Category Archives: Schwartz Athenaeum

June 26, 2008

Night out with the colleagues

By Pam Schwartz

This week has been very busy work and class on Monday and Tuesday, then yesterday I went to work all day and then we had a “staff event” afterwards. I’m surprised this type of staff event doesn’t happen in the states more. At about three four of us left work early and set off for the museum in the docklands (east end) We went to the special Jack the Ripper exhibition because we get in free. It was interesting but not terribly well done I didn’t think. David being the huge interp and eval nerd that he is made us go through this whole evaluation of it, but in a fun way not a, we have to do this? sort of a way. After we finished at the museum and they kicked us out we walked over to the Thames on this nice little bench sat and had a couple of beers (that David brought in his backpack) and talked about the exhibit and other stuff. I thought this might be the end of the staff event but it absolutely wasn’t. We wandered some more on Canary Wharf had a couple glasses of Pimms (which is very good) at some random pub….walked some more and ate at a Turkish restaurant called Tas.

We had Renk which is basically a whole bunch of dips and stuff they bring out with bread and then some falafel, spinach cheese filled things, calamari, mussels, and a bunch of stuff and everybody just eats whatever. It was all quite tasty. We had a bottle of wine here…then we went past a pub which was the first stop in Geoffery Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, but didn’t go in, it’s more like a hostel now I think. Then we went into the pub where Charles Dickens apparently used to frequent (Steve is full of random knowledge on ALL of the pubs). We had another bottle of wine, David wanted to get quail’s eggs to eat, but luckily for me they stopped serving food all ready. I don’t think I could make myself eat a quail’s egg. After that pub closed down they started looking for ANOTHER pub…I was like wholly heck, I was doing really well but this kid doesn’t drink like that and I knew I had to work this morning. They all had taken the day off to go to Wimbledon. Alas, all the pubs in the area were closed so I caught the tube home and went to sleep. It was quite an evening for a staff outing but I really enjoy my colleagues and we had a lot of fun.

This morning I wook up and my arms were all full of hives, so I apparently got into something I was allergic to. I’m thinking it was probably the clipboards at work I’ve been carrying around. Oh well so I called Rhiannon and asked that I not come in today, I didn’t really want to wander the galleries with my arms all red and puffy looking. She said that was fine so I’m staying in today, resting, catching up on laundry, sleeping, eating….the good things. Sorry there aren’t many pictures for this blog, I don’t get a chance to go out much during the week. Here are a few pictures from last weekend though. The first two are both at Camden Market where we went shopping (I went back again the next day with Ben) and didn’t forget my camera. This is the lock that runs down the middle of the market. Below is one of the tunnels that go into the markets. It is so easy to get lost going down into tunnels and up stairs, back and fourth. I saw things the second day I definitely didn’t see the first.
Last Saturday night we went out clubbing. We went to the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town. Six of us girls just went, I wore heels…bad idea. I wanted to die by the end of the night I don’t understand how the rest of those girls all made it. It was fun, they play all your normal music like we would play at a middle school dance, lots of early 90’s stuff. I liked it. We found a few guys who we ended up dancing with most of the night, they were fun. Supposedly it was Richard’s 21st bday…Neither he or Michael look 21 though. There were a lot of really young people there which made things weird when you have somebody who looks like a twelve year old boy start dancing with you…but there were a fair share of 40 year olds there too. I think I’m more of a pub scene girl than a clubber.

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June 21, 2008

I love markets

By Pam Schwartz

Stayed up late Thursday night so decided it just may not be a bad idea to sleep in a bit. I feel like I’m wasting valuable time but I guess if I don’t sleep I won’t fully enjoy time either. We got started a little later in the afternoon but Leslie and I didn’t have anything planned so we just went wandering. We ended up down by the London Eye (which I will ride eventually before I leave hopefully) We just sort of wandered in and out of places on the the waterfront looking for things to do. This is a Dali design sculpture on the Thames. I love it, it is from one my favorite paintings of his.

Next we came upon a Fright Club Horror Show, so for lack of something better to do we went. I was locked in the stockades and beating with a bloody amputated leg. It was an interesting show. It is apparently not illegal for people in haunted houses to touch you here cause I about lost my leg twice and had a small girl on my back at one point. It was fun, I’m almost sure in the states they aren’t allowed to touch you at all.
Next we found a huge arcade so just stopped by and played a few games. The bumper cars were absolutely ridiculous. It would have been a lawsuit in the states for sure. They went really really fast and when you got hit it wasn’t just a little bump it was getting thrown all the way to the other side of the arena. It was the best bumper cars I’ve ever been on!Leslie and I’s camels raced …her camel was faster than mine. We used the tickets we won at the arcade to buy candy. I feel it was a good investment for the return of fun and sugar.

