The Next Season!

The next season is going to be so good!  I can't wait to change the world and to grow as a person in the process!  I am so thankful for then and for the now.  I am in a good place.

The Keeper's Dilema

I have these "bi-polar" moments in my current job.  An incredible low, followed by a polar opposite high.

On Friday I was ready to blog a list of things that I don't think the world knows about zoo keepers.  The lows really (here's just a smattering):

• Always having wet (and subsequently stinky) feet-Whether you are cleaning a pond, or spraying out a den your shoes are soaked!  You come in the next morning and just put on wet work boots.  Your skin starts to peel a little and you find yourself going barefoot at all times on your days off just to dry them.
• Dealing with the Public-The job is hard enough without having the public give you their two-cents-worth and preconceived ideas about conservation and downright misinformation about the status of particular animals.  "No sir, I am afraid if you saw a black panther in your backyard, then one of you is on the wrong continent." 
• Being tired-ALL THE TIME!-This is a physically draining job with very little to no downtime.  You spend the morning hauling buckets of food, then buckets of poop, spraying out ponds, dens, and your shoes, and weed-eating or hauling brush.  I wore a skirt to the community garden yesterday, and in addition to being told that I had the whitest legs ever, I was displaying a wide variety of bruises.
• Struggling with the Pros/Cons-I find myself at one of the best facilities I have ever worked in as far as commercial animal care.  All of our critters are there because they are deemed non-releasable and would die in the wild on their own.  We are doing a good thing by housing quite a few rescues as well.  We are also doing a good thing by educating the public.  But, there are some Cons of having our animals in captivity that are associated with certain others we work with and/or our animal acquisition.  Nothing illegal, just something I don't 100% agree with morally.  BUT, I will never agree with a place 100% so I work here thinking of all the good we are doing.  Mentally straining process over the long run though. 

Trust me there is more...but that isn't the focus of this post.  What I want to focus on is how I can go from such complainant-able lows, to the high's that blow your mind.  The answer is the unexpected moments that bring on those sudden surges of gratitude.  An attitude of gratitude makes all the difference.

My most resent moment was one that occurred after work one day.  I was just about to head home when two of my co-workers were about to go socialize our young otter.  (She is alone until the two babies move in once they are old enough.  So she needs a little socialization until then.)  They invited me along for this.  One co-worker ended up in the pool with her, while I stuck my feet in.  She swam around us like a crazy wiggly fish, and would jump up into our arms out of playfulness.  And I was overcome by gratitude.  Thank you Lord for giving me the now, even when it is hard.

Co-Worker's last day.  Saying goodbye.

Her fur was crazy soft on the toes underwater.

Sorry about the smell dear...those feet are ALWAYS wet!

Caroline's Advice for Expats

I don’t claim to be an expert, but after living a year in South Korea, and quite a bit of time in the Mountains of North Carolina (just as foreign to me), I thought I would write a blog to help those who may not quite feel as though they fit in where they are.

1. First things first, it’s okay to not fit in.  You are not from this place, and that is okay.  Don’t let anyone tell you that you are in the wrong because you are not native to the area.  Don’t let anyone make you feel bad for being different.  Even if you look similar, speak the language, and have been there a while, that doesn’t mean you have to conform to the culture of the place you are living. (i.e. An Brit living in Australia shouldn’t be expected to be Australian just because he can look the part)  Which brings me to point two…
   
   
2. Be proud of your heritage.  There is no shame in being from another place.  Embrace who you are and enjoy that it gives you a different perspective.  You can be as much a teacher to the people around as they are to you.  They may not understand your culture, but you are an ambassador to them whether you want to be or not.  Take the opportunity to share about it.
   
   
3. BUT, respect the culture around you. As good as it is to be proud of where you are from, don’t forget that you are in a different place.  Be yourself, but make the effort to respect those around you.  Even though you may get tired of it, living in another culture is a daily effort.  You have to make choices many times a day to do things in a way contrary to what you are used to.  You make every attempt to know what is acceptable in the culture you are living in.  Your job as an ambassador is to not offend those you are meeting in a new place.
   
   
4. There is a difference in friends and acquaintances.  You need to stress point 3 with acquaintances.  You may feel like you are being “fake” by living out customs or taking on personality traits that are different from how you were raised, or how you feel like behaving.  But, it was your choice to live where you are living.  And it is only polite to those around you to respect their culture.  (If you struggle with this, use role reversal.  Thing how awkward you would feel if a foreigner forced their culture on you in a social setting: i.e. an elderly Asian woman starts smacking you on public transit in your hometown and telling you how to dress…it happens.)  However, with friends, you can stress point 2.  Friends already know you, and they will be a lot more comfortable with you and your customs.  They may even be interested in learning more about your culture.  Friends tend to see the good in the way you live differently from them and can even learn from it…while acquaintances tend to see differences as too odd, not understandable…or even a threat.
   
