zoo adventure

I know.

I'm a 20 year old college student, I had homework, applications and other obligations and important things I could have been doing on a Saturday... Instead, I went to the zoo. While sitting through a tedious meeting, internally wincing at the amount of homework I still have yet to complete, part of me wants to regret this decision, but looking back at that trip, I can't see how I could have been anywhere else...

Flashback to Friday afternoon, approximately 4 pm:

My phone rings, jerking me abruptly out of a sleep that I had only barely fallen into. I clumsily reach over, almost knock it to the floor and blearily stare at the caller ID. It's JW, recent Bryn Mawr grad, former captain of the rugby team, current UPenn Master's Degree student in Education: all around amazing person.

"Hey! Soooo.... are we still going to the zoo tomorrow!?"

We had talked about it briefly via Facebook, but I thought it was almost too good to be true. I don't get to see her nearly as often as I would like, now that she's graduated and we're both generally pretty busy with our respective academic commitments, rugby teams and whatever else. But she's still one of a handful of people in my life right now that I really admire and look up to, and I just really like having her around. Still, it made sense that we were actually going to do this; she had to do research for a student-teaching project that was to culminate in taking her first graders to the zoo. I... actually had no legitimate academic reason, but she wanted company, and I was willing to tag along; HT, another teammate and close friend in my year also wanted to come along, so at least I had comfort in that I wasn't the only one shirking undergraduate responsibilities.

We had time to hang out for a while that night. Since she had woken me up before arriving, she waited patiently for me to create some semblance of order out of the chaos of my room with its strewn clothes and schoolbooks and told me about some of her teaching exploits, described her "class pet project" (that went along with this zoo excursion) and then came to dinner with me. Afterward, we stopped by another mutual graduated friend's apartment, who's in law school at Villanova, attempted to "do homework" while watching Battlestar Galactica. (I promise, this started out as a legitimate thing - for a teacher's conference she is attending, there is apparently a workshop about "Teaching Science and Battlestar Galactica" or something and she wanted to be prepared for it. I can't make this stuff up!) I brought a lot of work with me, and ended up finishing exactly none of it. She took me back to school at around 11:30 so that I could bounce from 12 - 2 at the party I signed up to work.

I should probably explain here that it's not really that I especially enjoy spilled beer, vomit and telling people that we're at maximum capacity and that they have to wait out in the cold until a few more people leave... But someone needs to do it, and since I'm not really big on partying, it's not much of a sacrifice for me. I'm ok with being sober and responsible when I'm needed; I would rather be in a position to watch out for people and make sure everything is ok, than be the one needing assistance. It's probably just a function of my personality. Also, I'm a dorm president and plan on holding my own event later this year - so hopefully the people I'm helping out now will feel inclined to return the favor and work at the party I'm hosting.

I stayed late to clean up, couldn't sleep when I finally got back to my room and ignored my alarm for a little too long the next morning, but somehow managed to drag myself upright around 9ish to get ready for our excursion. Despite the build-up of sleep deprivation from the previous week, I had a (later correctly proven) feeling that it would be worth it. After bundling up in multiple layers to ward off the cold, eating a breakfast that only narrowly avoided the inclusion of a lox-covered cinnamon raisin bagel ("What? I thought those were strawberries, ok!?"), streaming directions handily from an iPhone, a few questionable automobile maneuvers, and some parking confusion -- we arrived at the Philadelphia Zoo.

Throughout the different animal exhibits, we marveled at rare, endangered animals; "aww-ed" at adorable animals, engaging in adorable activities, such as grooming, play-fighting and... well, let's be honest - just sitting around, being their adorable selves (Um, can you say "two aadrvarks cuddling in their dark little enclosure?" = ADORABLE!) ; and half-played a game that involved comparing a few of them to some of our mutual friends and teammates.

Behold, the Giant Elephant Shrew! No, really - I am kind of obsessed with them now. These are only one of the many awesome things we saw during the excursion - but just look at it: don't you just want to pick it up and cuddle it to bits? I know I do. Also, apparently they're hella aggressive and that is why they are kept in separate areas at the zoo. This is actually hilarious, given... well, just look at it!

Something I found really interesting, was how, despite going through the same experience, we all approached it in different ways, according to our various areas of study. JW, obviously, was looking for things she could teach her kids about, gathering informational pamphlets and occasionally bemoaning the difficulty of taking 30 6-year-olds on a trip and managing to not lose them. HT, a geology major, talked about some of the animals natural habitats, and got excited by a particularly interesting looking rock in one of the reptiles' cages. (At one point, using a mind-boggling combination of team-work, pure skill and large quantities of ridiculousness, we persuaded this terribly scary tortoise-thing to open its mouth so that we could see its "fish-luring" appendage... so epic!)

For my part, I found myself focused on the animal behavior - especially in comparison to my experiences with dogs at the shelter. The gorillas were one of our mutual favorites; we spent a solid 20 minutes watching two brothers (one fully grown, the other still fairly small... for a gorilla) play-fight. Like some of my dogs, they were really mouthy, but gentle about it - they almost did things in slow motion to avoid getting too rough with each other. They were really intelligent, too; the little one kept climbing around a small area, to obstruct the larger one from getting at him.

After the zoo, we had a long lunch at the dining hall. And by "long," I really mean looooooong. Another of our friends joined us, and we just ended up staying there for almost 3 hours, watching the snow by the large windows next to our table, talking about life. It had been a rough week, and it was just nice to get some perspective from all of them.

Still, despite it being Sunday night and a good portion of my homework not being done, I wouldn't trade this Saturday for anything. Sometimes, I think, you just need to get out of your usual routine, environment and responsibilities and just go enjoy life.