Alright!

Well, this week has been really fun. I turned 23 on the 23rd this week, and it was my first birthday away from close friends and family. My coworkers, who are awesome, nicely sang to me and got me a cupcake. My roommates got me Cold Stone's Birthday Cake ice cream, and Ruchika and I went to Cheesecake Factory and she got them to sing to me and bring me some awesome cheesecake.

Aside from that, I went on a few field trips this week as well. I went on a tour of the Pentagon, which is much larger than I actually thought. It holds thousands of people, has 3 area codes and 4 zip codes. Inside it’s almost like a small city, with its own post office, different shops and a CVS. The tour brought us around one half of it, and then to the 911 memorial wing. We weren’t allowed to take photographs, so I suggest taking the tour on your own. The memorial is really moving.

I also took a tour of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This tour was through the Smithsonian Interns group on Facebook, so it was interns throughout all the Smithsonian Museums. This was actually my second time through the museum, but it’s been 9 years since my last trip, and I’m not sure that at 14 I really understood what was being shown to me. We were brought through with a guide, which was an interesting experience, because in some cases we got more information than walking through and reading everything. He also gave us a nice understanding of the history of the museum itself. For example, the museum was really only built to hold maybe 500,000 people a year, and it receives over 2 million.

My third field trip of the week was on a much smaller scale. My fellow intern Katrina Schrool and one of my supervisors, Alison Oswald, and I went to the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site. The location was the first headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women, which she developed, and was her last home in DC. We were there more specifically to see the National Archives for Black Women's History, which is housed at that location as well. It was nice to see a smaller archive, because if we decide to go into the archivist field, that situation is what we are more likely to be working in, as opposed to a huge museum. The fact that the archive was also a part of a Park Service Site was really special to me, since I’m currently an employee of the Park Service.

Speaking of archives, I want to share where I work. I happened to be alone at work on the day these photos were taken, but I usually have between 2 and 10 people around at all times.

The hallway that holds all the offices for the employees that aren’t interns

My work station 

Another angle of my work station, and Cooby and Matt’s work station, but at this time my stuff is spilling over on to it

The other stations from the point of view of my work station

And lastly, the back room which holds the current projects, along with lockers and the cutting boards

Well, that’s this week. I travel back home for the weekend, (weather permitting) and next week the archives center has grad students for the week and a trip to the Capitol.

Til then,

~K

Welcome back!

This week has been a vast improvement from last week. It stopped snowing, although there are snow banks as big as buses, and my mum came to visit! So, finally getting back to work Friday was a nice change, but also fairly simple because I had to go in late and leave early. My mother came in by train, so I hopped on the Metro to Union Station, which is really easy because the Metro stop is right inside the station. Train stations in general are seemingly similar to navigate, and Union Station has plenty of stores and shops to visit regardless of whether you’re going to take a train.
          
So for the three day weekend, mum and I went NON STOP. After taking an expensive 4 minute taxi trip, we walked through my place of work, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. We walked through the Star Spangled-Banner exhibit, which is such a moving display, as well as through the Scurlock exhibit and the First Ladies exhibit. The Scurlock exhibit ends this month, but the actually materials are being held in the Archives Center and are accessible to researchers as well as to me. Addison Scurlock and his sons were black photographers in Washington D.C. that took images not only of prominent members of the black community like Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King, but also images of just the black community in the area. The First Ladies exhibit is always so crowded on the weekend, but that day it was quite nice to be able to look at all the dresses and other objects dating back as far as the very first First Lady.
          
Saturday, I met Michelle and Barack Obama!

Ok, technically I met the wax Michelle and Barack Obama, and that’s probably as close as I’m going to get, especially wearing the hat, but Madame Tussaud’s is the famous wax museum that has multiple locations around the world. They have a huge President collection, and mum met Abraham Lincoln.

I really wanted to see the Kennedys; the JFK Library and Museum is in Boston and is one of my favorite places--but they were out at a function, and I will just have to go back again. Other than presidents there are also musicians, actors, and athletes from all through time, including Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Tiger Woods.
          

Next we went to the Museum of Crime and Punishment. It’s really big, and awesome! There is so much in there, starting in the early colonial years, to up to date unsolved cases. There’s even an opportunity to do a CSI lab. The museum alone took 2 hours to go through, and had some interactive moments.

We then made the LONG trek from 7th street to the National Mall, and then continued another mile and change over to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. The walk one way is about 45 minutes, and that’s without factoring in the mountains of snow around. We finally got there, fairly safely, and I got a few good images.

