I was just thinking about this because I have piano tomorrow night.
Last Wednesday, my students got their exam grades back. That’s the one thing I love about January exams. The grades always seem to come in much faster (granted, there are far less students taking exams…).
They all passed (and I was pretty sure they all would; I’m not going to send someone to do an exam they’re not ready for. That’s cruel). Briana was genuinely surprised that she did, which I will never understand. Yes, she could probably practice more than she does, and push herself a bit harder, but that girl has a natural talent for music. She’s good. She’s good without much practice. Yet, when it comes to exams and performing, she freaks out and feels like she can’t do it. As long as I’ve had her as my student, I’ve never seen her fail anything (piano related… or otherwise for that matter) so I don’t know where this fear of failing comes from. But anyways, she passed and was so happy. Now she’s in grade five, which I find so exciting because I love the songs in that grade, haha.
Mitchell did pretty well on his as well. And with the changes they’ve made to the technical requirements, there was a huge jump from grade one to grade two. Not to mention from the old grade two, to the new grade two. I think they put a comment about how he has a lot of potential. Which he really does, he’s a talented kid. It’s funny, because he didn’t really want to start piano. He mostly did it because his mum wanted him to. But he’s really, really good. I think he started just over a year ago, and is already in grade three (and we did primary, two grade one books and two grade two books). I think he likes it now though… now that he realizes that it comes pretty easy to him. He can see patterns really well, so that makes playing a hell of a lot easier.
Annnd Sophia. She is so cute. She did grade two as well, but with the old technical requirements (you can still use the old books… well you could for January, I’m not sure if you can after this). She did the best out of my students, and I’m really glad she did so well on her first exam. I think she was okay in the exam, but I know she was nervous before. They said how good her sight reading was, and it’s true. She does have really good sight reading. So we started grade three. Before we decided for sure she was doing the grade two exam, I had her do a lot of various scales, so I hope that kind of helps with the transition from the old requirements to the new ones.
The jump is just insane. They’re doing it because they’ve now realized that when players are getting to a higher level, their technical is pretty much crap. So they added all this new stuff to the lower grades, in hopes of improving people’s technical.
But now the jump from grade one to two, is even too big. Grade one, you don’t have anything like a formula pattern. Not even C major contrary, but in grade two, suddenly you have C major formula pattern, and G major contrary. You also have staccato scales, and for some completely random and unknown reason, they put the natural minors in grade two, and grade two only. What the hell. If you’re going to put them in, at least be consistant. e_e
THEN they have this ridiculous thing for the dominant seventh cords in grade six (maybe it’s grade five…). I always think of dominant seventh cords in major keys, and diminished sevenths in minor keys. But now, they’re doing the dominant sevenths in minor keys (WTF). Val and I were looking at it, and were so confused, because neither of us had heard of that before.
… turns out, it’s just the enharmonic equivalent of the major key (meaning, it’s the same keys but just a different name for it), so that they learn to realize… that… I don’t know. Keys have more than one name? It’s ridiculous.
I should say that I do think it’s a great idea that they’re adding more technical requirements, because I know personally, how much easier it is when you know your stuff. Especially classical music. But it’s just not… even. So it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
I’m done ranting about that now.
Annnd I have to do some work before I sleep otherwise I’ll feel guilty in the morning.
So today, was a long day. In which I got rather bored… (as I’m sure you can tell by my few, pointless, updates).
I stayed at Work # 1 until 5, then headed off to Work #2. All my students showed up (yay), so it went pretty quickly.
I asked about the exams… I don’t know why I get so nervous, I know they’ll all be fine but I tend to anyways. Connie said that as far as she had heard, they all went okay. I also talked to Sophia’s sister (who was there for theory) and she said her exam went well, and Sophia said it was okay, so I felt relieved. She was nervous.
It’s funny. When I was a little kid, I never really got nervous to play. But as I got older, I also got increasingly nervous. I started to dislike doing competitions, and at exams I was a horrible ball of nerves. Especially for my grade nine (and it’s amazing I passed, because I wasn’t ready… I would have loved to take two years to do it).
Actually, I used to be not as shy too… but I grew more shy. I wonder why that is.
Anyways, my dinner has been sitting here slowly getting cold.
That’s all. I have no more insight to offer on this. They’ll all be fine, and do wonderfully.
