sleepy. Fabian's voice speaks back to you, apologizing for waking me and asking me to bring down an umbrella to the entry way of our building so that he can stop by with the van he drives routes with to pick it up. Sleepily I pick out an umbrella and stumble down to the first floor. It's too early for this. I wait for about 5 minutes. When he doesn't show up I go back up, call him (only to learn he isn't here yet and I am to just leave the umbrella down there for him) and wonder if he told me that originally and I missed it or if he forgot to.
6:45 am - I'm laying in bed, relaxing, and I realize... I have to get up in 45 minutes. Does it really pay to go back to sleep?
7:05 am - Finally fall back asleep.
7:30 am - Stupid alarm clock on my cell phone goes off. I shut it off leaving it on the pillow next to me. "Must. Get. Up." goes through my head. I go back to sleep.
7:45 am - Wake up again. Oh, yeah. I have to get up. "Aufstehen, aufstehen, aufstehen" repeats over and over and over in my head in an attempt to keep my mind awake until my body can find the strength to cooperate. Aufstehen means "to get out of bed".
7:50 am - I finally get up. I stretch, grab some clothes and head to the shower, checking my time on the way to make sure I'm still okay on time.
8:00 am - Get dressed after my shower. I am wearing two pairs of socks, jeans, a t-shirt, a long sleeved shirt, and I have a hoody packed in my bag to put on later. Why so many clothes? Today I'm of to the Raptor Center, which is higher in elevation there, a bit colder, and more windy than saarbruecken. I don't want to freeze like the first day I was there.
8:05 am - Sit down to a bowl of cereal, which is the same as frosted flakes. I'm starving and am reminded how I could never survive w/o breakfast. It's too yummy! I grab my current book, Trial by Fire by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg.
8:15 am - Pack my bag of stuff to do, grab an umbrella and a coat and head out the door.
8:30 am - Arrive after walking 15 minutes at the doc's office for a blood test. I have to wait in line a few minutes, and when its finally my turn to talk to the receptionist, I forget the german word for blood test, and stutter a bit trying to search my brain for the right word. She recognizes me from the day before and says, "Blutabnahne?" "Ja" I reply. Whew... saved.
8:40 - Done with the blood test, and walking my way to a street train station to get to the train station.
8:50 - Buy three mini donuts (aka berliners) for a euro - yum yum!
9:03 - By this time I'm on my train, relaxing and starting my homework for the 50 minute drive to Saarburg, where the park is.
10:00 - Am picked up by Alex at the train station in Saarburg, one of the owners of the park. We head off to the park, grabbing some "Broetchen" (breakfast rolls) on the way.
10:15 - Sit down to a small breakfast. Thankfully I only ate 1 berliner on the train, or else I would be not hungry at all and feel bad. I eat a broetchen with yummy stuff on top, get a rain coat from Wolfgang the other owner, and head outside with Alex.
10:45 - The black lab who came outside with us is missing. We're all puzzled, since according to Alex and the others he's never run off. Finally find him under a shed, unable to get out. We're not sure how he got there in the first place. We dig out the dirt a bit and the dog crawls out, happy as can be. Strange dog.
11:05 - We start to feed the other animals since there are no visitors for the 11 am Bird Show (its too rainy). First comes the "washbaeren" aka Raccoons, who are found in Europe in the wild but only because they got brought from North America. There are three at the park, cute as can be - but not to be trusted. They can be a bit mean too. Next comes the pony and two donkeys, the chickens, the ferrets, the bunnies, the pigeons, the goats and the pigs - though the pigs food is just gotten ready and left to soak in water to make a slop which will be fed to them later. Sometime during all this I cut my finger slightly.
12:30 - I go to give the raccoons some chicken. yum yum they gobble it down. Afterwards its off to clean the chicken shed which they are forced to live in now due to the Bird Flu being in Germany (Northern Germany only still. It isn't anywhere near us yet) - all chickens/birds that are owned have to be inside a container/room of some sort. My job now is to scrap bird poop from the benches, and help to get rid of all the old straw and poop and feathers. Then to replace it with new stuff. After a bit of confusion on what I was supposed to retrieve from the cellar where all the supplies were (I get confused on german words sometimes) this job is accomplished! On my way back I slip and end up scraping my leg. I scare the heck out of Alex since the way I landed looked pretty weird (my leg was at a weird angle), but I'm okay, just got a small cut is all. I think Alex thought I broke my leg or something...
