A Stranger in Strangers’ Hall: When working in museums, make robots?

A few Saturdays ago I offered to come in and help out at the museum, not really knowing what I would be doing. Strangers’ Hall for the past month or so has been having a “face-lift” aka conservation work done to it, among other things, so they have been closed to the public. The day I decided to come in and help out was definitely a whirl-wind day for the museum and I was glad I could be there to help!

I came into a place full of boxes, conservation equipment, paint buckets, school children, antiques, and my boss running around. This I have come to learn is normal for many museums, maybe not an everyday ritual, but definitely normal. After about an hour of running up and down stairs, following my boss around, and looking at antiques for a possible press release that was happening in about an hour, she decided it would not be the best idea to have the press come in that day. The press wanted to come in and take photos of either the conservation or the new activities planned for “half term” for the school groups. If the press came today, the museum would not have been at its most appealing, so it beat having to set up a “faux” childrens’ activities center in a half hour.

Instead, my boss plopped a big box down in front of me and said, “Make a robot.” From 8 years in working in museums, I can tell you I have never heard that in any of them. Apparently, the theme for the “half term” school events is ‘Spring Cleaning’ where they will be showing kids Victorian cleaning tools and teaching them about a servant’s day. The craft they wanted the kids to make though are I guess cleaning robots or machines, making some sort of invention. My job was to create a “robot” as an example among two other ones the staff made. Someone had made a washer with legs and someone else made some sort of Hoover. Staring at this empty box, I didn’t know what to make. After a few moments of looking through craft supplies, I decided to make some sort of trash converter with a conveyor belt and a screen. The end result was a “trash converter” that turns rubbish into food. Not one of my best art creations by far, but for coming up with something on the spot, I was pretty proud of myself.

This little project goes to show that anything is possible in museums. I think why I really enjoy working in museums is because there is always something exciting and different happening from day to day. Maybe it is not what most people would call, “living by the seat of their pants”, but I find it rather exciting. Now I am a bit curious to see what my next adventure at the museum has in store for me.

Hours logged: 4
Total hours: 6

A Stranger in Strangers’ Hall: The realization that I am one of the only volunteers under 60…

For those of you who don’t know, I am volunteering at Strangers’ Hall, basically doing whatever odd jobs they have for me. My research paper is somewhat connected to my volunteer work in that I will be observing how small, local museums are run throughout Norwich, especially since many of them are run through one organization, the Norfolk Museum and Archaeological Services. Anyways, back to my day…

On Wednesday I went to a volunteer meeting at the Hall, since it had been closed for a month due to repairs, etc. From volunteering at a few museums before this one, I don’t know why but I always forget that I will always be one of the youngest volunteers. This case was no exception. I was the only volunteer there under 60 (not that I am complaining in the least, I love the company of a person from age 1 to 99). While sipping on my “cuppa”, I listened to their gripes and groans about CRB or the Criminal Records Bureau. Basically the CRB is a background check that allows you (or not) to work with children in any kind of setting. They were complaining about the fact that despite getting a CRB clearance for one museum or organization, you have to get an individual one for each place you have contact with children, which is obviously a pain. Getting this clearance also limits volunteers until they get cleared, so places oftentimes have trouble organizing events because of a lack of volunteers due to the CRB clearance. Unfortunately for me, like a few of you are also experiencing, I will not be able to directly help out with children activities because of how long the CRB takes. It just seems ridiculous to me that it both takes quite a while for a person to get cleared and that you have to get cleared for each place you work at. I learned that the CRB is a fairly recent development and I hope that in future years they will improve it immensely.

Another complaint I was listening to was the problems of running smaller museums through one large institution, like the Norfolk Museums and Archaeological Services. When having an organization like this, they oftentimes don’t focus on the individual needs of every museum but rather use similar regulations for all of them. Although a bit of a minor problem, the volunteers and staff were complaining about the hours the museum has to be open. Strangers’ Hall, although they are open until 4, want to have the guests out of the place by 4, thus having a final tour time. The museum takes at least 20-30 minutes to walk through its entirety (and I’d say that is rushing) so ideally it would be nice for the staffers to have everyone out by 4 and not have any stragglers coming in at 3:55 wanting a tour. Unfortunately, in order to even post a “last call” time, it has to be change by the NMAS, who regulates all the times. Sure those closing times might make sense for other smaller museums, but for Strangers’ Hall, which is a pretty large museum, it doesn’t quite work. This is obviously one of the problems of having so many smaller museums run by one larger entity.