Then we just came back to the flats and chilled as we were both really tired from our afternoon of fun. I’m entirely sick of eating spaghetti and pbj sandwiches so I decided to stop and get groceries and make something tasty. Mom should be proud! I like to make it fancy and call it Sage and Cheddar Fried Aubergine on a bed of creamy chicken pilaf with a roasted baguette. It was tasty enough to sound that fancy but really it was fried eggplant with brown rice with cream of chicken soup poured over it. Minus the butter and sodium it was kind of healthy right?
This morning I forgot my camera. I never forget my camera so this naturally upset me. I take pictures of everything but Casey wouldn’t let me go back for it. We went to the Camden Market and it was amazing. It was like it’s own little village and there was so much neat stuff! My first purchase was some peaches…four and I’ve eaten them all all ready. Casey and I wandered there for quite a few hours. I didn’t buy too much, there were a lot of clothes and crafts stuff I don’t actually NEED or have room to pack. I did however meet a leather worker who I schmoozed with for a while and he made me two custom made leather bracelets for 6 quid only! I was so excited so they fit my wrist perfectly and were crazy cheap. He offered to make me a zebra skin belt too but that was kind of weird and Casey was waiting to leave.

We ate some really bizarre but amazing candy at a stand, and also some really bad lemonade. Lemonade is very hit or miss in this country…you never know their definition of it or what they are going to give you. I try to stick to water. The market was amazing, I might try to hit it up again before we leave…I’m only here 36 more days. That’s not very many. Here is a pic or two I made just for fun, this is what I do really late at night when I’m procrastinating on sleeping.

Tomorrow I have a lot of work to do for work. Too much work but I’m trying to keep at it. I guess the museum is basically substituting me for the professional consultants they usually have come in. David thinks I can do better then I’m sure I can. It’s just going to be intense. Tomorrow at Trafalgar Square they are having a free event called West End Live, note the word free, I love that. Basically all of the shows that are going on around here, Dirty Dancing, Phantom of the Opera, Spamalot, Chicago, etc. are going to have actors there performing skits and numbers from their shows. So that should be a lot of fun!

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June 19, 2008

Terry Jones!!!!! Like WOAH!!!

By Pam Schwartz

Not too much happens during the week besides work. I go to work, come home, hang out for a bit and then sleep. Work is very intense. We’ve finally decided my title is Interpretation and Visitor Research Intern. David is working on putting together my next project. They want me to do the work of what they usually hire professional consultants for because they had a budget cut. What an opportunity…and a lot off work and a standard to live up to. Things are going to get a little stressful come time for that project I think. I officially present my exhibition analysis to the Interp. Board next Wednesday…lots of practicing for that this weekend. Here is my office, there are eight of us who work in here. I work just to the right over there and that is the lovely Susan who is very sweet.

This is my desk where I sit and the floorplan for the next exhibit that I was creating at the time and my cup of tea! I love London, frequent breaks are taken out of the workday for tea and it tastes so good.This is the view out of the office window. That is the front of the British Museum and the little courtyard where I eat lunch everyday. Isn’t it crazy!? I eat lunch there!Yesterday I went to the London Grad Fair. It was interesting but I didn’t know what half of the companies were that were there so I just got a bunch of cool free stuff. The winner for the oddest thing to hand out at a grad fair was the Kent Grad Program who gave me a can that looked like it was going to have moist cat food in it. It’s a grass growing kit, how bizarre. Other things included a nice planner, pens, and highlighters the norm.

No really big plans for the weekend yet. On to more exciting matters! Tonight I went to a lecture given by Terry Jones!!! I was so excited and nobody else even knew who he was. He co-directed and acted in a lot of Monty Python stuff, MP and the Holy Grail, The Meaning of Life. He’s written many articles, is an author and excellent historian. Needless to say I was SOOO excited. He hugged me and I got my picture taken with him. The lecture was about Richard the II on whether he was mad or not, it was sort of in defense of his honour versus Henry IV. I got his autograph too…that is getting framed when I get home!

The girls and I on the way home from the lecture, me, Laura, Leslie, and Vanessa. Riding on one of the numerous huge escalators in London down to the tube.
That is all the new business. Below are some other pictures from the last week or so that I have gotten from friends or finally put on my computer. Sunbathing in Hyde Park again, I think at the time I was laughing really hard because Casey was so excited to eat his sandwich.
Some more pictures from inside of Salisbury Cathedral. Isn’t is absolutely beautiful and the size was amazing.

