(Amanda) D.C.F. and avocados

Today I took a field trip with the other Education dept. interns to see an offsite presentation, at an elementary school just North of Boston. On the way back we stopped in Concord for lunch and wandered around. We spent some time in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where I was pleased to find "Mourning Victory," a monument designed by Daniel Chester French, and Mr. French's gravestone (simple and sedate). I left a penny there like many before me. Just beyond his grave is "author's ridge" where lie the graves of Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, and Louisa May and Bronson Alcott, alongside the nearly 10,000 others in the cemetery. It was a truly lovely place...with some very steep walkways.

(Maddie) First Few Days on the Job

Well, I have been at my film production internship for 3 work days [I'm on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule] and have enjoyed it so far. One of the major duties of film production interns throughout the entire film industry is writing coverages. "Coverages" are the industry standard for reviewing movie scripts. You provide basic information, a log line, a short summary, and a 2-page synopsis as well as an analyzation of the characters, plot structure, concept, etc. Finally, you recommend either to "pass" or "consider" the script for production. Right now, it takes me 2-3 three hours to read a standard 120-page script [2 hour movie] and another 2-4 hours to write a 5-page coverage. My speed and quality will improve with time. I'm not allowed to divulge the plots of the scripts - big surprise. So far, most of the scripts I have read have been passes. Hopefully I will run into a winner soon:)

Other internship duties include the usual: bringing people coffee, keeping the office clean, running errands on the fly, etc. I've been learning a lot about film production and enjoying it thoroughly. The office atmosphere is great and the people are wonderful. There is a little area where all of the interns gather in the back and frantically attempt to finish coverages while running missions for various higher-ups. I'm still meeting new interns because each of them is on a different schedule. Although I have no official number, it seems like # interns > # fulltimers.

I love independent film studios:)

(Mary) weekend away

On a normal workday, Betsy and I wake up in the same room (about 45 minutes apart), eat breakfast mostly together, drive to work together, make phone calls from desks separated by a small filing cabinet, eat lunch together, make more phone calls from desks separated by a small filing cabinet, drive back to the apartment together, cook dinner together, eat dinner together, do dishes together, and by that time it's dark and we've locked our door for the night.

So far, we haven't had any major fights. In fact, we haven't really had any minor fights. We had something like this once:

Betsy: Do you like guacamole?
Mary: Um...no.
Betsy: Have you tried guacamole?
Mary: Um...
Betsy: You haven't even tried guacamole! How can you say you don't like it?
Mary: Um...maybe I have tried it. Is it green? Do people put it on crackers? I think I did, and I think I remember not liking it.
[next day, Betsy orders guacamole at a restaurant.]
Betsy: Mary, try this.
Mary: (dips tortilla chip in guacamole and eats) I guess it tastes okay, but it feels really slimy.
Betsy: Well, you have to not think about snot while you're eating it.

And another one like this:

Betsy: Do you like hummus?
Mary: No.
Betsy: (gives Mary a knowing look) Have you tried hummus?
Mary: Yes.
Betsy: And you're sure you don't like it?
Mary: Yes.

But overall, we're getting along really well, especially considering we're rarely more than 20 feet away from each other. So when I found out I was going home for a family event this weekend, I automatically asked Betsy if she'd like to come along. It hadn't really occurred to me that we could be in separate places.

Betsy suggested that a friend pick her up and take her to Hillsdale for the weekend, and that's what she ended up doing. So I drove home alone.

It was up to my sister and me to make dinner Saturday night. Armed with the confidence I'd gained spending three weeks cooking with Betsy, I scanned the shelves of the refrigerator, looking for food I knew how to cook.

My confidence went kerplunk when I realized we had no broccoli. And we were out of carrots. And basically nothing to make a main course out of except meat, and I didn't learn anything from Betsy about cooking meat.

Our sandwiches that night (lunch meat, sliced cheese and raw tomato) were a testament to Betsy's cooking skillz.