On another note, it makes me sad though that there aren’t as many younger volunteers. Obviously I know that many young kids aren’t going to be as passionate about history and museums as I, but unless we get more youth involved, it will add to (I think, among other things) more museums dying out. In every single museum I’ve worked at, there has been a majority of elders who volunteer and run the place. And they are all so passionate about it. Yes I understand that many are retired and looking for something to do on the side, but why can’t youth consider doing this too? I think with having many older people running and regulating museums, they often lose touch of what might interest younger and future generations today. I hope for the future museums can find a way of balancing these two things in order for them to survive.

Hours logged: 1
Total Hours: 2

American Idol

Alright folks I'm back! Sorry for the long hiatus...a combination of finals and traveling but now I am back!

Today's topic: An American in an English Class, namely an American focused class.
This semester is different for me than my last one here because I am taking all American studies/history courses. I am taking Gender and Sexuality in the New Republic, Gender and Democracy in the US and The Civil War in American Culture. The last two courses I am the ONLY American in it, so it creates both an awkward and awesome situation. Awkward because I am the only American so everyone immediately looks to you for answers and reactions to things. It is common in my classes to be asked by both my professor and students, "How is ______ viewed in America?", "When did _____ happen?", "Have you been to _____ in America?"
It is awesome though being the only American because I get quite a bit of attention from everybody. Many of the students have studied abroad in America for a year or semester so they are always eager to talk to me. It's really fun to be in these classes because as much as the British students might learn stuff from me, I am learning stuff about how they view American things.

On a side note, discussing American events and people is quite interesting and amusing. Even for being American studies majors, the British students and professors oftentimes don't know about typical famous people in our history, such as Betsy Ross or Molly Pitcher. I had to explain to my American gender history professor (who is a very good teacher nonetheless) about Molly Pitcher and how she manned the cannon to defend her husband. This same teacher thought the Statue of Liberty was built in 1812...the actual date is 1886. Nonetheless my professor is an enthusiastic teacher and loves hearing my input. In my Civil War culture class it is also interesting looking at the Civil War from a foreigner's eyes. America kind of looks ridiculous that we still hold on to the Civil War so much, especially with people still owning Confederate flags. People always love to ask me about that. It is unfortunate, but I have to tell them that I see them in Pennsylvania, a "northern" state today, oftentimes in my hometown. Not only are my courses useful to my learning, but also learning from other students has proven just as useful to my education.

Scotland Puts Me In a Conquerin' Mood

Hello Friends!

If you haven't guessed from the title of this blog post, I just came back from a weekend in Scotland, namely Edinburgh. 7 other friends and I decided to head up to Edinburgh for what better than Halloween weekend! So after a few hours train ride from Norwich (and listening to very annoying and loud Americans the entire way up) we made it! We arrived in the early afternoon, so we didn't have too much planned for the day. First things first, we had to find our hostel.

Edinburgh is set up on about 7 hills/mountains, so if you haven't gotten my drift already, the city is VERY hilly. The really nice thing is you can basically get around both the old and new city by walking, so it is very convenient and often treacherous! Our hostel was down a hill and across the street from the Three Sister's Pub, which closes at around 2-3 in the morning. Excellent. After checking in, we head to our rooms, one room that fit 6 people and another room that fit the other 2 (who had to share with 4 other strangers). The hostel was so nice as to give us a sheet sack (a sheet that is sewn together at the bottom to form a sack) and on our sunken-in bunk beds, we have a nice, crusty comforter and pillow that who knows when the last time it was washed. The bathrooms were tolerable, a bit hairy and wet, but could be worse. And thank goodness almost all of us decided to bring towels, because they give you none. All in all, I was just thankful for a place to rest my eyes for the night, because I was in Scotland!

We didn't have much planned the first night, except that we had seen a literary pub tour offered at one of the pubs. Of course, all of us being some form of a nerd, we decided that was an excellent idea (and it was!). Our tour guides were witty and recited poetry both in Scottish and English, as well as told us a few stories about Edinburgh and authors. It also helped us to get acquainted with the city and enjoy an ale or two along the way. We were all a bit worn out from traveling and walking, so we went back to the hostel so we could enjoy a full day tomorrow. As soon as I laid down in bed though, my nose completely blocked up from the lovely mold/dust/disgustingness and I only got a few hours of sleep. Oh well...

