Second last week of work!

I've had a busy week, but it was also quite depressing because it was the last week for the rest of the interns! Monday I went to work all dressed up for the final fancy Monday. We didn't have our intern brown bag lunch, but at 3:30 all of space history met on the patio and we had snacks and an intern farewell. That morning I had done work for Valerie and in the afternoon I finally started my internship for David with two weeks left. We'll have to see how that goes! After work I went grocery shopping and then headed home to get my stuff ready for the outdoor movie Erin and I were going to that evening. Erin and I met up at 8:00 to go to movie on the Mall. It's an outdoor movie night that they set up right in front of the Smithsonian Castle. That night they were showing the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It was fun! There was some weird things Erin and I didn't understand. Like why people started clapping during random parts of the film. However, we had a great time and sang along to all the songs. Well we kind of mumbled along to them, but we tried and we had spirit and that's all that matters!

Tuesday was a normal day at work. I stayed a bit later because I felt like I had a lot of work to do. At lunch we finished watching The Day the Earth Stood Still. We all got really into it and at one point I noticed strings holding one of the actresses and pointed it out. My supervisor David said "WHAT?" and we had to rewind the movie so he could see them. I guess he's watched that movie hundreds of times and never seen the strings, so I felt pretty proud of myself! After my late stay at work  bunch of us interns went to Kelly's for a drink and food. That was my Tuesday, not to exciting.

Wednesday on the other hand was more exciting! I went to work like any other day and I had finished the work Valerie had given me so I started on my work for the following week. I got a fair amount of it done, but not all. I still worked on it Thursday and Friday and I have about an hour and a half of work left to do this week. After work Wednesday Erin and I went to the Corcoran Museum of Art. It was half off Wednesday, so tickets were half off along with alcohol. Erin and I each had a glass of wine which made all of the art so much more interesting! We looked at some modern art and then proceeded to look at war photographs which quickly sobered me up because they were so depressing. The photos were really nice/moving/gave me nightmares, but I didn't like how they organized the exhibit. They did it by theme which works I guess, but what I didn't like was how there were Second World War photographs next to Iraq photos which were next to Korean War photos. It just became over whelming after a while and I didn't really get the sense of a continuity of a story because of the abrupt changes. The other special exhibit was more happy and I really enjoyed. I was a bunch of postcards plastered on the wall with little symbols above each one representing what the structure in postcard looked like. The exhibit then went on to describe what aliens would think if they came to our Earth and there were no people and all they had to go on was our architecture. This exhibit really focused on pillars and Greek/Roman inspired structures. The exhibit called humans the pillar-builders and said that we probably weren't that smart and didn't evolve that much because most of our architecture looks the same. Finally, Erin and I took a tour around the Art Museum. It was interesting, but there wasn't anything that memorable.  

Work Thursday was again uneventful. I spent the day emailing the New York Times and filling out more Crew and Mission Boxes for Valerie's book. After work some of us interns went over to the Natural History Museum and saw Flying Monsters. It was about flying dinosaurs, pterosaurs. However when the theater first went dark this thing about monarch butterflies appeared on the screen. Us interns began looking at our tickets making sure that we got the right show. Right when we were going to start to rebel "Now in Theaters" flashes across the screen and we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. I hear that the monarch butterfly show is good, but it wasn't what any of us wanted at that time. However, Flying Monsters wasn't that satisfying either. There was a focus on pterosaurs and how they evolved. The film never mentioned pterodactyls! We were all disappointed by that! Following that we had supper at Hard Rock Cafe, very intern friendly and then headed our separate ways. 

Friday was the last day for the rest of the interns, so it wasn't that productive. At one point the intern in the cubicle beside me was throwing paper balls over the wall at me and Brigid who was on the other side of him. It became an all out war and Brigid and I even planned one final ball attack, but it was cancelled because we felt guilty for not doing as much work as we normally did. I did end up almost finishing my project for Valerie and I did some tiding up. Before I left for the day Valerie and I had a heart to heart. I know it wasn't my last day, but the next day she was headed off to Australia, so it was the last time I was going to see her. I truly hope that I get to see Valerie again. She really inspired me to pursue my dreams, even if I am confused about how I want to reach them and what I want to study exactly. I learned a lot from Valerie this summer about not being afraid to try new things, to not be afraid to ask questions and to well, just not be afraid and follow your passion. If you love what you do and if you think/know that you have the best job in the World you have found the perfect spot for you. That's my goal. To think that I have the best job in the World. I know that it be along time and a lot of jobs before I get there and there's the possibility that I never will, but I will keep on trying and not give up! Friday night Erin and I had planned on going to Arlington Cemetery, but everyone at work told me that it was going to storm really badly that afternoon/evening, so we changed plans and returned to the Portrait Gallery and finished the first floor. In the end it didn't rain at all! 

That was my second last week!