A Journey in Granby Zoo
Again, a post with a double-sense title: “A Journey in Granby Zoo.” First off, the title serves to mark the end of my “journey” as an employee of the Granby Zoo and make a summary of my experiences as such; second, to share a bit of the Zoo with you guys, mostly in the form of pictures and videos that were taken by my siblings and I. An image speaks more than a thousand words, they say… what, then, of a video? What, moreover, of twenty videos?!
Part 1: My summer as an employee in Granby Zoo
With summer coming and the semester at CEGEP about to end, it came the moment when I had to start to think again about looking for a summer job. As I mentioned in my post Memories of Bliss, last summer I had had my first job, and it had been a very enriching and fruitful experience. Still, the fact remained that I had worked for only three weeks. This summer, I wanted to try and see whether I was capable of having a job for three or four months, and I also wanted to go a “step” up the ladder of “job evolution”; with this I mean that I could have chosen a job related to my career, Computer Science, but instead I chose to apply to the “Zoo de Granby.”
After passing (barely) a test on client service and, later, much more comfortably, a personal interview, I was hired as bossboy for the Marché, the main restaurant of the Zoo. My job there consisted, basically, in making sure that everything was neat and tidy in the zones of the restaurant that the clients could be at. That included, among other things: Cleaning the floors (broom and moping), tables, windows, doors, counters, baby chairs, and everything else you can imagine; refilling the condiment “boxes”, answering questions of the clients (“Where is the bathroom?” being the question), opening and closing the restaurant, etc.
The job itself could be pleasant sometimes, tiring at others, and sometimes both: it all depended mostly on how many hours I had slept at night! On a normal day, we woudl have about 8,000 to 10,000 people coming to the Zoo (and sometimes one could swear they all came to eat to the restaurant!), but we also had “light” days, when it rained, in which we would have some 6,000 clients or less (I would never have believed that 6,000 people would come to the Zoo in a rainy day if I had not seen it with my own eyes!); we also had “heavy” days.
The heavy days were those of 12,000 or more people, and the Zoo would close one hour later. The heaviest period we had this summer was a day in which 16,500 people came to the Zoo, and then the next there were 16,000 people; those days I had to work nine and ten hours respectively (running up and down the restaurant), and enter at 7AM the next day! Funny enough, after that row, all of the bossboys started to get tired of the job.
Fortunately, the ambiance at the restaurant was great, as far as workmates and bosses goes. I made a lot of friends among then, and I was friendly with all the rest; I even got a surprise hug from one of the bosses on my last day!
As for the personal part of it, well, this was what I called my “job experiment #2″. From the first day I tried to keep always in mind Yogananda’s axiom, the greater the will the greater the flow of energy, and also his counsel for working people: “No matter what job you do, big or small. Do it so well that the patron can’t manage without you!”. Also, since the job was all about serving people, I took it as a practice of Karma Yoga, and as an act of devotion: serving God as manifested through the people who come to the restaurant.
I cannot tell on my overall degree of success on all of these objectives, but I did do my best to keep up to them. I do know, however, that my efforts reached a certain level of acomplishment, when seen from the eyes of others. Here I will write two of these reassuring experiences:
Once, I went back to my “cleaning cart” in order to pick up something; two girls who were working with me that day were already there, cleaning some trays. As I joined them, one of them, who was seeing me work (from this perspective) for the first time, exclaimed: “I don’t know how you do to do everything that fast!”. Her companion, Myriam, responded: “He’s usually like that,” to which the first girl asked: “But you are not stressed?” I shrugged, and Myriam said: “No, he’s never stressed. He works fast as four people, but he’s always calm. He’s perfect [as a bossboy]“.
Yogananda’s advice, “be calmly active and actively calm” is, therefore, a jewel.
During the party for the end of the season, to which I could not attend because I was flying to California, I was awarded the “WOW prize” (not to confound with “WoW” prize!!!!!) of the restauration department of the Zoo. Thus, the axiom “The greater the will, the greater the flow of energy” is also a jewel!
Independently of these, however, only I know which my mental and emotinal states were during my period of working at the Zoo, and they had their highs and lows. In the overall, however, I believe experiment #2 was brought to a happy conclusion. I learned quite a lot of lessons on service and right attitude to be happy with the result. As a plus, my French improved a huge lot during these few months!