The next day we had quite a full day. We got up early (early enough to get 4 girls and 3 boys into the shower in a timely manner) and headed off to Edinburgh Castle. It was very uncanny to be back in Edinburgh, after being there about 4-5 years ago as a high school student and seeing some of the same sites...but now I could do what I really wanted to do...just explore! The castle was great, with lots of interesting exhibits and got to see some crown jewels along the way. There was even an exhibit on American POW during the 1780s (I guess that made up for the misnamed cafe in the castle...the REDCOAT CAFE...awful name haha). From the castle, one of my friend's had spotted two rather large hill/mountain on which one we could see people climbing and another that looked like it had a Roman parthenon. What did we decide to do then? Find these places!

After a wee bit o' a walk, we found the hill with the Roman-y ruins. Along the way we stopped to check out a cool little cemetery (at my bidding, because I have a certain fondness for cemeteries...). Once we climbed to the top of the hill, you could see all over Edinburgh and even out to the sea. It was such a beautiful day and I was so happy, that I just laid down in the grass. At first, everyone was apprehensive to what I was doing, but low and behold about 2 minutes later, everyone was joining me. That was probably one of my favorite moments that weekend.

From the Roman parthenon, we spotted another castle and decided to try and find it. And find it we did! Unfortunately, to get into the palace it would have cost us about 12 pounds and none of us was willing to spend that. So we then continued on our random journey, which included us stumbling upon the Scottish Parliament building right next door. We got to get a quick look inside and see the room where they hold meetings. If you haven't already got the idea from this blog post, all of my friends are either History, English or American Studies majors, so we love this kind of stuff.

And from the Scottish Parliament, my one friend Brandon tried to convince us all to climb this mountain that he had had his eye on climbing from day one. After a bit of twisting our arms (not really) we all decided to do it! The mountain from a spectator's view looked like it would be quite a climb, but actually it wasn't too bad. It was worth the view and the fact that we could say we climbed that mountain. It was the perfect almost ending to our day. We got to watch a bit of the sunset and a storm roll in (that caught up to us later).

It was only about supper time once we got back, so we went out in search of food after climbing at least 3 mountains that day. Since it was Halloween and we were a group of 8, it was awful trying to find a place to eat because every since place was turning us away. The one place that had room was a thai restaurant by our hostel that ended up being perfect. We all got to sit around a big round table, enjoy some wine and eat yummy thai food. Our night concluded with going to a few pubs and people watching on Halloween. And boy was that fun! Some of the prize costumes of the night were people dress up like Pac-Man, a group of men dressed up like secret service and one man was Obama (of course) and I believe there was a Jesus-like person at some point. It was a great end to one of the most perfect days.

On Sunday we decided to head back early, because we bought train and bus tickets that could be used at any time. Sunday is probably the worst day for England travel because that is the day that the transportation business does servicing on the lines. This means that you are constantly getting on and off different trains and buses...there is no direct line. Our day was supposed to be taking a bus, a train, a bus, and another bus, but because we got up early, we managed to catch a train first. Once again, we are magnets for loud talking people, so we all had to endure a loud gaggle of giddy girls on the way from Edinburgh to Newcastle. From Newcastle we had to get off and get on another train. This train was especially crowded because it was going to London King's Cross Station (even though we were getting off before it). Many of the seats were reserved, so myself and 3 other friends ended up sitting/standing in the toilet/luggage/standing part of the train. It ended up being alright because it was quieter there, but you got bumped into alot and had to sit on the floor for a few hours. At one point, a woman asked me to watch or in her words "put my arms around" her 2 year old daughter while the woman helped another daughter pee. Quite an awkward moment for me. After we arrived in Peterborough, we now had to catch a bus to Norwich. After a two hour bus ride, we arrived in Norwich and had to catch another bus back to the University...another 30 minutes or so. I had quite lost my appetite the entire day because I was constantly on vehicles that were in motion. All in all, I had arrived home safely and earlier than we had originally planned, so I was happy. And I had a really awesome weekend with great company, food and adventure!

An American in England Part 1

In a matter of about 12 hours I managed to have two completely diverse experiences with the British here in Norwich...

