Not quite bjj...

I'm a week into my month-long stint in Omaha at the Henry Doorly Zoo, and so far it's been fun.  Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to do much, since I was out for two days last week for a job interview (in VEGAS!) and yesterday we were "off" for President's Day.  I say "off" because the other extern and I showed up at 8 AM for rounds, and only one other vet was there and she told us there wasn't anything going on, so we might as well go back.  It wasn't a big deal, since we were staying in the dorm they have just upstairs, but it was kind of a bummer for me because I wanted to do stuff. 

So far I have either helped or observed: a sable antelope necropsy, examine an injured springhaas tail, ultrasound a spider monkey (it was preggers!!), necropsy a wolf eel, scratch down a tapir for blood pressure (literally--you can rub them with brushes and they just...go down lol), examine a tiger shark wound, do a gastric wash and colon biopsy on an agile gibbon, draw blood on a saki monkey, attempt to dart a spider monkey, necropsy (a very decayed) mossy leaf-tailed gecko, and drain the remains of a pelican's eye (the eye had been removed, but fluid was building up in the orbit).   Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to post pictures of the stuff we do behind-the-scenes. 

Not ours, but this is a springhaas!

Anyways, one of the interns who lives here goes to a kickboxing class every day.  I figured it would be easier to just go with him to his class than convince him to try out a BJJ class so I could have a ride (not having a car in Omaha kind of blows), so yesterday I finally went. 

Of course, he didn't tell me until we were on our way that they do 10-week programs, and the next one starts in three weeks--when I leave.  Of course.  But I wanted to try it out anyways, and I'm glad I did.

I was expecting a class a lot more like what I saw at my school, with people working in pairs holding pads, and some crazy conditioning.  Yeah, notsomuch.  It was intense--I will give it that.  This place was pretty packed, so we pretty much stayed in our little square and did everything in-place.  The warm-up was of light to moderate intensity, with some shadowboxing/kicking and other stuff thrown in.  Then we threw on the gloves and rolled out the Wavemasters.  We paired up and alternated between doing 5-10 minutes of kicking/punching combos and other conditioning stuff--push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, etc.  We ended with some stretching. 

Overall, it was pretty fun and I got a decent workout--much better than if I was just trying to work out on my own in my room.  I know nothing about kickboxing, so they kept coming over to correct my form so I wouldn't hurt myself.  Sadly, my knuckles were still kind of sore afterwords, and I'm sure the push-ups (with gloves) didn't help at all.  I was a little surprised at how well I could keep up with most of the class, given a) my complete ignorance of it, and b) my almost complete lack of exercise for the past few weeks.  I was also mildly disappointed at the lack of contact, but I suppose that's not what cardio kickboxing is for.  Honestly, I think I just miss BJJ.  I meant to talk to them about possibly signing up for just three weeks, but I was so exhausted and hungry at the end I just stumbled out. 

In all of this, I think the most fun part is watching my roommate knock down the Wavemaster every time he punched it.  I guess that happens when you're 6'7" and 270 pounds.