But my god it makes me nervous. I’m not even taking them, and they make me nervous. I want them to do well, and I know how they all play, and there’s no reason why they wouldn’t… but sometimes you just have one of those days.
I guess I’m partially nervous because it’s obviously a reflection on me and how I’ve taught them, but I know my students, and I know that (most) of them like coming to lessons and they enjoy playing (read that carefully: enjoy playing and enjoy practicing are completely different). But I just want them to go smoothly. Sophia is nervous because this is her first exam, and although I know she has absolutely nothing to worry about, it is nerve wracking.
On top of that, one of the students I used to have, Stephanya, is coming back tomorrow! She’s been off for a few months because the lesson time didn’t work well for her parents, so it was hard to get her there (she’s six). She’s one of the cutest kids ever.
She’s the one who I had this conversation with:
Me: Okay! So let’s just do this one more time, and then we have to go. Her: Can’t we do one more? Me: Well your lesson is almost over! Her: Oh, it’s okay. I don’t have any plans.
Haha. Kids do say some of the best things.
I like all my students. They’re great and I’m going to miss them more than you can imagine. The ones from Japanese class too. Even though I’ve only known them for a short time, I’ll miss them too.
I get far too attached far too quickly.
It’s strange, because I’m ridiculously shy. Like, painfully. I mean, as in, I don’t particularly like going into stores (although this is pretty okay now), I don’t like calling people (answering is fine, but I don’t like calling) and I always feel like I make such an awkward impression. But with kids, I’m fine. I feel anxious with people my age and older (and a few years younger), but not with kids.
Maybe I’m overly immature, so I feel more on their level? Hahaha.
Something that made me happy today… well, my students! And Fiona wanting me to come early on Thursday to the staff party so she wouldn’t have to wait alone, haha. I know that sounds lame, but it’s nice when someone doesn’t mind spending time with you. We also tried playing a duet of Angels We Have Heard on High again, haha.
IT WAS AWESOME.
We also tried We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
So that made me happy and it was a lot of fun.
Today, one of my students was learning the song ‘Money Can’t Buy Everything’. He’s in a beginner level, and all the songs have lyrics to them. He makes a point to always read the lyrics before he tries the song.
So he reads through them. I think they’re something like
Money can’t by everything
Money can’t make you a king
Money cannot bring success
Money can’t buy happiness
But there’s one thing that I am sure
Money doesn’t make you poor
Money doesn’t make you sad
Money can’t be all that bad
So he reads through them and goes, “They forgot that money can’t buy you friendship or love either”.
Aww.
I thought that was so cute. He’s around nine.
I know that some of my friends, family and students would prefer if I didn’t go to Japan.
And I know they understand that it’s not like, I’m like ZOMG WANT TO LEAVE YOU. Or anything like that, but I just want to go for at least a few years, get some experience, live somewhere new… I really liked it, and I want to go back.
But sometimes, people make me feel so freaking guilty for wanting to go and it drives me nuts. Although I know a lot of them don’t mean it like that. But I’ll still be around, and keep in touch with everyone. I’m not dropping off the face of the Earth.
But at the same time, it’s flattering and nice to know that people care about you enough to want to keep you around. Last night, Whitney (one of my students who is just awesome) asked me if I knew when I was leaving. I said, no not quite yet… but I think at the end of January once exams are over, because it would be mean to leave before exams. She agreed (even though she’s not taking one). When I told her I didn’t have an exact date, she goes, “YES”, and then she said she was glad, because she doesn’t want me to go, and if I end up not going, that would be okay.
I haven’t told most of my students yet, I just talk to Whitney’s mum every now and then, and she asked about it.
Monday, Nicole’s dad asked about what I was doing, because he didn’t realize I had finished at school. So I told him (and Nicole) what my plans were. He jokingly said to her, ‘You’re chasing all your piano teachers away!’ which made me feel bad. :/ Especially because when Katie (her former teacher) left, they requested me.
Katey says I can’t leave, because she doesn’t want any other piano teachers to abandon her (Katie used to teach her, and she left). She also wants a new camera so she can put more videos on YouTube… I don’t know if the world is quite ready for that, haha. She likes to make up songs (with the most bizarre lyrics ever) but she made up this one, and it honestly sounds like the theme song for some sort of cartoon, or kid’s show. I told her she should write it down or at least record it… it’s really good. (The lyrics are questionable, but the music part is really good). She was surprised when I told her that, I think, and didn’t believe me… but I was being 100% serious, haha.
