From 8:45-11:30 we were trained on handing out passes and everything that goes along with that. After lunch we met with Manny Mandel, a Holocaust survivor, for just a short presentation on his experience, and then we were up on the floor closing. The day was hectic but amazing, but I'm sure you all expect that by now.
Busy season started today, so now visitors have to have a ticket to get into the PE. They can still come in the museum and visit the smaller exhibits, but the PE is not open to visitors without a ticket. Although today was the kick off, we didn't run out of tickets, so things went smoothly. When it starts actually getting busier, we will get rid of tickets by 11:00 AM for the entire day, so we will have to deal with visitors who are mad about not being able to get into the PE.
The pass system is complicated when it is explained. The museum is super busy from March-May, and this year is the 20th anniversary, so it is even busier. The PE is obviously are biggest exhibit and the one everyone wants to see. Unfortunately, it is not wide enough or lit up enough to accommodate everyone. There are about 900 tickets online that people can reserved (those are already all reserved through May). We hand out 1850 passes outside. People start lining up as early as like 7:30, and sometimes the line is miles long. They once handed out all 1850 passes within seventeen minutes. WOW! Once tickets are gone, they're gone. A person can get up to 20 tickets. Tickets have a one hour window of time when they can be used. If you have a 10-11 ticket, you have to be in the PE by 11 or your ticket is void. This is to keep people from getting tickets then leaving and everyone returning all at once. We have tickets for federal employees, veterans, survivors, liberators, cops, military, fire fighters, etc. that are not timed. Those visitors can go in the exhibit anytime they want. However, they still have to wait in the security line no matter how long it is. Museum staff can also get these VIP tickets, so if anyone is wanting to visit the museum while I'm up here I can get you in! Important note: the time slot you are given does not mean you have to be in and out within that hour. It just means you have to be in the PE within that time. Once youre in, you can stay until we close. Up to you. It is still good to come in the museum even if you can't get into the PE because we have all kinds of things going on everywhere else. But enough about logistics.
I froze my ass off standing in the cold telling people to form a line, get ready for security, take cameras/phones/electronic devices out of their pockets, please form a single file line, repeat, repeat, repeat. It was torture simply because it was FREEZING today. And the wind was blowing which made it even worse. Horrible, horrible, horrible. Good news: we got an early lunch today. YAY!
Lunch is pretty much the best hour of the day. All of us interns have lunch together so we talk about utter nonsense for an hour, eat candy, talk about how confused we are, eat more candy, plan out trips, make fun of my 12 year old self, eat candy. It's mostly me eating candy, but if it's there it's fair game so I just help myself. We are all visiting the Smithsonian Sunday since we are off the next two days! I get to sleep in tomorrow. I am so beyond excited. No alarm will be set for this girl. I also made a super cool intern page for the six of us. Also, the 6th intern joined the group today. I would die if I was him because everything is being thrown at him at once. He also lives in Silver Spring, so now I have someone to ride the metro with and talk to on the ride home.
The most important thing that happened today was meeting Manny. Manny was born in 1936, so he was fairly young when the Holocaust was taking place. Also, Manny is Hungarian, and the Nazis did not invade Hungary until 1944. Manny was one of the few Jews who was able to get out of Hungary and avoid deportation to Auschwitz. He and his mother lived in Palestine then eventually moved to the US in 1949 along with his father. His father was a slave laborer during the Holocaust, and he located them after the war. Manny was so unbelievably funny. I could have talked to him for hours, but unfortunately we did not have the time. We had extra time later in the afternoon, so we all headed up to the info desk and hung out with him for about an hour. He talked to entire time, and I could have kept talking to him the rest of the night. Museum staff have said that most of the survivors are that way; they will talk your head off. I am of course perfectly fine with that because I am in awe of them all!
I think that is all I have for today. I actually am not completely exhausted today, so I am going to watch Netflix for a few hours before I head to bed. I do plan to sleep most of the day tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be super boring on my end, so don't look for an update. I will try to write again on Sunday about my sight seeing adventures.
No comments:
Post a Comment