If you had asked me a year ago, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I’d be spending so much quality time with elephants. I’ve spent a total of 6 weeks at Elephant Nature Park so far, and 2 weeks at Elephants World. That’s 8 weeks helping to care for, and bond with the elephants who call these sanctuaries home.

I’ve always been in awe of elephants. Over the years I’ve started collecting elephant tchotchkes like my grandma. However, the coolest elephant mug doesn’t compare to watching a young elephant kick her annoying baby brother in the face, or a blind elephant finally getting a hold of a tree branch she’s been reaching for. Waking up to elephants outside your window never gets old. The fact that it’s fairly normal now to feed watermelons to elephants is pretty incredible.