Lastly another picture from King Lear of the cast doing a call at the end. It was so good. Ben and I might try to get tickets to go see A Midsummer Night’s Dream there.

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June 15, 2008

Weekend Adventures

By Pam Schwartz

There has been too much going on this weekend. It started out that on Thursday night we went to see King Lear at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. It was very, very good. The acting was phenomenal and the atmosphere was even better. It was outside but luckily it wasn’t that chilly. Below are the little accompanying ensemble and a group of us that went to see it.Friday we went to Bath, Stonehenge, and Salisbury. Bath is absolutely beautiful , so I’m going to get a job at the Bath Museum and I all ready picked out my house. This is the English countryside on the way to Bath. This would be just down the road from where I’ll be working, just kidding. Isn’t it gorgeous though?Here you can see inside the Roman Baths and in the background the Bath Abbey. The Roman Baths were awesome and oh so tempting to jump in but they don’t let you do that. It was just like this big stone vault of different size and types of baths. The museum part was very interesting and informative as well. For 50 pence Casey and I got to sample the water, it was very hot and full of the minerals. It made my teeth feel funny.Next we went to Stonehenge, I tried to push the stones over but they were too heavy. Stonehenge is interesting but not near as large as I thought it might be. Then on to Salisbury, this cathedral had us all in awe. It is absolutely gorgeous outside and in, we also got to see one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta. There will be more pictures for all of these things later. My camera battery died so I stole Casey’s camera but haven’t gotten a chance to get the other pictures yet, so more stuff later.Of course on Saturday we went to the Naked Bike Ride in Hyde Park. This was to protest Oil Dependency and Bicyclists Rights. No worries, I posted the least vulgar pictures I had. We also got video….which is interesting. A lot of the body painting was very neat though. I thought about joining in and started to loose my shirt but my friends didn’t think it was a very good idea…and I didn’t have a bicycle, which was too bad.

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June 10, 2008

Dreaming of Museum Visitors

By Pam Schwartz

The last two days at the museum I have been doing visitor tracking. As you can see below, this requires me to lurk the gallery and stalk people when they come in . I created the blueprint of my exhibit below and use this to draw those fine squiggly lines you see and record where it is people go when they enter the gallery. This particular person went mostly in the correct direction. However, the stats are not looking too good. Many people have been going in the opposite direction, which is understandable, the gallery is set up quite oddly. Of course this is what I am here to find out, whether the exhibit needs to be set up differently or not in later exhibitions. Tomorrow I have 36 more observations (making a total of 100) to make and then I have to finish compiling my data and make a report and analysis about my methodology and findings and what not. This should be interesting as I have never done anything of this sort before.
These are all some pictures from the last few days, I apologize for things being out of order but as people post pictures I get them and want to show them to you so I’ll try to make things as clear as possible. Above was Sunday, chill and homework day. We went to Hyde Park which is just this HUGE area and because the sun was finally showing we had a picnic (you guessed it pbj sandwiches) I was right where that open spot is by the huge blue BM Internship Orientation guide is. It was actually a very interesting read. In the afternoon we went to stop by the National Portrait Gallery and we happened upon Dano which is a Korean festival of sorts. We seem to happen upon many of our coolest activities, this little band was like its own little parade. The portrait gallery was huge, my posse grew tired early so I’ll have to go back and finish reading every single text panel later like I love to.
These pictures are from Saturday night, we went down to Bar Bar Blacksheep had a drink and played a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. That is the really fun thing about pubs and bars here, it isn’t just a bunch of obnoxious drunk people. You can sit and chat and play board games, my kinda place. A couple of locals joined us and man were they much better than we were. Below was my team with Mo, Leslie, myself, and Jessica. We lost by one question, Mo’s specialty was Science, and everything we didn’t actually know the answer to we answered Tony Blair.
The winning team consisted of Casey, Laura, Ryan, and Peter. It was a good time, we are thinking this may become a regular activity too. I’m glad some of the people on this trip are just as nerdy as I am.
Last night we went to the pub to watch the big football match (soccer of course) It was rowdy but a lot of fun. The next big event coming up is seeing King Lear at Shakesphere’s Globe Theatre on Thursday, that will be exciting!

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June 7, 2008

Carnaby Street, gotta be, had to be Cah-nah-bee Street.

