Right now it is raining, so I will stay at work a little bit later before heading out to dinner with some of the other interns. What was I going to do at home anyway?
So I guess I should start with the big excitement- on Wednesday we had a huge intern fieldtrip. All of us, pretty much, headed out in a big red fan on the epic trip. We started off at Double Ditch historic site- you can see depressions where people used to live in earth lodges. We even found (not me by the way)little pieces of ceramic (which we of course left at the site) which I took a picture with. Very exciting. Then we drove up to the Lewis and Clark center- we got to go into their collections. The next stop was Fort Mandan- smaller than I'd expected I guess, but pretty nifty. We stopped inside to play with the kids things and take photos- there was a canoe, a tent, table and dress up clothes. I went with a red hat to compliment my outfit of course. Then we headed to Fort Clark- passing a book and reading passages along the way- this after all was an educational trip. Our supervisor, who is the meanest person I have yet to meet, made us read all of the signs too. She threatened leaving interns behind and dragging people through prickly pear cactus! She likes to work on her reputation ;) At Fort Clark another intern found a clay pipe- someone had a scale on them so we took a picture- very nerdy and very fun. Our next stop was Knife River Indian villages where there used to be a thriving community of Hidatsa before the small pox epidemic which took out 90% of the 1,000 person population. You could see where all of the earthlodges had been because of the depressions- I'm getting much better at identifying those things! Our final stop was secret and we were sworn to reveal the location to no future intern. And then we were back again.
Yesterday I went down to the museum collections- I'm thinking about maybe doing a series about interesting objects and stories that go with them. It was exciting to be among so many objects again.
And today I finally went up to the archives. So far I've mostly been looking through old newspapers on microfilm so it was very nifty to swipe my card to get into the giant storeroom of concrete walls, shelving and lots and lots of paper. I got a little distracted looking at interesting things- searching for ideas. I can't say I've been horribly productive this week. I thought I'd try looking up ideas and then dates while I had a wide variety of dates open, but I think I will have to return to my primary methodology for better results. Oh and today we watched part of silent film at lunch- it was hilarious. The best part was when a couple were walking around and the girl (of course) slipped and fell. Luckily our brave hero caught her before she fell into the ankle-deep water. They were just about to hold hands when we ended the film for the day- oh drats! And the other exciting bit- this afternoon on our walk we saw the museum people. They were throwing atlatls and invited us over- I was the only one to go (afterall I could make up a few minutes lost at the end of the day). Luckily Beloit prepared me for atlatl throwing- I did pretty well. I love atlatl throwing. An atlatl is a spear thrower- predates the bow and arrow- way cool.
And since I have a bit more time I will now convey a story from another intern which was conveyed to me and which I find hilarious. So the other intern is living in the basement of a local guy. Lately the guy has been asking him to come out to a softball game, so he one day he finally goes. On the way back though the renter guy takes out a tube of cherry lip balm and smears it over his hands (while he's driving), clips his nails, pulls out a toothbrush and toothpaste, brushes his teeth, opens the door (while the car is moving) and spits. How ridiculous is that?
Time to go enjoy the weekend.
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