The rest don’t know, because I don’t see the point in bringing it up yet. I don’t have any solid date set, so why bother saying anything and just have that kind of looming there, you know?
It makes me feel really guilty. I absolutely adore all my students, they’re all great kids. Even if some of them don’t always practice, haha. I get along with them all, and we have fun. There’s not one half hour where I think, damn… I wish I wasn’t teaching you today, haha. Which I know sounds mean, but there is the odd student that just makes it so awkward. (There’s this one girl that I’ve taught missed lessons to, who doesn’t smile, talk or anything… e_e most awkward lesson EVER).
I keep wondering if I could continue teaching piano when I go… but I’m not sure. I’m working on all the vocabulary now, so at least I know what I’m talking about, haha.
That’s all. I guess I just needed to say that. I get too attached, too quickly I think… and I’ll definitely miss all of them. I’ll even miss talking to some of the mum’s in the waiting room.
I forgot to post about how sweet one of my piano students is!
Last night, Chayan brought me banana cake, from Tokyo.
They had a Japanese exchange student stay with them for a little while, and she recently sent a package to his mum with some Japanese snacks and whatnot (from my understanding). Or maybe it was just this banana cake, I’m not sure.
But regardless, he knows that I lived in Japan and loved it there, so he brought me one because he thought I would like it. How sweet is that?
And Sophia had a riddle for me. Who’s awesome and good at playing piano?
The answer? BOTH OF US.
Hahahahaha. I’m going to miss these kids when I go away.
I was just watching the news, and they told a story about a boy named Jordie who lives in one of the areas of the city that I do, isn’t being allowed to play hockey because some dumbshit complained.
I don’t really know anything about hockey, but this little boy is seven. Seven.
From the beginning of the season, he’s been playing for this team. The coach asked the board if it he was able to play for them (because of residency rules; you have to live in the area that you play for, or something) and at first was told no. Then, the told the coach yes and approved the official roster. WITH Jordie’s name on it.
Now some idiotic piece of crap asshole complained about Jordie playing on the team, because of the residency rule, and suddenly, he can’t.
He’s been through ten games with this team (I think that’s what they said) and obviously been going to practices. He seems to like playing for them, the coach wants him to play for them, and because of some lameass politics and someone who has nothing better to do with their time, but make ridiculous complaints, he’s not allowed?
I mean, he’s a seven year old kid! He’s not trying to get a spot on the NHL, he’s trying to have a fun time playing on this hockey team.
I would seriously love to scream at the asshat who lodged the complaint. I mean really, how low can you get? What do you gain from it? You upset a little boy, and of course his family. His teammates, and his coach. All for what? I can’t even begin to think of a possible reason that would make that moron’s actions make sense.
It’s people like that are wrong with the world. Them, and my neighbour.
It actually wouldn’t surprise me if it was my neighbour, but I don’t think she’s interested in hockey seeing as she has three little girls, and I couldn’t imagine she’d let them play a sport like that. (Or that they’d want to, they don’t really seem like sporty girls).
Last night Melinda reminded me that I hadn’t really updated my blog in a while.
And, I really haven’t. Not with anything of substance anyways.
But mostly, it’s because there’s not that much to say. Everything has fallen into the same old routine, and while I’m getting quite sick and tired of it, I know I just have to stick it out for a little while longer. I think sometimes I make it sound like I don’t appreciate the job that Jim gave me at the campground, but I do. I really, really do. I think I’d be going batshit insane if I didn’t have anything besides piano teaching.
Not that I don’t love teaching my kids, it’s just that it’s only two nights a week for four or so hours, which, really isn’t that long. Although admittedly, some nights seemmuch longer than others, haha.
I feel lately like I’m being disappointed by a lot of people. Which, really isn’t their fault because I guess I expect too much. So, maybe it’s best not to expect anything at all. Then you’ll never be disappointed and only pleasantly surprised.
Unfortunately, that’s much easier said than done.
