Dolphin Assisted Therapy Intern!!!!!!

Phillip took me to the airport at 6:45 Saturday morning. Don took Julia also. Julia and I met inside and were both fighting back tears! It was so hard to leave Phillip…a month is really a long time! Our flight was fine and we landed in Miami at 10:35am. It took forever to get through immigration and customs. We finally got our luggage and got outside to search for the Greyhound bus. It was around noon when we found the place to wait. The bus was scheduled for 12:45…or so we thought. A Greyhound bus did come, but that bus was headed the other direction. The driver said that the bus we needed left at 11:20! They had changed the bus times! The next bus wasn’t till 5:25. UGH! We asked around to see if there was another option. There was a Keys Shuttle, but they said it would be more expensive. (The Greyhound was $26 each. It would have dropped us off at a grocery store and then we would have had to call a taxi to take us to our apartment.) We found a phone number and called the shuttle. The lady said the shuttle was coming in a few minutes, but that they only had room for one of us. We decided to beg if we had to! Ha! Julia ran up to the driver as soon as he pulled up and I stayed back with our luggage while she asked if he had room for 2. He said yes!!! AND it was only $70 for the 2 of us! That wasn’t bad at all, especially since the driver dropped us off right at our apartment! (Oh, and he stopped at a gas station on the way. Julia and I each got a chicken ceasar wrap for $3.25. I got a Dr. Pepper too. We were so amazed by the price of the wraps. That would have cost $10 in St. Maarten! It’s a little sad how excited we were about gas station food!!!!

We got to the apartment and another intern (Katina) met us outside. That was helpful because we didn’t know where to go! Katina drove here from Atlanta and arrived the day before. She had claimed the room with 2 twin beds already. I can’t blame her, but we were really disappointed. The other two rooms are bad news. The one downstairs has one full size bed. It has the washer and dryer in the bedroom and the entry door to the apartment is in there! Yuck! The other room has 2 sets of bunk beds in it! That’s right, 4 beds in one room! So basically, there is a bedroom for one person, a bedroom for 2 people, and a bedroom for 4 people! We’re stuck in the room for 4! Right now, there is one girl in the single bedroom, 2 girls are sharing the room with the twin beds, and Julia and I have the room with the bunk beds to ourselves! It’s great this way, but there is another intern arriving in a few days, so then there will be 3 in our room! UGH!

Katina drove us to the grocery store that evening, which was really nice! We stocked up on some basics and I bought an 18 pack of Dr. Pepper!!! That made me very happy! (When did sodas start coming in 18 packs anyway? Weird!)

We couldn’t believe how cold it got! We were both freezing! We were wearing jeans and hoodies in the evening and then absolutely froze Saturday night! I was sleeping in shorts and a tshirt and only had a thin little blanket! Thank goodness we found more blankets Sunday and even turned the heat on! We are not adjusted to this cold weather! Sunday was a very relaxing day! It was actually really weird not having anything to do. Julia and I are definitely not used to that! We took a long walk with another intern (Caitlyn). We walked to the dollar store and Walgreens. It’s nice to be in real stores! That afternoon, Julia and I walked to Island Dolphin Care because we had heard that we could access their internet from their parking lot. It was true…we were really excited to get online for a while! Even more exciting – we could see the dolphins through the fence!!! The trainers were there feeding them, so we got to see them doing all sorts of tricks. It was fun! Even after the trainers left, the dolphins were still playing and doing flips. It was fun to watch!

Sunday night, I couldn’t sleep! I think I was just way too excited!!!! We got up Monday morning at 6:45 and were at Island Dolphin Care at 7:45am. We met the therapists and the 2 families. There are usually 8 families per week. There were only 4 scheduled for this week though, since it’s the first week of the therapy year. However, 2 cancelled because of sick kids! So only 2 clients this week! We had an orientation meeting with the families, which taught us a lot about the program and about Island Dolphin Care. Then the families left and we had a meeting to teach us what we would be doing. We got a tour of the place and stood outside watching the dolphins for awhile! Beautiful creatures!!!!!

We only had about 30 minutes for lunch, so walked home, had a quick lunch, and walked back. I was scheduled to be the photographer for the girl participant. I took pictures during the classroom session. Then we got a wetsuit for her because the water was really cold! She wasn’t sure about the water or the dolphins at first, but loved it once she was in. The dolphin session was amazing. I can’t give many details on here, but I have to say that it actually brought tears to my eyes. This was the coolest thing to see! After her dolphin session, the boy had his dolphin session. They do the dolphin sessions back to back to make it easier on the therapists and the dolphins. The boy had his classroom session after the dolphin session.

I can already tell that this program is going to completely amaze me!!! I was so worn out by the end of the day though! They did lend us bikes after the day was over, so we got to ride bikes home at least!

Tuesday, it was supposed to storm in the afternoon. So they changed the children’s water sessions to the morning, hoping to get them in before the storm. It was kind of a mixed up day! It did storm in the afternoon and the weather changed a ton! It got much colder!!! The kids still enjoyed their water/dolphin sessions, but they were definitely cold in the water!

We went to Kmart and Comcast that evening! We ordered internet for the apartment! It is working now, but we don’t have wireless, so only one person can be online at a time. It’s hooked up in the basement, so I probably still won’t be using it much. Julia and I were thrilled to be in Kmart! It was so exciting to be in a real store! I bought a pair of thick PJ pants on clearance for $5.99! They were so warm and cozy last night!

Today was great! My girl absolutely loved her water session today. Mom said she has never seen her smile as big as she was smiling today! She laughed and just kept smiling a huge smile. She is becoming very attached to the dolphins and likes to say “Bella,” which is the name of one of the two dolphins she works with! So sweet!

We had a BBQ today for lunch. Pete grills hamburgers, hot dogs, and veggie burgers. They had veggies, watermelon, mac and cheese, cookies, cake, and sodas. It was absolutely delicious!!! Julia and I LOVED it! It is kind of sad how excited we get over good food these days! But at least we enjoy it more that way! (I was especially excited that they even had veggie burgers…awesome!)

Another intern arrived this evening! She needed groceries, so Julia and I rode bikes with her to Walgreens. OK, not exactly a grocery store, but it was only a mile away and the grocery store is like 3 miles away. She got food to hold her over for now at least. It was FREEZING on our ride!!!! (There are now 3 people in our bedroom!!!)

I enjoy riding our bikes into our apartment complex. It is a gated community and the guy working at the gate always comes out to meet us. He smiles and says “Hi dolphin girls!” I like it! I will gladly accept the title of dolphin girl!!!!