First Day of Work and the National Museum

Sooo, before I go into details about my first day of work, I want to tell you all how absolutely amazing the Museum of Scotland is: It's absolutely amazing! I went in for their Highlight Tour early on Sunday afternoon and stayed until closing. After the hour-long tour, I was treated by a group of Highland dancers and bagpiper performing in the main museum hall. After that I took off to go exploring the various maze-like rooms filled with enough items and stories to last a few lifetimes, at least. One of my favorite rooms was a small, rectangular room which told the story of the Scottish religious reformation. It was here that I found the most amazing item, Alexander Peden's mask. If you don't feel like clicking on the Wiki link, I'll give you the brief rundown here: Peden was a Covenanter in the 1600s of Scotland who was kicked out of the country for having different religious beliefs than Charles II was happy with. He escaped to Ireland using a mask made of cloth, hair, and other materials but was eventually captured and was to be sent to America to work. The American ship captain, however, didn't agree with the reasons that Peden and others were being sent to America for and released them all. Peden lived until 1886 when he died and was buried for six weeks until his body was retrieved from the earth to be hanged from the gallows. (Yes, even though he was already dead.) Someone powerful and present objected to that and he was buried at the foot of the gallows where a memorial stone would be placed later, telling his story. Two years after his death, Scotland became a safer place for Peden's religious beliefs... too bad he was dead by then! Cool story, eh? I'll get pictures of the exhibit when I go back next weekend.

Okay, now, a review of my first day of work at Our Dynamic Earth, also known as ODE... It was fabulous and a bit overwhelming, to tell the truth! Started out the day by meeting with my supervisor, the Education Director, and getting a tour of the backstage areas. After that I went to a three hour puppet training. You read that right, puppet training! A professional puppeteer from Glasgow came to teach us about how to use puppets. It was actually pretty darn amazing how much effort goes into bringing a puppet to life. My main puppet was a shark and my arm got fairly sore because I had to keep moving it as if it were floating in water. Other puppets had to continuously appear to be breathing. Lots of effort here, people! Next up was lunch out at a nearby restaurant with the puppeteer, and the entire education staff of two Education Officers and one Outreach Coordinator. We returned to ODE and I met with the Groups and Education Bookings Officer to go over the current bookings system. Then she walked me down to meet with the Food and Beverage Manager. This was interesting to hear about because it's done in-house as opposed to bringing in an outside supplier to run the food service. My last meeting of the day was with the Outreach Programme Coordinator to run over some of the outreach she does in collaboration with the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick (about half an hour's drive from Edinburgh). Tomorrow, I'm sure, will be filled with even more information to take in and I can't wait! On the schedule are meetings with the Education officers, Facilities Manager, Marketing Director and the Events Manager. I'm really looking forward to Wednesday when I finally get to tour the attraction!

That's all for now folks. Thanks for reading!