By Pam Schwartz

Two hours to the horse races did not sound like a good idea at 7 this morning…so instead we slept in. When we started off this morning we saw a little farmer’s market with all sorts of samples, a good free way to get breakfast. We had marinated garlic, cheese sticks, some amazing cheesey bread dough ball things, apples, bread, and then we came to the goat cheese stand. What happened next made my entire day and possibly my entire weekend. To make a long story short there were something like 15 different types of goat cheese to try and Casey is popping them in his mouth faster than I can figure out what they are. When suddenly Casey looks like he may either throwup or start crying. For about two minutes he just stood there with this awful look on his face not wanting to be rude and spit it out but also not being able to swallow it. The man at the booth laughed and then told Casey it was his best seller but that he could spit it out because the birds like it. I wish I would have gotten a picture of his actual face eating the “well-aged” awful awful cheese. We had many kinds but the goat cheese covered in ashes from burnt coconuts was my favorite, kind of different. If we had ovens we would have gotten some of the bread dough ball things to make, but we don’t

Casey and I went to the Red Bull Flugtag competition which is basically where Red Bull (the energy drink) has a big ramp built out over some water. People from all over build what are supposed to be clever gliding/flying machines. They run them off the end of the ramp and whoever makes it the farthest without crashing wins I guess. We didn’t stay for the entire thing but it was quite amusing. Most aircrafts only made it to the end of the ramp and took a quick dive along with their drivers into the lake. Below the picture of somebody falling off the end is what the fliers look like after they stop flying.

Walking around Hyde Park they have some really crazy trees. This tree made it look like the Earth was wearing a big wig and you could walk under it and climb up in it’s branches. Casey and I also had fun feeding the squirrels who are quite friendly. A little old lady informed me that the squirrels would not eat bread however, they only liked peanuts. She also said we had better not feed them salted peanuts because it was bad for them. Thus Casey and I’s plans for next weekend were born. Feeding peanuts to the squirrels at the park.


I had to travel to Carnaby Street for my good old friend Alice. We used to watch an obnoxious movie about two girls going to London called Smashing Time. I took this picture in remembrance of all the amazing smashing times we’ve had. It was a fun little shopping street as well. The walk include cheap chinese noodles and amazing tea samples.This afternoon we got lost on the bus system, we blame Leslie and Laura who thing that Camberwell Grove is where we need to go to. It’s not however but it was like another fun sight-seeing tour. Tomorrow, a day of rest and relaxing….and homework.

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June 6, 2008

A day of wandering parks

By Pam Schwartz

This will be a blog full of wildlife and fun. Casey and I both had the day off today so we decided to stroll the parks. We were to begin with St. James Park which is said to have a nice view of Buckingham Palace. We happened upon the changing of the guard and so stayed to watch. The band played and all was merry.Then we took a stroll through St. James park which is really beautiful. However, we felt that at any given time we may be attacked by creatures. In fact, Casey was about to be attacked by the little squirrel below. All he (the squirrel, not Casey) really wanted was the girl next to us’ peanuts. This pelican was huge. There were a nice variety of geese, ducks, and other random birds. Some I had never seen before.Look this is a whole gaggle of geese!
This was just a neat fountain that was at the end of Hyde Park which we went to after St. James. This is of course an extremely large park and we traversed the whole thing, we definitely got our exercise in for the day.This is Princess Diana’s memorial fountain. It is a simply lovely little fountain. Just a simple circle with a few hills and dips in it with a flowing fountain running through. You are encouraged to stick your feet in, so I did and it was very cold.At some point in the day we all went the Harrod’s, you know the huge store everybody says you have to go to in London. We’ll I wasn’t super excited about it but my own sister said it was a much so I went. This photo shows just how mature Casey and I can be as we are having a dog fight with puppets. I’m not sure the staff thought we were genuinely interested in buying their 80 pound umbrellas and 130 pounds ties.Tonight Casey and I went to see the musical Avenue Q it was hilarious. It was a musical with puppets and it was quite obscene but funny non-the-less. As it is described in the bill, naughty puppets bring to life stories that are dangerously true to life. … The stories were also things everybody is thinking but not really willing to say. The tickets were more than half off so we decided it would be a good time to go. This evening a coupla the girls and I went to Gloucester Arms and had a Strongbow, came home and now I am going to bed. I’m sure tomorrow will be another eventful afternoon out and about.

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June 5, 2008

First day of work

By Pam Schwartz

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!

