Hello from D.C. and All the Happenings of Life Post-Washington Week

Hi all, 

It has been great to read your blogs and hear your voices (virtually) collectively discussing the impact that you have been making in your internship experiences. I think one of the interesting threads that I have picked up on as I have been reading is that y'all (the Texan comes out) have been doing new things and discovering new abilities. Whether it is Claudia learning more about her family or  Elisa discovering the Chicago transportation system, or Lina learning about public history and folklore, or even understanding the value of behind-the-scenes preparation work and teamwork, all of which are incredibly valuable as you move forward in your academic careers. Congratulations to all of you for pushing yourselves in new directions and boundaries ensuring that you are always growing. 

A small kernel of corn truth (ha ha, get it) is that learning and growing as a person happens when you push the boundaries, when you are a little uncomfortable. As I remind myself every day, uncomfortable and sometimes scary is a good thing. It is my own personal mantra that I keep repeating, especially as I discover the outdoors (talk about outdoors in Iceland) or you know put together a 100-year old skeleton (more about that later...but just check out the pictures...for real). My professional coach once told me to keep in mind...Blessed are those that are flexible, for they shall never be bent out of shape. It is so true. 

Reflecting on the different activities that I have been pursuing in the past few weeks...The gallery planning is really taking off and envisioning where we are going next is exciting and at the same time a bit daunting. I have been finalizing the Gallery Education Plan, incorporating your feedback and also some of the group project findings into our plan. I have also been working on the women's history initiative. We have had some wonderful discussions in our debrief sessions and I wanted to reflect on one of them with our YAP cohort. We have been discussing the complexity of intersectionality  in telling diverse women's stories. One of our discussion points has been about how do you tell these stories in a way that is not tokenism, in a way that shows the multiple perspectives and realities. That black women are both women and black and have experiences as both at all times. How do you the story justice while at the same time showing the silences in history that have existed over time. I would like to leave this post with a question for you to reflect on and comment if you would like in the below thread...How do you tell the complicated narrative of intersectional Latinx histories while still making them accessible and relatable? What are themes or ideas or concepts or even just thoughts that should be part of the complex narrative? 

Anyway, those are my current musings...I leave you now with photos of pushing myself into new experiences. (Feel free to comment on that too)


Learning about Forensic Anthropology and the cultural anthropology research using human skeletal remains. This was my team and the four of us put together the skeleton yesterday. 



Look what I saw at the entrance of the Natural History Museum. Promoting the Center. Yay! 

Inside an Ice Cave in Iceland. It was really really really cold. Like glacier cold. 


Standing on the North American Plate on the overlook onto the Eurasian plate in Iceland. 


Looking at the river water that comes down from the glaciers in Iceland. Fun fact, the drinkable water in Iceland is straight from the glacier. It goes through a natural decontamination process through Lava rock. 

Adrian and I after we hiked to Golfoss, one of the largest waterfalls in Iceland. Also, the 24 hour sun...real thing. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 4: History Colorado Center

The last week of my internship was also one of the bests (and I apologize for the lack of pictures again, I'm honestly really bad at remembering to take them). As the last four weeks came to a close, I spent my time putting the finishing touches to any work I was doing. Whether that was meeting about the after school program or getting a few more sketch ideas in for the illustration book, I didn't want to leave anything undone or untouched by the time I was finished.  But, I didn't just work. That isn't to say that I sat around and didn't do anything, either. The last four week, however, was spent hanging out with my supervisor and a few others. On Wednesday, they took me out to lunch at an amazing phở spot on Capitol Hill. The lunch was spent having great conversations and some realizations too. Although I learned a lot  about people in Colorado and the roads that they mapped out, I also learned how it felt to be valued and appreciated for my ideas and c...
Read more

SAMA - the last week

July 29 - August 5th On Tuesday, I was also able to take a mental break from computers and art and had a refreshing storytime at the San Antonio Public Library - Las Palmas branch. Even though our participation level was low (two kids and a grandmother), I still had an incredibly fun time with them. After Criztian and I read the story and did the drumming activity, the kids wanted to show us the songs and dances they learned from the librarian, including If you’re happy and you know it, Frogs on a Log, and Shake the Sillies Out. Seeing how well the children interacted with music and dancing was such a great experience, which fit perfectly with the theme of Tito Puente and his music during storytime. Seeing how well they interacted with the music and the stimulation to their young brains was so inspiring.  On Monday the 5th, the other intern and I paired up for the gardens presentation. In case you aren’t up to date here’s a recap of last week: I had an idea to expand the...
Read more

Giovanna Ferreira - WEEK 3 at S.C.C.

Image
Third week of interning at Smithsonian Institution Building has been an adventure. Since we had meetings every single day at every single hour plus doing translations and working on the website for about two weeks, my supervisor decided to give me a little break and sent me to different Smithsonian museums (and the zoo). National Museum of African American History and Culture Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Smithsonian National Museum of American History One of my favorites was the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport, VA. The location is, in my opinion, the coolest, because while you are going around exhibitions you can also observe real planes flying over the museum.  Lockheed SR-71A “Blackbird” was by far my favorite of the whole center. It was a spy plane operated by the United States Air Force and it set a speed record by flying from L...
Read more