Lions, tigers, SHEEP, OH MY!

This afternoon, Amber and I went to the Zoo! This zoo was located directly through the gardens of the Shonbrunn palace.... I mean, no huge palace in the middle of one of the most historic and beautiful cities in the world with over 300 rooms is complete without a zoo in the back yard! (And I thought we hit the big time when Mom let Sara and me get two dogs!)

When it comes to animals, I turn into a little kid almost instantly. Nothing fascinates me more than a good wildlife experience, so Amber humored me today by taking me to the zoo. I expected this zoo to be just like any other, but there were several things that were different from any American zoo that I'd been to before. First, there was an entire exhibit dedicated to sheep. SHEEP!?! I can hear Steve Irwin now (rest his soul), "Crikey, look at him.... the illusive farm sheep. Stand back now, he may shed on us at any moment.... oh, but he's a beauty."

Also, when we entered the monkey house (I felt right at home!), there were ropes hanging from the rafters. All of the sudden, possibly the cutest critter that I've ever seen scurried across the ropes and sat in a tree right in front of me. It was this strange-looking tiny monkey, which I named Henry. Henry was about the size of a kitten, and would have fit nicely into my backpack, but I don't think that I could have caught the little fella. He moved pretty quickly! :)

Another thing that I'd never seen before at a zoo was a bat exhibit. Amber and I saw a sign pointing through a doorway (one with those plastic flaps hanging down) that had a picture of a bat on it. I was pretty excited, so I pushed open the flaps and started to head in. Then, out of NOWHERE, about 10 little bats started swooping around in front of me. THE BATS WERE LOOSE.... and it was supposed to be that way! This zoo had an entire indoor cave lit by dim blue lights where people could walk in and be surrounded by little bats. Amber and I put up our hoods and kind of crawled through the cave, just so we could say we did it. I kept picturing us getting about half way home and feeling a little creature crawling up my neck! Eeek!

Recently, a baby panda was born at this zoo, and we got to see a live video on a monitor in the middle of the park that showed the momma panda holding the baby. It was SO cute!

While we were at the seal exhibit, I decided that if this Sports Marketing career doesn't work out, that my next career choice will be a Seal Feeder. These people have the coolest job, ever! We got to the tank just as the seal personnel brought buckets of fish out, and they got to throw fish up into the air for the seals to snack on. The coolest part was that the HUGE seals would jump off of the rocks after the fish and splash everybody in the crowd. It was AWESOME! :)

We passed by the giraffe cage, and the tallest of all the giraffes poked his head up out of the trees and watched us for a bit. He kind of reminded me of Bryce.... can't imagine why! :)

As you can tell, I very much enjoyed myself today! I might just come back to bond with Henry or to visit the bat cave again. Tonight most of the other exchange students left on a train for Oktoberfest. I have an online exam on Saturday morning, so I am staying to study. It's going to be a pretty fun weekend.... put your hands in the air for Quantitative Analysis of Operations Management! Woohoo!