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June 4, 2008

Demon Barber of Fleet Street and the Rosetta Stone

By Pam Schwartz

Yesterday Leslie and I went and found her place of work. She didn’t have the right address so that didn’t really work out for us. However, this allowed us to find Fleet Street (as in Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street) so of course I had to have my picture taken with a street sign and nice timing with Leslie, I was obviously in the middle of saying something.
As many of you know it was my 21st birthday the day I arrived here. I didn’t get too wild and crazy. We went to a local pub and had a Bloody Mary as well as a couple of shots, compliments of some boys. The bartender who was very cute and very English yelled at me for having a bloody mary and nachos on my birthday…apparently I was supposed to be having champagne and caviar..I guess that shows how classy I am. It was good though, he made drinks I have never heard of, lit them on fire and made me drink them while they were still on fire. Interesting to say the very least. In this picture not only is the Bloody Mary outrageously hot I also have a mouthful of grapes.

This is Leslie and me posing at the Black Sheep Pub…we always pose why would this be any different.

Yesterday afternoon Leslie and I went shopping…not as exciting as I had hoped I didn’t really buy anything except a scarf, a decorative one. Everybody in the UK wears a scarf even the guys so I thought I might try it out.
Today Casey and I went to the British Museum. Uh wow. This is where I’m going to be working THE British Museum. It is so awesome. We spent three hours there, didn’t really read any text panels just kinda wandered through to check out the place and didn’t even make it through the first floor. Gorgeous it is going to be such an awesome place to work.
Also very cool was that I got to see the Rosetta Stone, a 3000 year old mummy, and a head from Easter Island all in one day and as I said I haven’t even seen a good part of the museum yet. I’m hoping as a perk I’ll maybe get a discount at the museum store, wouldn’t that be neat?
I had my PELA (Perspectives in Experiential Learning Abroad) class tonight. For part of it we are required to go to a grad career fair. What do you think mom, should I start looking for grad schools or a career here? Haha..but I am taking a few copies of my resume just in case.
Today Casey and I found a day trip to Stonehenge, Bath, and Salisbury for really cheap so even though I said I wasn’t taking any trips we are going to do this one anyways along with Laura and Leslie.

So I start work tomorrow, I’m really excited!

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June 2, 2008

Police are quite a lot of cheery blokes.

By Pam Schwartz

Today we had more orientation….and more orientation…and more orientation. Thank goodness today was the last day of that. I still know nothing about my internship except that I don’t have my interview until Thursday afternoon. Most people have theirs over the next two days so I suppose I’ll spend a few days out wandering around London. Today we had a safety talk with a couple of officers who were hilarious. They actually taught us more about living in London than anybody else had over the past 15 days. Some of the useful things we’ve learned include that there is in fact no law against jaywalking but if you choose to do so you will most likely get hit by a car. You are allowed to walk around the streets and parks drinking alcohol as you like…HOWEVER, a new law just passed banning alcohol from public transportation, no more drinking on the bus and tube. People are rioting and protesting…absurd. There was much more than this but another disturbing point is that you should always plan extra time for your trip to work on Mondays simply because this is the most popular of jumping days. This simply means that usually on Mondays there are people who jump in front of the trains and trains are delayed so that the mess can be cleared. They said this in all honestly but many have told us this as it is apparently not an uncommon occurance. This doesn’t even phase people, they get upset because it makes them late for work.
This afternoon we had a Cream Tea Reception at the Regency Hotel. It was all very fancy. Scones, clotted cream, pastys, cucumber sandwiches, puddings, and tea and all was very good. Here are Jake, Leslie, Laura, Ben, myself, and Mai. Notice Jake’s proper pinky finger etiquette.

This all aside I love London, it is so historical and homey feeling. Today I got the chance to wander around on me onesies for a bit, in and out of shops, there is so much to do here. I wanted to travel out of the area and go up to Scotland and go over to Amsterdam but I don’t think that this is going to happen. Everything is very expensive in London and so funding will not be possible for those sorts of trips. Alas, I’m all right there is much to do here in London, much of it free or fairly cheap. I can definitely keep myself busy for two months, instead of buying a plane or train ticket I’ll just split that money up and do five different things here.
Some of my plans include hitting up the theatre, a lot! There are so many shows going on everywhere. Be prepared to be jealous Mom…they have Dirty Dancing on stage here and I am totally going sometime this week. I’ll be going on a Jack the Ripper tour, I am seeing King Lear at THE Shakesphere’s Globe Theatre next week, I’ll have to hit up the London Eye and there is a haunted London Bridge Tombs attraction that is in store. Hope all is well and that weather is better there…it’s true what they say that the sun doesn’t exist on this little island.

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