One day down. Many more old dudes drinking wine to see.

I did it! I survived my first day! I got a badge, a tour, paperwork, and an overload of information thrown at me. It was surreal walking from the metro this morning into the door of the museum marked "Staff only." After a brief introduction we took a tour of random parts of the building, which was confusing to me because I was at the back of the group. I remember seeing a bathroom? And a parking garage? Oh and a lady that sits in the staff elevator and operates it ALL DAY.

When I introduced myself to the group, the internship coordinator said, "Oh you're Mad Tucker!" which is my email address that she loved in our previous correspondences.

After our random tour, which I'm sure had greater purposes that I just couldn't hear, about half of us went across the street to an office building to get our ID badges. My picture, of course, ended up looking like Peter Pan, but what's new?

We then split up into our separate departments. Turns out I have a fellow intern working alongside me, which will be great. She loves all things medieval, and I like to call myself a modern lover, so we'll even each other out and make a great team I think. All my supervisors seem really nice. One of them took us all over the museum, to some of the same spots we had been before, which helped me understand the purposes of my previous introduction. He also overwhelmed us with information about many of the artifacts that people ask questions about a lot. My favorite part of the tour was on the 3rd floor where all of the big dude's offices are, where I got to meet one of the directors of the museum. He was this swanky old, slightly feminine sounding but probably just because he's sophisticated, man DRINKING A GLASS OF WINE. Whoa, did I step back in time to the 50's or something? Can you DO that? It was awesome and pretty much exactly what I thought a director of one of the most famous museums in the world would be like.

After that, we learned about working at the information desk, and scheduling all the volunteers. I guess we'll be responsible for making the schedule each day. They also got rid of us for a while and let us watch an IMAX movie. We decided to see the Hubble 3D movie which was pretty badass! We also learned how to close up the information desk which involves clearing off the counter and chaining together all the chairs with a dinky plastic chain. Haha.

If I could pick one word to wrap up the day, it would have to be -- OVERWHELMED. There is so much to learn! I couldn't believe it when we were told that what is on display at the museum is only about 10% of what the museum actually owns. Have you ever been there? That place is PACKED with history! And most everything is REAL! I also was a little overwhelmed with meeting new people, and seeing how many visitors there are, and thinking about trying to answer their crazy questions. I hardly know anything about air or space! I hope that by the end of this I've learned a bunch of cool facts to impress you with. Wait I've got one...Did you know that sometimes old ladies wear leopard print tube top dresses and high heels to museums to flirt with old men? It's true. I saw that today.

I also saw the Spirit of St. Louis, the 1903 Wright Flyer, the Apollo 11 command module, Spaceship One, and Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega (although that exhibit is under construction right now). Can you believe it??!!! I bet you can, if you try.