A lot of people haven’t been around as of late, for various reasons so it’s kind of lonely sometimes. I’m sure that things will return to normal before I know it, but it’s hard not to dwell on sometimes.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I get extremely uncomfortable messaging or contacting people first. With the exception of about ten or so people, I generally refuse to do it. Despite the reasons. I hate calling places, but I’m okay if someone calls me. I have no idea where I developed this from… It kind of bothers me too, because I do wish I could be more outgoing than I am. I’m just really shy and there’s pretty much no reason or need for it.
Anyways, that’s enough of that.
Aki … drove me absolutely crazy this morning.
To the point where I honestly thought of frying her up in a pan. There’s this … thing, that has four sides, all mirrors, and a bell dangling from it. She sat there for hours just hitting it. Tap tap tap. Ding ding ding. Tap tap tap. Ding ding ding. Tap. Ding. Tap tap. Ding ding.
My god I thought I was going to lose it. So I yelled at her and she stopped for about a minute, them moved to the other toy, which is circular mirrors and continued the same thing. She woke me up at about 7:30am with this.
I was less than impressed.
Work at four today. Nicole didn’t come on Monday, so she’ll be coming today instead. That makes my night almost full, except for half an hour, which really could have been booked yesterday, so who knows. I hope everyone shows up, it makes the night go so much faster.
But I’ve had Jingle Bells and the Happy Days song stuck in my head all night long.
For no reason whatsoever.
Well, Jingle Bells because tomorrow (or today, in reality) marks the YAY WE’RE STARTING TO LEARN CHRISTMAS SONGS day in piano lessons. Although, I might hold out with Nicole and tell her we can’t do Christmas songs until she’s able to master the songs she’s supposed to know already.
Is that too mean?
It would only take her a good week or two of solid practice to actually catch up to where she should be with them, but it’s the ‘solid practice’ part that isn’t really working out. I know she’s busy and I know that their family does a lot, but piano doesn’t magically get easier without practice. It only gets harder and harder and harder. Until you want to smash the keys to smithereens or break your fingers because they just won’t do what you want them to.
. . . this totally went in a different direction than I had originally planned.
This may be extremely long and filled with far too many photos and videos. So if you don’t want to browse through it all, I understand. The short version is we had a great time on Sunday at the African Lion Safari.
As for the long version… here we go!
So, Sunday. Kat and I decided that she’d pick me up at 10:00am and we’d go somewhere for breakfast and then head off to the African Lion Safari. Our first idea for breakfast was Cafe Gratzi, but when we got there it was ridiculously busy. We were there for about five minutes and no one spoke to us, so we decided to try Perkins instead. Sadly, no luck there either as the line was nearly out the door.
We ended up going throguh the drive-thru at Timmies, and hitting the highway. Despite the fact is was pouring rain, it was relatively easy to get to. As long as you remember that you are pretty much in the middle of no where. We got to the Safari, got our tickets and headed in.
We wanted to get these ponchos that everyone seemed to had — especially after our winning poncho experience in New York City. They were cute though, they had little animals all over them but we couldn’t find where they were selling them so we kind of gave up on that notion. We also decided to take Kat’s car through instead of taking the tour bus. That way we could go at our own speed and stop when we wanted to. Going into the park made me feel like I was going into Jurassic Park or something. For some reason, I remember them having this part in the movie that looked exactly like these gates. So you drive in one, then they shut the gate behind you and open the one in front of you so that you can go and none of the animals can escape. First up was the Narobi Sanctuary which held a few different species of birds, llamas and cattle.
We were surprised that so many of the animals were out in the rain, but I guess fort he birds it doesn’t make a huge amount of difference. I know you’re not supposed to roll down your windows, but we did briefly to snap a photo of the ducks which were ridiculously loud! The llamas were really cute, but as you can see they looked drenched! There was a little shelter for them, so I don’t know why they didn’t use it. I guess they don’t really mind the rain. You gotta love the cattle all huddled together in the shelter though!
Next through the reserve was the Cheetah Breeding Compound, which I kept reading as the ‘Cheetah Breeding Campground’. You know you’ve worked at a campground too long when. . . That part didn’t last long and there were only two cheetahs that we could see. So we kept en route and landed in SIMBA COUNTRY. They had the same signs over and over and over, because as I can imagine, people are probably ridiculous and stupid. I mean really, who in their right mind would want to try to feed a lion? O_O If they attempt it, they have whatever is coming to them. That’s what I think.