Yesterday, Saturday 27th, 2008, I shaked Michel’s hand on the parting moment, after giving back my uniform and my employee card. Thus finished my journey as an employee of the Zoo, among smiles and best wishes!
Here is me while I was supposed to be working. My boss didn't mind it; actually, she was standing next to my sister, encouraging her to take me pictures!
Part 2: Visiting Granby Zoo
Happy news! Now free from having to work at the Zoo during the weekend, I actually could go there with my siblings and visit. It is a great zoo, named one of the top 10 in North America, but I have written enough already. Let me instead show you some pictures and videos, selected among the 255 pictures and nearly 50 videos we have taken in the place (there were more, but about a third of them were accidentally deleted).
One of the elephants. I believe she is Toutune, who celebrated her 31th anniversary this year.
Pink birds. I do not know their name in English.
One of the giraffes. It looks way more healthy than those at the zoo of Montevideo.
One of the things I love about this zoo is that they have huge espaces in which they keep many animals that can live together. Here is one of such spaces, in the Africa part of the zoo.
Mommy monkey with her child.
One of the gorillas of the Zoo. I do not know which one this is, but one of them celebrated her 55th anniversary this year, only to die a few weeks later. I love this picture.
The hippos being fed. Believe it or not, that is a mother with her child (yes, a child!). The father is still bigger, but out of the picture.
A little kid getting a camel ride.
A mostly-red parrot. It does not show from the picture, but they are HUGE.
A yellow and blue parrow, same size than the previous one.
The alligators in their usual exercise routine.
We had a lot of clear shots of the tigers, but they were all accidentally deleted. This one is the best of those who were left.
These are mini-sharks. They are in a pool and people can come up to hear a presentation on them and caress them if they want.
My sister feeding the birds.
The eagles. We did not get any clear picture of them, but I had to include them because I love eagles.
Part of "The Village" of the Zoo this weekend, as trees start to go red and yellow. The building to the left is Le Marché, the restaurant where I worked.
My sister posing for a picture at the Village.
The rhinos playing in the mud.
Two zebras posing for a picture.
This is Boomer. He came to the zoo as a baby lion, after some legal issues forced his owner to get rid of him. He is a year old now, but he still moves (unlike the adult lions) and his mane is just growing. He is just adorable!
A snow leopard. I believe she is the female, who lost two children this summer.
The pather. Just adorable.
The iguana. It may not show in the picture, but he (or she) is huge! No need to say who I included this picture for!
Black swans. Talking about strange things!
A couple of horses. If I remember right, this species were from Mongolia and were extinct from the wild until they were reintroduced some years ago.
The son of the two horses from the previous picture. He was born the same day I started working there, that is to say the 2nd June.
The little goats at the mini-farm bugging their mother, who is pregnant. One can go in there and play with them if he wants.
As for the videos, here they go:
Lemurs playing and jumping around.
Here is a young tiger and his mother. The kid is running around and bugging her mother, as all little felines do! It’s awesome!!
The alligators being given their food. The first one to appear in camera is the male, who is much bigger; the other is the female.
Here is Bommer. He looks bored; he must be growing up because he does not move a lot… fortunately, he’s not an adult yet: those never move!!!
I got this video thinking especially of Sheena! The turtle is huge… I think that’s its running speed.
This video is dark and the kids get in the middle, but it shows how they are feeding a snake. This one is fourteen years old, while the species normally live up to twelve years.
Here is the baby hippo being a pain to his father. They do this all day!!!
One of the kangaroos, who got a little too confident with me.
This monkey sure knows how to put a “poor me” show!
A different monkey species, sillying around.
A gorilla who is quite comfortable.
A third gorilla walks in from the other room and puts on a show as an abusive.
The spectacled bear eating and taking his time.
One of the snow leopards patroling the zone. I tried four times to get a clear shot of it, but this is the best one that came out. At least you can see her face a couple of times!
Yet another monkey species jumping around. They do have a lot of monkeys.
One of the jaguars looking through the window which leads to his inside cage.
The female ocelot being completely adorable, I love her!!!!!!!!! She’s pregnant right now.
The male ocelot; he reminds me so much of one of my cats!
Feeding the alligators again, one week later. I decided to include this video, because the male alligator is being so dumb to get his food!
The adult lions of the zoo. I have never seen them move this much, ever!
And with that, I retire. I hope you liked the pictures and videos!
Joy to you!