Part one of my experience started last night when I was waiting outside a local pub with a number of my American cohorts. A man, clearly a bit intoxicated, started off his conversation with us asking us if we were Americans. Of course, at least for me, I am always wary of a person when they ask that question because you don't know what their reaction is going to be. After we all answered a timid yes to the question, the man clapped his hands with joy and thus began his words of praise. From what I gathered from his scattered speech to us, he had fought alongside Americans in WWII during the Battle of Britain. To just give a quick history lesson, the place where I am studying, Norwich, is apart of the county of Norfolk, from which there was a big airbase that supplied much of the army and went through damages from the war. Since Americans were a big help to the English during that part of the war, some people hold us in very high esteem. This man contined his praising with blowings of kisses and many "bless you all"s. He also relayed to us that, "We Brits had never seen coffee before you Americans came, all we had to drink was tea (at this point he makes a letter "T" with his arms) and then you introduced us to the world of coffee...". Anyways, after chatting with this fellow, or I guess I should say, him chatting with us, we backed away slowly from his attempts to blow kisses at us and give us a hug. Overall it was a nice gesture and something I thing none of us ever expected to experience.

Part two of my experience happened in my Visual Display class (which is all about well "visual display" in museums, life, art, culture, nature, etc.) the following day. It was actually a rather good class, where the guest lecturer was discussing Vauxhill Gardens, a place in 18th Century London that was about art first and foremost as an aescetic. It was also about British identity and nationalism, put on display in an area to show off to other visiting cultures and people as well as to make fellow Englishmen and women proud of their country and themselves. To begin with, it is also a little awkward to listen about British nationalism during the 18th century (at least for me). The class concluded with a discussion about finding this sort of naivity, non-political correctness in society in a place where nationalism is put on display. People were discussing how nationalism is not really thought of as a tasteful thing in society. The kicker was though, when my professor decided to bring up the difference between American and British soldiers today. Her comparisson was that, "British soldiers are often perceieved as 'nice chaps' you know where American soldiers are all about might. So maybe we [British soldiers] don't wear helmets on our heads or metal vests and we get blown to smiterines for it, but at least we are thought of as nice chaps." Hmmm. So much for being all "PC" there huh? It was quite a different attitude on American soldiers than I experienced only a mere twelve hours or so before.

I am quite sure I will have many more experiences and encounters either similar or different or whatever to this, so I will be sure to post them!

No Place Like London

This past weekend my boyfriend decided to come up and visit me both at my University and in London. It had been over two months since I had seen him (which is not a whole lot of time apart, but still enough) so I was looking forward to seeing and being around something, someone from "home". One of the things I remember from the first few minutes together was how "American" I thought Matthew, my boyfriend, looked. He was wearing his typical New York Yankees blue ball cap, a bright blue windbreaker, jeans and sneakers. And he was talking loudly. I don't want you to think that I was embarrassed being around him, but it was just interesting seeing him in the English culture where I have been around and tried to adapt and learn the customs.

I took Matthew all around Norwich first. I had to show him all the lovely 70s concrete architecture that was oh so scenic. We then met up with friends of mine and his to go out on the town and show him a night in Norwich (which isn't as exciting as it may sound). As tradition, we went to our favorite pubs for dinner and some after dinner treats with a few of my close friends. It was a good, relaxing night with great company and lots of laughs.

On board the "Hogwarts Express" to London!

Then we were off to London by train! Since I had lived in London for a month I was interested to see what it would be like returning after a month had gone by living in Norwich. I must say, I did not realize how much I really missed London...going back felt like home. I had missed the Tube, the atmosphere, the places, everything. Of course, I had to take him to a typical pub at first and get some pub grub. During the meal, I convinced him to try HP Sauce. For those of you who don't know about it, HP sauce is quite vulgar. It is a mixture of molasses, beer, and salt and the English put it on their chips, burgers, etc. Matthew was so happy with me after trying it.
Matthew, after trying the HP Sauce, and oh so happy.

One thing that Matthew and I really wanted to do was to go to Madame Tussauds, the wax museum. Neither of us had ever been to one, so we didn't mind waiting in line to take pictures next to creepy but realistic looking people. The wax museum was pretty big, with many rooms filled with celebrities, famous sports starts (that we didn't really know because they were all English), famous famous people, and royalty. Then there was a "scary" part where you got to walk through dark corridors and have costumed people scare the daylights out of you. The scariest part for me though was what came afterwards. The next room was of wax figures of famous murderers and an exhibit on the guillotine, with the actual blade that beheaded Marie Antoinette. There was even a ride at the end all about London and how it is a wonderful place. All in all we had a great time and I would recommend to anyone to go to at least a wax museum once in your life.
Matthew taking the Queen Mother for a walk.

Us spending some time with B. Spears.

Spirit fingers!

Madame Tussuad's making light of the French Revolution...


