Week 4, part one, outdoor movies and bright yellow schoolbuses

The "Screen on the Green"

Earlier in the week me and two other interns went to the National Mall, in order to watch an outdoor screening of E.T. This was a completely new, yet great experience. There's just so much atmosphere with outdoor performances, you can hear people talking, sirens, and all of the usual activity of the Capitol. You can have the cinema-sized screen without the cramped seats. The right temperature, without the noise of air conditioning or heating. The best thing was that during particularly dramatic/happy/sad moments people would cheer and clap together. At one point, during the credits, people from the back began spontaneously dancing, and this spread in a Mexican-wave type movement until everyone was up & moving!

I finally got a picture of one! (Georgia!) This is the culmination of every American highschool film that I have ever seen. Even in the summer, most kids seem to attend some kind of summer school or camp, to either catch up or get ahead.

Today, there was a power cut at work, and we got to leave after lunch! I should add that I do actually really enjoy my work, at the moment I'm just doing the initial reading to create a homeschool curriculum based on the WW2 Homefront. However, having a power cut meant that we got to eat cake, make shadow puppets with our hands and torches, and then head to the pub (where I had a coke, on account of being 19...) to say goodbye to one of the interns who has been at the museum for months now. I think it's fair to say that we're all going to miss his renditions of Disney songs and epic movie conversations in the lunchroom!

We've been very spoilt at work recently, considering our supervisor brought in Dunkin' Donuts the day the Royal baby was born, and on thursday there was a 21st birthday in our department, so, courtesy of the girl's "mom", we had a "birthday buffet"! It's been a good week!

Week 3, part four

Definitely the biggest sporting venue I've ever been in.

On friday I went to my first baseball game. I didn't really know how baseball worked (as someone in my house sarcastically pointed out, "it's not cricket you know!") but a group of us British interns were accompanied by some Americans and a Canadian, so all was well!

One of the most striking (just realised that that's a pun!) things about the game was the show that surrounded the sport. The National Anthem preceded play and music was played as the players walked out and warmed up. Phrases like "GREAT HIT" and "STRIKE!!" kept flashing onto large, omnipresent screens. Even as the game was played, t-shirts were thrown into the crowd by mascots, food was given away by official sponsors, and there was even a mascot race around the pitch!

Constant images, adverts and information updates!

It was deemed perfectly acceptable to leave your seat to buy food, which people did frequently. Food could be ordered by mobile phone, using the stadium's wi-fi. That fascinated me. I should clarify, the game we saw was the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. the Washington D.C Nationals. This was considered quite a big game by people who know about these things, many more of my housemates wanted tickets for this game, but they were sold out by the time they tried to book.

The Sharknado!

Baseball is all about entertainment. Whenever the crowd was too quiet, a "noisemeter" would flash up, and encourage people to cheer louder. People also joined in with a "dance break" which happened during the middle of the Innings. The fans who were dressed the wildest were also given free merchandise.

The mascots were the founding fathers, accompanied by a sharknado, as in, from the Sharknado film I mentioned in a previous post. Seeing the Sharknado come out was a personal highlight. The game lasted for 3 hours, but I didn't actually leave my seat (beforehand I acquired a box with a hotdog and nachos...although according to the Americans we were with, popcorn and peanuts are traditional baseball match food). Now I actually know what the "strikes" and those running people mean! Well, vaguely...

I think I may have a better understanding of the baseball "hype" in the U.S now. It's completely absorbing if you allow yourself to get caught up in the party-like atmosphere. Maybe there's still hope for me as an enthusiastic sports spectator, just not in England...