A New Adventure

So as some of you may know, I've started a new adventure. Maybe I should change the title of my blog... but maybe I won't. Let me know what you think!

So I have abandoned this blog for the past couple of years, since I didn't really have much to write between the summer of 2013 and now, but now I do. I've seen on my stats, though, that people have been checking it. Or maybe just stumbling over it accidentally, I don't know.

This semester I am in Washington DC with the Washington Community Scholars' Center through Eastern Mennonite University. I'm living in the house here in DC with eight other people. We take classes here at the house, and during the day we all go to our internships. These range from working with homeless women to working for the police. My internship is as a Collections Management intern at the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum. I'm under the leadership of the Collections Manager there, Dr. Joshua Gorman. I'll get more into that later.

I left home on August 23, but not before I had some fun on the night before. Mary came to visit!

This is actually on the "normal" side for us.

So the next morning we left far too early in the morning for my liking. If any of you don't know me, I am the opposite of a morning person.

This is the morning. I hate mornings.

We had a short layover in Chicago, then got to DC. We spent the night there, and the next day took a taxi to the house. We were really early, since my parents needed to get back to the airport to make it to their flight on time. Thankfully, the other Blufftonite, Ashley, was also there early, so we were able to get into the house.

Everyone moved in and a couple of us went with the staff to go get our first week's worth of food. If you're wondering how much it takes to feed a house of 9 people for a week, it's somewhere between $300-$550. 

The next day they sent us out in pairs to do city-wide scavenger hunts. This is the way that they get us out to the city to see things we may not normally see. Ashley and I went to Meridian Hill Park, DuPont Circle, and the National Museum of the American Indian.

The Polish Embassy. Unfortunately, I don't have my passport, so I can't go inside.

Joan of Arc keeping watch over Meridian Hill (Malcom X) Park

Some water features at Meridian Hill Park. They look pretty, but smell pretty rank.

Fountain at DuPont Circle

Landscaping heading down into the DuPont Circle Metro Station. 

The Capitol Building. The dome is under construction right now.

The atrium in the National Museum of the American Indian.

We had some extra time, so we strolled through the Sculpture Garden.

The National Archives through the Fountain.

A Calder sculpture

Look at this pretty tree... that's not a real tree.

Do I really need to caption this?

Every other time I've been here this has been under construction, so I haven't been able to get this close to this particular monument.

Look what I found! (Ashley found Ohio)

I like ducks. 

Window washers make me smile now after doing H2$ last spring. 

The next day, we went on a walking tour of our neighborhood. We live in between Brookland and Michigan Park. Our area is also known as "Little Rome," because of the number of Catholic establishments, including Catholic University of America and a Franciscan monastery and Poor Claire's convent. We have Friars walk down the alley behind our house on their way to the Metro station.

This tour included the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. It rivals the National Cathedral for size and grandeur.

Buff, Blonde, and Blue-eyed Jesus. 

Who let the dragons in? (Or maybe it's a hydra? There's a lot of heads.)

I may have a small obsession with rose windows.

Everything is big in this place.

Wednesday was the day that we were supposed to start our internships, but some of our places weren't ready for us, including the museum. So I convinced Ashley to go to the National Gallery with me.

What are you pointing at?

He's thinking really hard.

Sass pose.

Degas' Little Dancer of Fourteen Years

And here's George Washington on a mantel clock.

I like these two because they're popping out of their "frames."

What's up, Napoleon? 

PUG.

After the Gallery, we met up with Brad, because we were going to try to get tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument. It turns out that you have to go really early to get those, so we're going to try that some other time. Instead, we went to the National Air and Space Museum, which is one of my favorites. (I'm sorry, but my father is a pilot, it just goes with the territory.)

On Friday, I finally got to start. Really, it was just a quick orientation. I got to the Anacostia Metro station at 9, and waited for about 15 minutes before figuring that my supervisor had forgotten that he was going to pick me up. I got on the bus, which dropped me off right at the museum. So after some "here's your room" sort of things, I waited for the employee shuttle to pick me up to take me to the central offices to start the paperwork for my ID. The shuttle only picks up at my museum when you call it, and only at 20 and 40 past the hour. So I had a while to wait. I went to look at the exhibit in the gallery, which right now are these wonderful Ndwango cloths. Learn more about them and the Ubuhle Women exhibit here. Each of the artworks in the following pictures are made up of millions of tiny beads that were hand sewn into the fabric.

Oh, and I got some assigned reading for my internship.

Two books on the museum, selections from the Museum Registrar's Methods 5, and SI600, which is the Smithsonian's directive on collections.

Saturday I went out exploring. Also known as, I went to museums. I am a nerd and go to museums every chance I get. This time, I went to the Natural History and American History museums.

We're all learning to use the Metro station. My pro tips? Don't let the machines eat your money and ride in seats facing forward. You'll feel less sick that way. 

The Smithsonian Castle (SI Central)

The World's Bitterist old man, John Smithson. If you ask nicely, I might tell you why he's so bitter. 

This guy is just hanging out.

Looking down into the Rotunda. 

Overlooking Ocean Hall. 

Ooh shiny! (that's the Hope Diamond)

Looking up into the Rotunda. I may really really like rotundas.

Selfie with the elephant. 

National Museum of American History

I've talked about Foucault pendulums here before. Look! A Foucault pendulum!

Miss Piggy, looking fabulous, as always.

Go fight a fire with this. Seriously, that's what this is.

Some Hoover things.

I laughed at the caption on this, because they said that Lou Henry Hoover was considered "fashionable." She wasn't. She was much taller than normal women of the day. Fashions of the day didn't fit her very well. (Source: I worked at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum).

There's always a group of Segway tourists on the Mal

In order to make it to work on time, I have to leave the house by 7:15. For a non-morning person, this is the worst thing that could happen. The following is my inner monologue from my morning commute.

Oh how majestic. And terrible.

One of the most famous museums in the world. I hate it.

I hate the smell of freedom in the morning.

So far at the museum, I've been doing mostly data input. Every time an object comes into a museum, it gets a file. These files have numbers based on how they got into the museu, for example, numbers starting with 0 are gifts, and the three types of files I'm working with are 6's (incoming loans), 8's (temporary custody), and 9's (outgoing loans). I'm creating a spreadsheet to keep track of all of these. What the object is, where it came from, where it went, what day it got into the museum, and what day it left. Because the museum is rather small, most objects on display are loans of some sort. I've actually run out of space in the new file cabinet they emptied for me, so I'm having to use archival boxes.

I am embarrassingly bad at getting them from flat to put together. I wrestled with that box for at least two minutes before I got it together.

If you're wondering what life is like in the house, here are some pictures:

On our days off we are models.

Kelsey's dog, Lucy comes to visit sometimes.

We washed the bowl before we used it again. 

Brad does the cooking. We call him "Dad" sometimes.

Cook-out day!

Surprise selfie! 

I don't work on fridays. I reach my 20 hours Monday-Wednesday, Thursday is for class, and Fridays are my fun days. This is how I spent today:

Went to CUA, got Starbucks, and did some reading from the MRM5. 

Went to the Franciscan monastery that's down the road. They have a beautiful garden that's pleasant to walk (or read) in.

This seems familiar... 

So that is my (not so brief) summary of the past few weeks. I would love to hear from any of you. Next Thursday we're taking a canoe trip down the Anacostia River. I don't think I'm going to take my phone on that trip to take pictures, though. I would really rather not drop it in that river.

I'm not sure when I'll update again. If you bother me enough, I might just do that for you. Also let me know if you want something specific.