Summary of the Zoo

Coming up on my last days at the zoo, here is the summary.

Things I will miss about working at the zoo:

• Working at the zoo. It’s something interesting to say; “I work at the zoo”. Well received generally (except by backwards people like my friend Nick who thinks the zoo is evil and the animals should be set free. Yes, what terrible, terrible people who have spent at least eight years of their lives in Zoology courses and now dedicate themselves to the survival and well-being of all our animal charges. They should burn forever for such compassion). And it’s a beautiful place, with the trees and flowers, and the river. It’s gorgeous and very peaceful in the morning.
• Walking the length of a blue whale twice a day. I’m sure everyone walks the length of a blue whale hundreds of times over each day; But I will miss being informed of my having walked the length of a blue whale, twice a day.
• Being able to retreat into the solitude and peace of the dish pit for half an hour at a time, and being loved for it. (No one likes doing dishes.)
• Box-folding zoo-lympic competitions! Kim was the queen, Matt was the king, and I was just good competition. But I could fold them pretty fast.
• Saying “Ohayo gozaimasu!” to Mike Kamizuru in the morning.
• When Matt was still working, taking the cardboard to the recycling in the club carts.
• Free pop; and
• Making sweet mixes of the pops and giving them names. For example: 7-up, Mountain Dew and lemonade. Adding a shot of Orange Crush made it The Risk. Putting a bit of all the pops was The Suicide and using them all except iced tea (it made it taste a little funny) was called The Suicide Attempt.
• Kids who say they are “partially allergic” to tomatoes and Sarah and I snicker behind their backs once they leave.
• A lot of my buddies have already left the zoo, but of the ones still there I will namely miss the three managers Sarah and Taryn and Penny. I will also miss Rose, Terry, Vinky, Kate, Faizan, and Melony.
• Feeding peacocks crumbs of my lunch.
• My lunches… of chocolate bars, cinnamon buns, fruit cups, salads, croissants and cookies.
• Starting work at 10 am.
• Peeling cheese.
• Frying bacon.
• The staff discount.

Things I won’t miss about working at the zoo:

• Working at the zoo. It was the people, really, who made the job great; not the job itself. I never want to prepare a hot sandwich or scrub floors ever again! (But I probably will!)
• The customers.
• The customers’ stupid questions.
• The customers who come in at eight minutes until close and order three different things.
• Almost everything involved in closing.
• Taking a bus and two trains to get there.
• Customers.
• Customers who ask where obvious things are.
• Customers who think it’s fun to condescend to me because I chose to work a servant’s job this summer.
• The zoo uniform.
• Getting off work at 6 pm.
• SCOW, the stupid staff lunch room and change room. They smell like a poorly-kept pet shop all the time because of all the zoo-keepers we share them with.
• The lazy kitchen runner who picks up back Kitamba shifts but does nothing, and then calls us lazy. Impertinent jerk.
• The boss of my bosses, and his boss.
• The customers!