Busy Day!

This morning started out pretty hectically as we were directing buses arriving to OSV. In the aftermath of the tornado the road buses usually take was blocked and part of the main parking lot was being used as a staging area for electric and gas companies to repair the damage in Sturbridge. This meant that we had to sort out directing, unloading, and parking buses in areas not designed to serve this purpose with people not used to performing these tasks. But we managed and everyone arrived in a semi-organized fashion.

Then I got fitted for my costumes!!! The women in costuming, Chris & Sue, are great. Chris picked out a blue plaid dress with a red apron for me to work in at the farm and a pink dress for the school house. I can't wait to bring them home, pictures will be posted immediately that day. :)

I spent the first part of the afternoon at the museum education building. I'm not sure what I was expecting but that certainly wasn't it. The building is big and beautiful. The interior is wood and laid out into pods or stations. around the outside there are craft and game stations, like weaving and stenciling, and in the center there are four kitchens complete with hearths! It's very cool, I'll try my best to get pictures because it's very difficult to explain and I'm not even sure photos would give a real sense of the space. The staff in museum ed were great and seemed excited to meet us, not to mention have some extra hands. After a tour of the space we had a first taste of "troubleshooting" which pretty much meant washing dishes and keeping the kitchens stocked during their sessions. It got a little crazy but the teachers were obviously understanding and worked with us. Even though I'm happy to help it would be nice to actually learn to help with the lessons instead of just cleaning up after them. I'm sure that will be the case once camp starts, here's hoping it'll be sooner but if not there's only two more weeks of school groups and I'll have a few days of interpretation training to break that up. 

By 3:00 the last school group had left and everything was cleaned up so I had two hours to wander the village. It was nice because with the schools gone there were only a few guests left in the village so I got lots of one-on-one time to chat with the staff. I took the opportunity to visit buildings I hadn't been to before and won't be working in this summer. I also made sure to stop at the pottery and get a clay mug (I'm not aloud anything modern-looking when in costume including cups or water bottles). Oh, and one of the staff complemented my handshake. Thanks Blue Ridge Virtual Governor's School & Mrs. J!

The tornado went just past the far end of the village just a few hundred yards from the buildings. It took out a few trees in the orchard but otherwise we are very lucky. You can clearly see a path of fallen/stripped trees cut across the landscape. 

It's been a crazy first week but I think this will be a fantastic summer!