The lions were definitely awesome, but they only had one male and the others were females (at least, we only saw one male). They were just lounging on their rocks, looking somewhat unimpressed at the weather. The jeep you’ll see in the first photo is the safari jeep and they’re stationed in pretty much every area. I guess it’s to make sure people aren’t idiotic and do something to harm the animals because realistically, that’s far more plausible than the animal randomly doing something to hurt the people without any prompting. But yes, the lions were super awesome.
Even though the cheetah breeding compound was back a little bit, the hang out for the cheetahs was just after the lions. There were three of them and they couldn’t have been any cuter. Kat shot a video of them because at one point, they all started cleaning the one guy.
Following the cheetahs was one of the places we were most looking forward to — the monkeys. Okay in actual fact they’re baboons but that doesn’t change their extreme awesomeness. You always hear about them climbing on people’s cars, and when we were driving up there we saw five all on one vehicle! So we got up there and parked because they’re really interesting to watch. Then we had a few visitors on the car as well. One licked the hood and windshield. In the video I jokingly say he’s cleaning it, but he’s obviously drinking the water. There was another who pulled the windsheild wiper from the back out… you know, like you would if you were going to clean the blade. We were a bit nervous they’d break something, but as they said at the front gates, that’s the risk you take driving your own car in. A couple of them ended up on the top and we could hear them walking around on the roof. Then our buddy (the one who licked the car, and who was sitting there for quite some time) had a friend join him. Kat turned on the windshield wipers just to clear the rain off and the poor baboon jumped like a mile high! Okay, so it was kind of mean but it was pretty hysterical. We took a couple of videos so I put them altogether into one.
There was also an incident of stupidity while we were at the baboons. There were these ladies in like an SUV kind of vechicle, and at first they were behind us. Apparently, we were too slow so they tried to pass us (which is fine) but I think she tried to on the wrong side and somehow she got kind of stuck somewhere and was having a hard time getting out. Eventually they made it and were pretty much right beside us, and the one lady rolls down the window to take a photo. Then a baboon looks at her and she SCREAMS. Like, screams bloody murder! We both turned and glared at her because it was just stupid. I mean it’s not like they were on their car or coming to attack them. The baboon that was sitting on our car just kind of looked over, as if to say, ‘wtf are you doing lady’ and looked back, haha.
After the amazing baboons we continued on to find an ostrich or two, rhinos, zebras, eland, sheep and giraffes. The ostriches were pretty far off in the distance and we were half worried they’d come poke the car, haha. But they didn’t… there was one that was pecking at the safari jeep though.
I don’t know much about the sheep, they’re Barbary Sheep and I had to look it up online to make sure I had the right animal… so yes, haha. Honestly, we didn’t pay too much attention to them. I think it’s hard to be really excited when you don’t know anything about the animal at all. Like I wouldn’t have been able to tell you it’s name.
Rhinos are huge. And I honestly had absolutely no idea that they were really that big. Seeing them next to the cars really showed the size. I mean, I guess I always knew they were big in a sense… but I never knew they were that HUGE! Of course there was one of them who was being a party pooper and staying out of the rain, but I can’t really blame him. If I was a rhino, I’d be that one. Haha. Kat felt inclined to take a picture of the rhino’s bum.
After the rhinos we were extremely excited to be moving on to the giraffes! Unfortunately we couldn’t tell if these were evil giraffes, because there were no trees around for them to eat all the leaves off of (SO OTHER GIRAFFES MAY DIE) but they’re pretty awesome animals. I apparently saw a giraffe when I was a kid, but I have no recollection of that whatsoever. So this is the first time (that I remember) seeing them in real life. I absolutely love the way they chew. The shelter (as you can see) was too short for them, so only their backs were shielded from the rain. They didn’t seem to mind too much though… granted, they didn’t have much choice. Right beside the giraffes were the Elands. I never knew what these guys were either, before I looked them up.
There were a lot of zebras! Which surprised me somewhat because I’ve never seen so many at once, haha. I love the patterns on them and they can apparently tell each other apart due to the different patterns in their stripes. I heard before that their stripes are like fingerprints — no two are the same.
So as you can see, animals like yaks (which is the coolest name ever because it’s really fun to say and sounds ridiculous… yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak, do it like that), Japanese deer and then a bunch of other ones that I didn’t know. I also didn’t know the difference between Japanese and North American deer because frankly I never thought about it before. I love the picture of the black animals that are standing in the rain… I won’t lie, I have no idea what they are, haha. The ones that are behind a fence were an endangered species and they someone crammed themselves into the rocks there to avoid the rain. You can’t see it well in the photos, but the males have amazingly cool antlers. They’re kind of twisty.