   
5. Take a break! Living in another culture as stated in point 3 is A LOT of work.  Your mind has to work harder than everyone else’s.  You have to interpret situations in many more steps than the locals do.  A person in their own culture can just react to outside stimulus with a reflexive or conditioned response that is acceptable in their culture.  You cannot however.  You have to receive the stimulus, and interpret it (because it can be different than any stimulus you are used to receiving), then as you begin to react in your mind you have to slow it down and think about it.  “Is this acceptable here?  How will this be interpreted?”  Then you deliberately change your reaction into a calculated response that is acceptable in the culture.  This has to happen in just seconds or else you are left mopping up a mess you made, which takes even more effort.  Since all this is unavoidable, my advice is to take a break!  Even if you are an extrovert and love to be around people, take time to get in a position that frees you from thinking.  This will help you not to get burnt out and bitter with the place you are living.  (In South Korea, going to English movies in the Cinema was my break.  It afforded me the chance to not think or respond.)
   
   
6. Don’t play the blame game.  If you are feeling down, do not blame the place you are living in.  Your emotions come from within, and though they are sometimes in response to external situations, you can truly choose how you respond to things.  If you feel a certain way, question why that is.  (i.e. “I am tired and sick of putting in effort to live here!”  Now analyze that, taking the current location out of the equation.  “I am tired.  I think I just need rest.  And I am sick of putting so much effort into the now because I am truly afraid that I am not building meaningful relationships.  Perhaps I need to strengthen those I have instead of focusing on feeling alone.”
   
   
7. Remember why you are there!  Assuming you chose to live in your current location, are those reasons still valid?  Give this time.  Don’t make decisions based on the way you are feeling at any one particular time.
   
   
8. Count the joys.  When dark days come and you are feeling low.  List off, type up, or somehow count the things you like about the culture you are living in.  Believe it or not, you will be bringing some of these things home when you go back.  (i.e. I love that people are so kind here.  I love that it is safe to walk the streets at night.  I love that we can eat dinner at midnight.  I love that I am close to the beach and the mountains.  I love that they have great public transit.)
   
   
9. Know when it is time to go home. Whether it is just for a visit or to stay, you need to know when it is good to go back to where you came from (or on to where you are called next).  It can be healing to spend time back in the place you are from.  But….
   
   
10. Be ready not to fit into your own culture anymore.  As I said in point 8, you will be bringing back home with you expectations and a different way of thinking.  You will forever compare cultures, and you will perhaps even seem foreign to those you know back home.  You see travel changes you, it opens your mind, and now you have brought back to your little piece of the world the ideas from another little piece of the world.  Embrace that, but once again follow the advice from point 4.  You might be an ambassador to “your own people”.
    

Whatever happens friends, know that you are not alone.  Though the sacrifices of an expat are great, so are the rewards.  Be proud that you chose to know more than your little corner of the world and enjoy sharing this existence with the people who make it so varied and amazing!

Life in the Passenger Seat

This title of course is metaphorical since I drove my own car...but you get the idea.  I didn't take the lead on this last trip.  I am a super planner, so it was a novel idea (laced with laziness/exhaustion) that lead to the adventures of my weekend with friends. 

My dear friend Eliza is very "go-with-the-flow" and I am "CRAZY PLANNER LADY" so when I told her, "I am coming for one day and one night...you figure out what we are doing..." she probably thought that I had been abducted by aliens and replaced with someone much more chill.

But she came through :-) and had fun! (as did I)

After far too long on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and a dirt road, and the middle of nowhere, I met Eliza at a geyser built as a civil war monument.  Andrew's geyser is off the beaten path....FAR OFF!  But it was a restful place to sit and chat with my dear friend that I haven't seen in a year.

We then went back on the Parkway to see a garden that God planted on the top of a mountain in the middle of a cloud.  And it was good.  This was followed by lunch on the porch of the cutest restaurant and tea on the floor cushions of a very culture tea house.  OH....that tea house was good!  Eliza....seriously I need those photos!  :-)

Anyway, I got to play with my camera a bit at the park so here are the results:

FYI about this video.  I didn't really almost die (just had to say that because my mom might actually watch it.)  I simply drove a little too fast on a gravel road and the car didn't go where I wanted it too.  And no butterflies were harmed in the making of this video either! :-)