Now Sunday we were SORE! Walking in the cold on dangerous ground was stressful on the body. We went to the Ford’s Theatre, the place Lincoln was shot. “The Rivalry” was being performed and only partial view seats were available, so we saw the museum before the show, and the first half, but it was hard to get engaged and the theater was packed, so we left at intermission. I was, however, able to get two images of the stage and the box that Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot.

After leaving, we popped across the street to the Petersen House, which is where Lincoln actually died, and it was a very quick walk from the front to the back of the house, the first floor the only one open to the public.
           
Then we set out for the Newseum. This museum is MASSIVE!  And only open from 9-5. We got there at about 4:15, but the tickets are actually good for two consecutive days, so while mum left the next early afternoon, I was able to explore the museum Monday. It has so much going on, from the Berlin Wall and Watchtower, to a part of the fallen Twin Towers, to the Watergate Door, among a multitude of interactive programs and objects, aside from just the historical information.       
        
Wooo…

I hope that makes up for my utter lack of anything good last week.

Next week, I’ll be going on three different field trips!

Til then,

~K

Hello again...

It’s taken me a little longer this week to post because, in all honesty, I have been stuck in the snow!

Washington D.C. has officially, after almost a week of snow, broken all of its previous snowfall records. It’s been snowing on and off since Friday, and I haven’t really left the building since. I haven’t worked since Friday afternoon, and I’m actually starting to miss it. The original plans I had for this past weekend have been pushed up to the holiday weekend, which was terrific, because it’s a visit from my mum and there was no hassle to move it a week.

Of the few times I did go out, the group went out to Vapiano for Desiree’s birthday celebration.

The restaurant is actually really close to our apartment and is really unique, because at this time there are only about five in the country. Instead of being waited on, it's pretty much self service, and you use this card to track your purchases instead of worrying about separate checks.

Other than that little outing, I’ve spent most of my time inside. I’m not afraid of snow, although I don’t particularly like it, but the weather here has immobilized everything. Being from New England, I have seen my share of big snowstorms, the difference here is how devastating and paralyzing it is.

I’m used to the sound of salt trucks and plows throughout the night, but here I only hear a few people out shoveling on occasion.

I’ve been feeling the affects of cabin fever, and am actually missing my job. If I have work tomorrow, it’ll be the first day all week, and then President’s Day is after this weekend. I hope that with the snow ending, this weekend I will have far more adventures and be able to have more fun experiences to share.

Stick with me!

Until next time,

~k

Alrighty,

Here I am at week 2 and I'm having a fabulous time. So I'm from Massachusetts and we have our own public transportation, the T, but the Metro is a welcome change.

Here, the stations are smoke free, food and drink free, even pet free. They're almost unbelievably clean. They're really convenient because they actually follow a schedule that can be traced. www.wmata.com can help you plan any trip and the expected expenses. There are a few ways to get around on the Metro. What's generally recommended is the SmarTrip card, which is a rechargeable and can be registered so you won't lose your money. There are also different kinds of passes. For my personal use, I have a SmarTrip card but I think the Short Trip weekly pass is the best for the money I spend. It's $26.40 per week, but I can go anywhere that's less than $2.65 during peak hours. That makes more sense when you're actually here but the website is really useful when making those decisions.

So the rest of the week at work was extremely awesome. To work in the Smithsonian "with the stuff" was something I've wanted since i was 13, on my first trip to DC. My specific project at the moment is removing photographs from frames and putting them in folders. These photographs are panoramic images of different C.C.C. camps. The Civilian Conservation Corps was a work relief program, giving men jobs when there weren't any during the Depression Era. I'm sure it sounds boring to some, but this is becoming something I really enjoy doing. I work as an intern for the processing team and they've all been so helpful for answering my questions not just about the work I'm doing now, but also about where to go to make a career out of archiving, becoming an archivist.

Along with working, my job is centrally located near the National Mall which has the Washington Monument

and the Lincoln Memorial

among other memorials. As an actual employee of the National Park Service, I'm actively working on my Passport to the National Parks. It's a book that you put image stamps in with descriptions of the different locations, and there's a cancellation stamp with the date on it for when you actually visit. So far I've been to a few of the DC sites, and I plan on trying to make it to all of them.

Before I go, we did get snow this past weekend, which being from New England, isn't a huge deal, but here's a view from my window of the snow.

That's all for now,

~K