Reserve number seven was the last of the reserve and held animals from North America (and I guess one from Europe). For the most part, it wasn’t really like OOH AHH for these ones because they were animals that are pretty common. Like bison and deer. I’m not saying it wasn’t nice to see them, because honestly how often do you get a chance to get that close to them? The deer were hilarious though. There’s this one male, who was practically blocking all traffic from getting through. But these stupid people kept inching closer and closer to him. I wished he’d kick them or something, but he didn’t. :/ Instead the tour bus came around and beeped so he moved off the path, but he was so cute!! And stubborn, haha. Two of the deer started to fight, which was neat to see. I’ve always seen videos of it, but obviously it’s not the same in real life. I also never knew that the sound they make is so much like a goose. O_O It really shocked me (as you can tell from the video). The bison looked DRENCHED and we figured they’d smell like a wet dog, but ten times worse. I wonder if that’s true… but it would make sense.
And that was the end of the reserves. My favourite one I think was with the baboons, and seeing the giraffes and the zebras. So from there we parked and took a look around the gift shops. Some of the stuffed animals were ridiculously adorable and I kind of wanted to buy one, haha.
They have shows there, with the animals so we wanted to catch at least one or two of those. We decided in the long run to go to the petting zoo area (which only had a few animals anyways) and then at 2:00 head over to the parrot show.
In the petting zoo, there were deer, goats a camel and two alpacas. Camels make possibly the weirdest sound I’ve ever hear come out of an animal and I was totally not expecting it. This camel was really loud and kept screaming (or whatever it is he’s doing). He kind of intimidated me, haha.
Then we got to the goats. When you’re a kid it’s always amazingly fun to pet the goats and honestly, I had probably too much fun this time around too. They’re cuter than I always think of them, haha. We didn’t feed them, but for a while we were the only ones in their pen. There was this one goat that stood on top of a tree stump and didn’t budge from there. It was like he was surveying his pen, haha. He reminded me of Watson, because Watson likes to sit on the chair in my mum’s room and people watch out the window. Once we were there for a little bit the goats got used to us, and then kept coming up and trying to bit our shirt, pants, scarf… whatever they could. At one point I was petting tree stump goat and another little guy was standing right on my foot.
I LOVE the one who had his head in the log! I didn’t see him pull his head out, but Kat said that when he did he started sneezing, haha. I think he was also the one who was standing on my foot. A couple of them jumped up as well, you know like dogs do? On their back legs… and another one rubbing his face on Kat’s leg, haha. They were pretty cute. I wouldn’t mind a pet goat.
Right near the goats were the deer and I finally understood the difference between the North American and Japanese species! They were only two Japanese deer and they were darker in colour. We got the little pellets to feet the deer and the Japanese deer kept getting butted out by the other ones who were far more aggressive.
Just before the parrot show started we took a look around at the birds that was in the cages. Oh my god they were noisy. Aki and Hiro can be noisy, but I think I’d go insane if I lived around those birds all the time! The parrot show was really cute and they had one bird who could kind of sing O! Canada, haha. We also learned that peacocks are one of the least intelligent birds. They had a ‘trained’ peacock there and she said they say that lightly because all they can train him to do is run out there, stand on a green board and eat some bird seed, haha. They had another bird who could pick up cans and put them in the recycling, which was pretty cute. Oh and a bird THAT COULD RIDE A BICYCLE. No joke. Watch the video. There were flamingos there as well and it’s the first time I’ve ever really heard the sound they make. At one point it seemed like they were singing together like a choir. Along with the parrots there was a bat. Her name was Abbey.
We also went to the birds of prey demonstration, which was good as well. The funniest part is that they had a bird named Muriel, which is my mum’s name. Well, she was one unattractive bird and looked like she had this tuft of hair… kind of witch like. There was also a Bald Eagle which overshot his landing, and he landed outside of the fenced in area. Luckily they got him back in time and no kids managed to get to him… because he really could tear you apart.
