Funny Page

Squirrels and Otters.




Because I can.

The only reason my tree was able to stand was thanks to that ruler you see at the back.

Don't fall down!

Close-Ups.

Gentle-otter.

Anyway to explain briefly:

In my last preparation week in Dessau we started making stuff. I was working on the squirrels and otters, but we weren't able to finish it. So I took it home and decided to finish it.

Here is my proof.

Outside Gear and Todays Adventure

So!

I've been prepping for Denmark by learning a little Danish and shopping for things I'll need for my job at the Boellen Kindergarden.

My mum and I went into Heidelberg to an Outdoorsie shop one saturday and got:

• Rainpants
• Rainjacket
• Hiking shoes
• Hat

All my outdoor stuff. Perfect for rainy weather. Sunny too in the case of the hat.

Best part was that they had 50% off EVERYTHING so that was pretty nifty. I've been trying them out too (in the recent miserable weather) and OH MY GOSH!

My new rainjacket actually REPELS water! My old rainjacket just ABSORBED water!
Warning: Sarcasm contained in previous sentences.


Oh, but guess where I went today! You're never going to guess it so I'll just say it:

The Zoo.

That's right. The Heidelberger Zoo.

You see they have this event called "Tag bei den Tieren" (=Day with the Animals) where you can get a privat tour behind the scenes. You get to work with the zoo keepers and get closer to the zoo animals than you ever could.

As a belated birthday gift I got to go to this event TODAY.

AND IT WAS SO AWESOME!

I got to pet sealions, camels, feed lions, meercats and half a dozen other critters! I even got really close to a snoozing red panda! Did I mention the sealions were adoreable and the tigers too!?

My guide (who was really, really sweet) even got me some porcupine quills and got me the best place for the sealion feeding show.

I had four quills, but I gave one away to a boy at the zoo who was ogeling them.

Sure I had to handle dead fish, rats and chicks, but that's part of the job and I was there to experience exactly THAT.

Preparing Brunch. Not mine of course!

The Vegetarian Brunches. The ones in the back included chicks.

Cleaning the tiger cage. They were outside of course!

BIG turtle! And OLD. 93 I think my guide said.

They were really dusty, but soft.

A bonus was that my gear mentioned above got to be tested since it rained on and off. Since my hands got a little dirty sometimes I could easily wipe it off on my rainpants. After all who cares? It'll wash off easily while it would have been icky on my jeans.


And then there were otters.

Who could ever dislike these cute, furballs?

Have I ever mentioned I really love otters?

Well all in all a great day.

And on a final note:

GERMANY WON THE FINALS! WOOHOO!

General Things

Hello Readers, Kathryn here!

So you've decided to follow my adventures during my half-year doing volunteer work in Denmark.

Most of you will probably be asking:"Huh? Why is her blog called 'The Traveling Otter?' What's up with that?"

Well rest assured it has a reason.

At the second preparation week for going to Denmark we played a little game in smaller groups called "Das Tierspiel" (=the animal game).
We were supposed to describe one person in our group within a certain category and one person had to guess who it was. We had a river, a chess piece, a tree (with squirrels), a sunflower and even an Ohrensessel (Sorry I don't know how to translate that. Google it.).

And I was described as an otter.

I thought it was so adoreable that I decided to use that as a title for my blog. It didn't help that my imagination failed me completely and I couldn't think of anything else that didn't sound too cliché.

So "The Traveling Otter" it is.

A quick thank you to my group members for indirectly providing me with a title for my blog. XD


While I'm thanking people I might as well thank a few more.

Thank you AFS and AFS employees/teamers for organising my trip to Denmark and letting me ask all my questions. (Seriously though. I worried a lot and probably asked some questions more than once.)
Also to the AFS teamers thank you for just generally being awesome during the two preparation weeks.

Thank you SAP for the generous scholarship. Without your support it would have been a lot harder for me to go to Denmark.

Thank you my dear family and friends for just generally being there for me. You're all amazing.


Was there anything else I was going to say? Ummmmmmm.....
Oh yes!


A little note to my German friends reading this:

Ich schreibe lieber auf Englisch, weil meine Verwandten in Amerika das hier auch lesen wollen, aber sie können entweder gar kein Deutsch oder nur sehr wenig. Ihr hattet Englisch wenigstens in der Schule also sollte es kein all zu großes Problem sein für euch.

Außerdem gibt es immer Google Übersetzer im Notfall. XD


I think that's all for now...

Well I hope you'll all enjoy reading my blog and I hope I will have a great time in Denmark!

Until next time!

Kathryn