The Benjamin Franklin House

Sorry for a delay in blogging. I'm sure you've all been wondering how my internship has been going. Well, let me tell you. I've been there for three days and yet it's felt like months. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing yet haha.

So Monday I set off for the first day of my internship. It takes me about two hours to get there and two hours to get back to Luton. I take a bus then a train then the subway and then I walk the rest of the way. It's pretty different to just getting into a car and driving myself somewhere. I admit that I don't really like adhering to the schedules and waiting around for my transportation to arrive. It's pretty frustrating really that it takes me that long to go thirty miles!

Anywho, I got to the Benjamin Franklin House at 36 Craven Street (check out the website here) on Monday and it was my and another intern Max's first day. We got shown around by Ana, Steve and Alice who are all the management of the museum. We're a bit short staffed at the moment so I don't really get to do much training. I have to just kind of jump in there and do everything!

The house is pretty amazing in itself. It was built in 1730 and it's a Georgian Grade I listed house which means it has its original paneling, floorboards, ceilings and fireplaces. Oh, it also has the original staircase too which means that all of the stairs slant crazily. And there's only like five stair cases to go up and down, so ya know, I probably won't fall down them one day. :P The interns work on the fourth floor so it's quite a climb. I'm going to have some solid thighs by the end of the summer hopefully haha.

The other interns are really nice and friendly too. There are a mix of Americans, Canadians and Brits there.

Monday I didn't have to do much. I just got some tasks to do on the computer. Tuesday was a different story though. On Tuesday I had to help with the school group tours. Basically, there are two one-hour tours to do on Tuesdays for the school kids. It consists of four things that they do. First they meet in the basement addition to start the historical experience which is when the children are taken on a tour of the first two floors (both of these floors are in original condition. The first floor belonged to Margaret Stevenson, Franklin's landlady. The second floor Franklin rented from her for sixteen years. The other floors have been converted into offices and such). Then they're split into groups. One group goes to see a lightning rod demonstration with a Tesla coil. Another group goes to do computer games about objects that might have been used in the house and the last group does some games with the circulatory system, organs and bones (William Hewson, an anatomist, also lived in the house at the time Franklin did and he also ran an anatomy school. He did many body dissections at the house and tossed the bones out in the garden when he was done. 1200 bones have been found in the garden so far! Don't worry though, I don't feel like the place is haunted).

I worked the circulatory game. The kids were all pretty good considering. After the kids left we went to the Ship and Shovel Pub just a few doors down but man, the guy working there was pretty rude. More than half of the group ordered drinks while some of us just wanted water. We got yelled at for just wanting water and nearly got kicked out. Apparently ordering a water in a pub is some sort of crime (though it is a crime for an establishment to refuse customers tap water). I mean, he could have just sold us bottled water. Rude! So we went to the Sherlock Holmes Pub instead and a good time was had by all. I got to know the other volunteers and interns and I felt pretty good about that.

Today (Wednesday) was another different experience. Wednesday through Fridays we give our regular historical experience tours in which an actress playing a resident named Polly Hewson takes people around the house. Videos and audio interact with her as if the tourists were really guests in the home in 1775 just before Ben Franklin left. It's pretty cool. I got to do a smorgasboard of things today. I got to do the front of house position which entices people to come into the museum (we're quiet a new and small musuem on a quiet side street in the heart of London so no one really visits in droves yet). I did get one guy to come in but he was already planning to come in anyway. He was a professor from Berkley and I actually took the tour with him because I hadn't seen it yet and I had to. He said he was going to go to Detroit tomorrow, pretty crazy! He was really nice and the tour was good. Afterwards he wanted to see the scholarship center we have (which is also our intern work room at the top of the house) and we let him. I think he asked to just so he could see more of the house but that's ok.

I also got to run the box office/bookshop which means I have to ring up tickets and merchandise. Not terribly exciting but it has to be done. Lastly, I got to help start and stop the historical experience tours and answer questions about the house. Not too bad for my third day.

So now you pretty much know what I'm up to. I'm glad I got a chance to write it all down for you guys!

Now I have to go sort out my bus schedule and train schedule for tomorrow's sojourn back into London. SIGH.

Fingers crossed still Tez finds a place in the city borders!