First day of work

We haven’t had water for a day or so now, which didn’t make me very happy considering I couldn’t even shower for my first day of work today. Thank goodness I had a couple of bottles of water in the fridge..it was a cold wash-up this morning. Anyways went to work this morning and I got my official British Museum security card. I am now an official employee and when I flash my card I get into any national UK museum free and free tours and usually discounts at gift shops, sweet. Family, you can all be expecting some nice souvenir from the British Museum.

My office is just an open area with about 7-10 other people working in it though I do get my own desk and computer. Everybody seems very pleasant and I even have my own British Museum e-mail. So for the first part of my internship it looks like I will be engaged in audience observation and surveying for the exhibit “American Scenes: Prints from Pollock to Hopper.” How fitting right? I know who all the artists are. Today I began by creating a blueprint of the exhibit so that on Monday I can begin visitor observation. This includes my lurking about the exhibit and choosing random people who come into the exhibit to observe. I time them as they walk in and observe and draw on my little map where they go and how long they stand in each place. Creepy? A little bit, but it should also be quite interesting. I will also be conducting some other types of research as if the way the exhibit is set-up is the most effective way it could be. This exhibit will be traveling around the UK when it finishes at the BM so my research will actually me influencing other UK museums and the way they install the exhibit!

I’ll be working four days a week for about 6-7 hours a day. They figure this whole process won’t take me the full time I am here so they are going to find me something interesting things to do later on. I tried to pay attention today so I hope I don’t get lost trying to find my office on Monday. The whole set up is kind of like a labyrinth. Fortunately for my weight-loss program the exhibit I am surveying is on the exact opposite side of a HUGE museum and there are lots of stairs. Hopefully I will lose some weight between this and the fact that my meals consist of a couple of pb&j sandwiches a day along with the occasional bowl of rice or spaghetti.

So all is well and exciting. We’re going out to the pub this evening for a celebratory drink for completing our first week and tomorrow Casey and I are going to go wandering about and on Saturday we are going to the horse races. Fun. Love you all and hope you are having an enjoyable summer!