"Are You for the Zoo?"

“Are you for the zoo?”

Hannah and I were in the midst of discussing something ridiculous, a conversation in which I was deeply invested—my reply was on my tongue when he spoke—but instead of getting sullen I blinked, because what I had just heard was spoken in the most brilliant British accent.

We had noticed him coming towards us. It was rather hard not to take note of the people passing us by, from the Asian girl in what looked like pink pyjamas to the boys dressed for a day at the gym. He had come from Chestnut Crescent, dressed all in black and—something I had noticed with interest in the back of my mind—his brown eyes on us.

Hannah answered something in reply (I am notoriously shy with strangers), and he smiled, relaxed. “Oh, good. I had thought I was the only one. My name was the only one on the sign-up sheet,” still speaking in that gloriously amazing accent.

We had only signed up the night before, and Hannah had seen his name. “Look,” she said (I hadn’t), “there’s only one other name on this list.” Hannah replied saying something in this vein. Then came the inevitable banter: What are you studying. Where are you from. Hurricane Sandy. The presidential elections.

Meanwhile, Hannah, the RA, was running around trying to figure out where the bus was, and what was going on with the zoo trip we had signed up for. She kept popping in to give us general updates—I’m off to reception! I’m calling the bus company now! I’m calling my boss’ boss! Finally, she came back and said, Due to the fact that only three of you signed up for this trip, it has been cancelled. But never fear! We can get there ourselves, if you’d like.

We all of us looked at each other and said, We’re not doing anything today; why not? And so we all bundled in the QUB minibus, and got a lift from one of the lads working at Reception that day.

The zoo isn’t that far out of South Belfast; it’s almost at the edge of North Belfast, if my directional abilities read true. It didn’t take long to get there, and we bought our tickets and started to look around. It was cold, but not as cold as it has been recently, although it rained hard before we came. Hannah claimed she had seen hail. But the weather had cleared up nicely, which was a relief; I didn’t feel like tramping though a zoo trying to peer out of rain-speckled glasses.

I’ve been to the Toledo Zoo a dozen times, and that was what I was expecting. But the Belfast Zoo is a lot smaller, and it isn’t as well kept up. As we walked along, we could see worn away paint on the ground, where it used to be in the shape of human shoeprints, or elephant prints, but now were barely there. The first building we saw was the run down Floral House, which was once apparently a major dance house, but has since fallen into disrepair. Dead vines were crawling over the surface, and rainwater was dripping down the broken gutter. Some of the exhibits were dirty like this, too. The bear enclosure had a pool full of leaves, the seal and penguin pools had little window-watch spots where the glass was scratched and messy, and one exhibit had been dismantled and was now dank.

“Nothing could live there, look at how black the water is,” Adam said when he saw that exhibit.

We each had something that we wanted to see most of all, and Adam said, "I'm keen on the Malaysian Tapir." He was very insistent about going to see it, and led us through less-known paths, strewn with leaves, until finally we came upon the panda-anteater cross which is the Malaysian Tapir. 

 “It looks like it’s wearing a coat,” Hannah the RA said, laughing. She too is a GB student, although her accent bled into the Irish. She said she is from Liverpool, which apparently has a high Irish population, explaining her accent.

“It does, doesn’t it?” we all said.

Adam seemed pleased. He made some remarks out the Tapir, pleasant offhand ones. He and Hannah both did this. They make the correct comments at the right time, largely impersonal remarks, but appropriate and well-timed.

Today really was a lesson in British boys for me. I know a few British girls, but they all act free when we’re around; Adam didn’t seem to really open up. Hannah the RA even seemed more open, more like the Northern Irish. You could tell Adam was British by the way he talked, and even the way he walked. He kept his hands behind his back like someone in a movie, and really the only way I could tell there was anyone human in there was because he made the oddest facial expressions. 

Notice the way the he holds his hands.

 After we saw the Tapir, we followed the path and saw pink flamingos, which reminded me of the creatures in The Labyrinth, and then seagulls and ducks. There was also a peacock and a peahen, and as we wandered around looking at domestic farm animals, we saw that the peacock had flown out of its little house and was walking over the street. Hannah the RA was rather surprised by this, but Hannah and I, as hardened country girls, were not. We were surprised, however, that the peacock kept following us all over the zoo. Hannah decided that he spread gossip around the zoo, and sure enough, when we arrived at an enclosure all of the animals would be clustered together, pacing, until the peacock came and delivered its news. 

Peacock in the Meerkat den

Peacock delivering gossip to expectant penguins

  Hannah the RA really wanted to see the bats, and everywhere we went we kept seeing signs that promoted the bats, but no actual bat enclosure. Our Hannah wanted to see the red panda, but when we stopped at its enclosure, it did not come out. We passed it by at least three times, but the red panda stayed hidden.

Hannah, Hannah the RA, and I all stopped to watch the animals, while I took pictures, and Adam tended to go on ahead on his own. I wondered if he felt outnumbered, three girls to one boy. Sometimes I would turn around and he would be gone; I would look, but could not see him anywhere.

The best part of the entire adventure for me was the African enclosure, which had giraffes, ostriches, elephants, and zebras. Adam was very obliging and said zedburrah an awful lot, which probably made this my favourite part of the zoo trip. Zeebrah just sounds coarse next to zedburrah, especially when Adam says it in his wonderful accent.

After we had gone around the zoo (it only took about three hours), we went to the Lion’s Den to eat something small, and we called a taxi and went back to Queen’s. We'll be watching Downton Abbey with Fiona at half ten and hopefully we shall see Adam again later this month, when we go to the local gaol. 

(Don't tell my mother I'm going there!)