After spending some time exploring parts of London, we met up with other Dickinson students and friends that were there with him from Malaga, Spain. We went to a museum or two with them, ones that I had already gone to. My one friend constantly kept asking me about a place to get "authentic English tea" and how he wanted to go out for "tea time". Not to burst his bubble, but I had to tell him that "authentic English tea" is everywhere, just go into a pub or a cafe and order a cup of tea. People have this idea that the tea here is so much more exceptional than back at home. It's really the same, tastes the same, smells the same, it is the same. The only places that I've seen that have cutsiey little tea shops are in English country towns that want to cater to tourists. I think he ended up going into a cafe and ordering some regular tea...

Got my "Eye" on you.

Being back in London again, as tour guide Alli, and among friends who had not lived with me in London for a month, it was interesting to observe the situation. I always like to find out what each person really wants to do when they get to London...for some people it's the typical touristy stuff, like going to see Big Ben and the Eye, but for others it is just as simple as going to a park. Since I had been here long enough to get to know the city and the sites fairly well, I felt confident enough in showing Matthew around to some of my favorite places. We did a nice variety of museums, parks, Indian and pub food, sight-seeing and markets. At the end of the trip, it was hard to say good-bye to both my boyfriend and the city again.

What I have learned so far...

It has been almost 2 months since I have been in England and so, I felt it fitting that I share my observations with all of you so far.

1. A common greeting is, "You alright?" meaning "What's up?" I must say this still throws me off because I feel like I have something on my face whenever my flatmates say that to me. Cheers! is also a common universal phrase here. It can mean anything from "good-bye" to "thanks" to well, "cheers!"

2. There are no cookies here, only "biscuits". And they sell loads of them in stores for 'tea time'. My favorites are ones called 'Digestives'. It took me a few weeks of curiosity until I finally tried them and realized that they aren't for digestive purposes, just meant to be "digested".

3. Just like we have preconceived notions about British people in America, British people have the same things towards us. A sampling of questions asked are:
"Is Pennsylvania above New York?"
"Are you from California/Florida/New York?
"How do you say...[insert word here] aluminum?"
"Don't you say "garbage" instead of "rubbish?"
"Are you an Evangelist?"
"Is high school in America like 'American Pie' the movie?"
"What do you think of Obama/Bush?"

4. To some British, dinner is often called "tea". So it get's a bit confusing when one of my flatmates will say that they are "having tea" when it actually means they are making dinner. So if someone invites you to "tea" you have to make sure it is "tea time" and not dinner.

5. The water systems in England aren't necessarily the best. Over the 2 months I've been here, I've mastered flushing the toilet. Yes, I am serious, there is a trick to it. Some toilets will only flush if you push down the handle twice consecutively, others you have to hold the handle down for about a minute and others will flush normally.

6. If you are in a "line" here in England it is called a "queue". There is also queue etiquette you must learn. For all other queues, there is no "queue jumping", but at the pub it is basically a free-for-all for drinks. You are also not served at the pubs, you must go up to the bar and order or you will never be served.

7. While drinking non-alcoholic beverages here, there are also some things to note. First of all, Sprite is often known as lemonade here, which can be confusing because I am afraid one time I will order sprite and it will be actually lemonade. Also, fruit drinks are called "squash", which took me awhile to realize when my flatmates would tell me they bought squash today.

8. Jacket potatoes are baked potatoes. They are one of the biggest foods here. They eat them with beans and cheese (white cheddar always) or just white cheddar or tuna and corn. Almost every night one of my flatmates has a jacket potato. They are rather delicious.

9. I've also learned that anything with the words "spicy" before it, means it isn't spicy at all. It took me about 4 or 5 disappointed tries of such "spicy" foods to realize that spicy is often a misnomer. Unless you go to an authentic Indian restaurant and ask for it to be spicy.

10. Cornish pasties are the best food you will eat here besides chips and Indian food. They come in many different varieties and they are the best way to warm your inners when it is chilly out. 

11. Fancy dress parties here do not mean wear your best attire. Fancy dress means wear a costume. Luckily I did not attend the first fancy dress hosted party on campus for I would have worn a nice dress to a "farmers"-themed party. Whoops!

12. Never say you are not wearing pants, or you don't have pants on because you are wearing a skirt, etc. Pants=underpants. Trousers=pants. Underpants=Knickers. People will look at you very strange if you say any variation on the pants/underpants theme.

So far, those are my various encounters with the oddities of the English culture. It has been very fun and often embarasing making some of the discoveries, but here they are for you to enjoy.