The guy who was doing the show was great, but kept stumbling on his words. Then he asked for a few young volunteers to help him with the next part of the show to demonstrate how this one bird was just as comfortable running on the ground as he was flying. They were going to have a race. Well a bunch of kids came up to the gate and he counted about five and said okay, you guys can all come in… which lead to A MASSIVE STAMPEDE OF CHILDREN. At least twenty kids went inside the gate, because I guess they misunderstood and parents kept sending their kids up when he was CLEARLY having a hard time. He explained that he made a mistake with word choice, but he felt bad and couldn’t really say no to the kids.
But the poor bird was totally crowded during the race! I think under normal circumstances he would have given the participants a run for their money in the race, but because there were so many kids there he came somewhere in the middle. A lot of the kids weren’t really listening as well, so I felt bad for the guy who was doing the MC. But overall it was a great show and very educational. We learned that the Bald part in Bald Eagle used to mean ‘White’… as the Bald Eagle isn’t actually bald.
Right after the birds of prey show was the elephant show called the “Elephant Round-up”. But before I talk about that, I’m just going to finish with the birds. There were a lot of peacocks wandering around and we managed to find a female peacock with a baby, as well as one that was completely white. Why are the male peacocks so much more beautiful!? I know it’s to impress the females, but why can’t human men be like that? Haha. No, I’m totally joking but don’t you ever notice in the animal world the male of the species is so much cooler looking? Like the male lions have those awesome manes, bettas, the females are just ugly. They’re all brown and boring. Anyways, we also saw some hawks and a Snowy Owl. The owls were really beautiful, and the one in the photo looks like it’s making a ^^ face, as Kat pointed out, haha.
There were more flamingos in their own little section and they had young ones! I never knew that baby flamingos didn’t get their true pink colour until after they were a year old. Personally, I think they look almost cooler all black, pink and white… seeing as those are three of my favourite colours.
Last but not least for the animals, were the elephants! Like I mentioned before, we saw the elephant show which consisted of four of them. I can only remember the names of three – Daisy (she was the oldest, 30 something), Piccolo and George (who was the youngest, he was 8). They did a few tricks like showing off how strong they are, and how they can use their trunks to pick up even a small coin (they did a demonstration on a loonie). When they came out originally they were all holding the tail of the elephant in front of them which was super cute.
There was a little girl sitting next to Kat who was super excited about all the elephants and kept yelling out ther names, haha. It was refreshing to see that. After the show the trainer lead Daisy around so the kids could ask questions and pet her if they wanted to. I think that’s a cool idea.
After the show we headed to the Elephant Lookout where we saw baby Chuck and his parents. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a real baby elephant and they are one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen in my life. He was honestly just like a little child and you just wanted to hug him or something. Chuck had a hard time eating his hay unlike his parents and frequently got side tracked by a stump or rock, haha. He was way too cute. The video I took is of a little part of the elephant show (where the one elephant played the drums and the others danced) and then the rest is of Chuck and his parents.
Just as a really random side note, if you listen to the voices of the people talking in the background of the video they have a really distinct Eastern Canadian accent. Like from out east as in Nova Scotia, P.E.I or in that direction. I could tell as soon as I heard them talking and then when my mum saw the video she commented on it too. I think that accent is one of the most easy for me to recognize, haha.
By then we were pretty tired and had seen what there was to see, so we headed home. We have no idea how we ended up in Burlington without taking the highway, but we did and went to this pub to have dinner. We ended up back at my house and watched Test the Nation for a little while, had some tea and Kat went home. It was a really fun day and I’m so glad we got to go!! I’ve wanted to go to the African Lion Safari since I was a kid and I would definitely go again.
For the most part, the animals look like they’re happy to be there. A lot of them were born in captivity anyways, so they don’t know anything different. But there weren’t any animals I looked at and felt bad for, except for the elephant that was doing the elephant rides. They were $5 a ride and we considered going, but decided not to. He looked so sad, and just walked around the same circle over and over and over. Wouldn’t that make you go insane?
But yes, like I said it was a lot of fun and yes, we took a disgusting amount of photos. The sad part is these aren’t even all the photos we took. O_O
I think I’ve covered mostly everything that happened… and it’s definitely time to wrap this up! If you made it to the end, congratulations and thank you. <3
P.S. Melinda, the animals wanted us to tell you they’re very happy there. AND NO THEY’RE NOT BEATEN IF THEY SAY OTHERWISE. ^^
