Trampletier

After six days of residing in Germany, I finally got to see the zoo where I will be working part of the time here. I got a whirlwind tour with the curator on Wednesday, which began when I walked to meet her by the administration building and came upon a lot of commotion, a huge semi truck, and a jumble of people talking quickly in German. The truck began to rock back and forth gently. The curator saw me, introduced herself and then explained there was a two ton rhino in the truck, being transferred to a zoo in England. The truck rocked some more. At the last minute the zoo also decided to send a zebra with the rhino apparently, so a forklift carrying a giant box drove down the path and carefully parked next to the truck where it took eight men to push the box into the truck. This was my introduction to the zoo.

Mostly for the rest of the tour we blew quickly past the exhibits and the curator pointed out which ones were being torn down and replaced or remodled (a lot of them). The zoo is reminiscent of Point Defiance several years ago when all the construction for new areas was going on. In Magdeburg there are plans for some great new exhibits, but it means that some of the animals need to be loaned out to other zoos whlie their new homes are being constructed, or they might even need to be permanently given to other zoos, so the list of animals I recieved before I arrived is already outdated. 

Though one rhino was being shipped out, there are still four rhinos here in Magdeburg and I was fortunate to get to spend a little time with them and their keeper (he speaks no English at all) who has worked at the zoo for over 30 years. I would not have guessed rhinos are...cuddly. I know that's anthropomorphic and all that, but really, they came up to the edge of their (don't worry Mom) REALLY well-reinforced stalls, and they liked to be scratched and patted and rubbed. Their skin feels strange and rubbery, almost inorganic. And their eyes are so very small for such large animals, which is of course why their eyesight is so bad, and why they are prone to being skittish. The male rhino reportedly weighs over three tons, and with their reputation I certainly did not expect them to be so good-natured. 

I got to do some other things at the zoo that were firsts for me this week as well. For one thing, I had never mucked a stall. At Northwest Trek where I was an intern, all the hoofstock roamed in a huge 430 acre area, so there were no stalls at all. The hoofstock in Magdeburg live in stalls, so lucky me! It was a good upperbody workout anyway. I am also pretty sure I have never seen a camel up close before. They are huge! The kind with two humps is called "trampletier" in German, which made me laugh because that translates directly to mean just an animals that stomps on things. The camels also were pretty good-natured and I have yet to see one spit. (I haven't been spit on by any llamas yet either.)

Some other animals of note here are 1) a very endangered and extremely ugly type of monkey that the curator admitted she chose to try to breed at Magdeburg because most zoos don't like to exhibit the homely and uncharismatic little things 2) a pack of Siberian Huskies, the first domesticated dogs I have ever seen on exhibit anywhere 3) itty-bitty mongooses so numerous they are like some sort of weasel swarm--very odd to me 4) a raven who, since ravens can mimic human sounds, speaks German. There are many more animals that are all worth discussing, but I have to leave something to write about next time!

In other news, the parents and kindergarten supervisors were quite concerned that I had no TV in my apartment (a travesty!), so they donated one to me. I would really much rather have internet access than a television, but I decided not to mention it and to graciously accepted the gift. Of course, it doesn't help much with lonliness or homesickness because the channels are German! But I do get CNN if I am really craving an English-speaking voice. I also can watch The Simpsons dubbed in German. I will probably watch the German channels anyway occasionally to help me to learn the language faster. I already find I understand more this week than last, and I hope that trend  continues.

I also discovered the reason that I encounter so many German people who do not speak English or who only speak very little. One of the keeper-apprentices who studied English before she decided to become a keeper explained that there is a great descrepancy between the number of Germans from former West Germany who speak English and the number from former East Germany. The more tourist-y parts of Germany are all in the west and south (former West Germany) and those areas have all been teaching English in their schools since just after WWII. These are the places Americans visit most and why we Americans have the impression that "everyone in Germany speaks English." In the east however, Russian was almost the only foreign language taught until the wall came down, and even after that it took some time for English language programs to get started. At the same time, I have been surprised by a few Germans who claim to speak no English. They will say something like, "Ich spreche kein Englisch" (I don't speak English) but then say something to me that is certainly English, like "Wait a moment" or "I'll come around" or "See you in the morning" to me. Many of the young people who say they speak no English actually mean that their English is about as good as my German is, which is pretty bad, but good enough to ask for things they need or string together a few meaninful sentences when necessary. The older people who say they speak no English, well, they mean it.

This weekend I am hoping to see a little more of Magdeburg, specifically the famous park on the Elbe river that is supposedly quite beautiful. It is colder here than I hoped and I am feeling a little sorry that I packed all of my warm clothes in the bag that I will not get to bring here until November when I come home for a few days. I hope I have not made a grievous packing error.