(Amanda) Dagmar in a Club Car

Well, to begin with I forgot my name tag. While this was hardly the end of the world, it was a bit embarrassing. After dodging a faulty alarm system and meeting some/most of the other interns, we (my roommate K, our fellow Curatorial intern B, and myself) followed our boss around on a tour of the collections building (too small) and the visitor's center/offices (in layout much like the Sage center, but with a courtyard and a tower where the theater is). We later joined the Education interns (my other group of co-workers.... though I won't work with them for a month and a half or so) for a short walk through the Wampanoag Homesite and the 1627 English Village (sooooo many kinds of amazing). We had time to explore before lunch, a treat from our boss, then she took us on a driving tour of the immediate area. After that jaunt we retreated to the back room of the collections building to process some new books. And that was that.

Things I learned today:

- Writing book spine labels in sharpie (legibly) can be difficult

- I am a passable golf cart driver, even with patrons on board - it is the patrons in the road that are the trouble

- When not wearing a name tag, I apparently look as though my name should be Dagmar (I was so dubbed by the director of Wampanoag research [not his actual title]) The name is derived from "day" and "maid" in Old Norse - a fitting title for an intern.

Also, there is an (entirely male) group of interns working on developing an authentic 17th C. Shakespeare experience, in a theater they are creating themselves in an old exhibit space. I think this is just about the coolest thing ever. I have to figure out how to hang out with them without seeming too fangirly...

(Maddie) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum...or Bus Stop

I just wanted to let you all know that I saw the strangest thing on the way from the beach to the bus stop today. While sitting at the bus stop bench, I noticed an Asian man wearing a kilt and playing a didgeridoo whilst skateboarding down the walkway...I KID YOU NOT! I wish I had a picture to show you all, but the wandering imagination, spurred on by words, does a much better [even if exaggerated] job:)

By the way, he was heading toward the Cultural Center. I would have to say that he covered a lot of cultures ... only in L.A. ...

I'm sure I will see stranger things. I will keep you aprised.

(Amanda) "there is no food in Canada"

Greetings from Batavia, NY! I have seen about 200 yards of it, so my impression of this city has been formed entirely by a toll booth and several hotel driveways, but here we are. Mum and I hit the road this afternoon, and should make it to CT tomorrow afternoon. Things have been uneventful, except for a rather annoying lack of easy-access, fast friendly food in Canada. It took us 15 minutes to find a Subway in a rather grody corner of Wayne Gretzky's home town, the sandwich was good though, for hunger truly is the best sauce.

Well, we have an early morning tomorrow, so I shall bid you a travel-weary farewell-for-now

The adventure begins!

(Mary) decisions, decisions

Betsy and I were in a pickle of a sort we'd never dealt with before. We'd discovered someone in the 18-to-25-year-old range and we wanted to have said 18-to-25-year-old over for dinner. But we were booked for two weekends in a row, and every day during the week was booked, too -- except for Wednesday. So we invited the 18-to-25-year-old over for Wednesday dinner. But then we discovered that our refrigerator (of which we've become increasingly proud) was completely empty of tomatoes and carrots, and the Farmers Market was open on Wednesdays. Major dilemma.

"Friendship?" asked Betsy, "or produce?"

I polled some friends from school. Dakota said produce. Kennedy said friendship. They were no help at all.

Fortunately, Betsy's father rescued us by taking Betsy to the grocery store Monday night. She came back with tomatoes and carrots. Things were going to be fine.

But on Wednesday afternoon, I discovered that we could get free tickets to see Karate Kid II. I politely declined. "Sorry, we've already got plans for tonight," I said, then blinked and scrunched up my eyebrows a little bit. I couldn't believe I'd said that. We'd just spent Saturday afternoon bumming around downtown and Saturday night bumming around the apartment. We had plans? Weird.

So the 18-to-25-year-old came over, and we all ate dinner, brownies, and sprouts. Now I can't focus on my work because my cheeks hurt from laughing so much.

I guess I didn't realize those muscles were out of shape.