1:00 - Next it is off to the bunnies and pigeons, to clean them. Once again scraping off poop. My job is so clean. Soon the pigeons are done and they're home looks quite inviting (and the baby pigeon so cute) and I'm on to the bunnies, which would be easier to do except for the fact that they are so curious they don't get out of your way when trying to clean. This brings about my, "hey.. get out from underneath that pile of clean straw I just put in here" lecture which I was forced to give to a cute little bunny who found himself suddenly in the dark under the hay. Much laughing later (at the bunnies who were always in my way) I'm finally finished, and they're hopping about as happy as can be in their new, dry surroundings.
1:15 - The food for the pigs is down soaking, time to feed. Alex asks if I want to, and I gladly say, "Yes!" So I grab the bucket of slop, and head into the muddy pin. I realize quickly that this is a bad idea, since the large amounts of mud instantly find its way to my pants, and I become insanely dirty. Oh well, I pour some slop into the trough for the two larger pigs, and get the smallest one to come over and eat out of my bucket (other wise he would get anything). The middle sized pig quickly gives up on the trough and finds her way to me in order to try to get to the bucket too. I push her away and the poor thing just hasn't learned to keep eating from the trough to get the most food. I come out covered with mud but happy.
1:30 - Lunch! A bratwurst, and two broetchen. Yum Yum!
2:30 - Back outside. The weather has improved, its no longer raining really, and the sun is trying to peak out. We go clean the duck's home (who also have to stay inside).
3:30 - A falcon with some problems with the pads of his feet is brought out from his sanctuary in the shower of Wolfgang's home (its the only place where he can't hurt himself while he waits to have surgery soon) is brought out so Wolfgang can clean his enclosure. I get to hold him, and we seem to bond. His name is Mini which (though spelled differently and meant differently) reminds me of my dad's mom who was nick named Minnie.
4:00 - Mini goes back and Wolfgang grabs Sheeva, another type of bird who weighs too much and is therefore not used for the Bird Show. When birds weigh too much they are not as hungry and lazier when it comes to flying for the food (which makes them want to do the show). We drive up the mountain to the bird enclosure's with Sheeva, and feed all the other birds, who seem a bit unhappy they didn't get to fly today since no one showed up for the second show either today due to the weather. Wolfgang brings out Sheeva, who is a bit lazy. He flys her a bit, only to have two wild birds of prey show up flying around above us, causing Sheeva to fly off with them. She has no tracker on, which means we have to go find her.
5:00 - We just spent about an hour searching for Sheeva, found her, and Wolfgang finally got her to come back. I recieve a stuffed owl, and two pens with birds carved on them from the park for my birthday. And 10 Euros for the train rides I had to pay for. I shoot the bull a bit with Alex.
5:30 - Say goodbye to Alex and hop in the car with Wolfgang who drops me off at the train station. He wishes me a happy birthday and its off to run through the pouring rain and wait about 20 minutes for the train by reading my book again.
6:07 - Train finally comes. I find a comfy seat and settle in.
7:00 - It's raining still as I come home in Saarbruecken, though not pouring which is good. I do some laundry and relax with Fabian for a couple hours.
11:30 - After even more reading of my really good book I settle in for a good night's sleep. It's been an exhausting day but today I realized that I love working with the animals. That scraping off poop is worth it for just a few minutes a day of seeing Sheeva fly, of watching the way the raccoons interact with each other, of almost being mauled by overly curious bunnies, getting to pat the donkey's on the nose once or twice, talk to the chickens who think that cleaning their home equals some sort of cruel punishment (even though they were never touched) who let me know loudly that they feel this way, of seeing the ducks quack up a storm for no reason, and getting to hold and talk to a falcon up close and personal. Yep... no matter how much or how little contact I have with the animals, I realize that just seeing them often and getting to know them a bit, even just through observation, I learn that I indeed am cut out for this type of job.

It's a great feeling.