So, I am doing things besides walking around Amsterdam...

Howdy. This'll be a short post - I need to get to bed.

Today was my first day of work at the Frans Halsmuseum in Haarlem.

Met up with Mireille at Centraal Station, after missing the first tram there. I made it just in time and we literally had to jump on the train before the doors closed. it was some Indiana Jones action, sans hat and whip. ("Dr. Jones, no more parachute!")

Upon arriving in Haarlem, we walked to the museum. It's pretty much a straight shot - you walk straight down one street to the Grote Markt, a big square in the center of town, where the Grote Kerk is. The architecture in Haarlem is amazing - although the shops are modern, it looks as though most of the buildings haven't been touched since the 1600s. It blows my mind to think that ancestors of mine may have walked down the same streets (and saw the exact same architecture that I was seeing) when some of the Pilgrims were in Holland around 1610 (they eventually ended up in Leiden, where Robert Cushman secured the Speedwell). Then it's another straight shot down another street to the museum. A nice 20 minute walk.

At the museum, I got a tour of the conservation studio, had morning tea, then had a tour of EVERYWHERE in the museum - all the offices, all the storage spaces, everywhere. Met just about all of the employees, but it was so fast that I don't think I remember more than 6 names of the 20 or so people I met... maybe 7.

Then I discussed the internship with Mireille, and we looked at my main project together - a pair of ice skating sleighs, one from about 1700, the other from about 1770. They're basically made of panel paintings on four sides, carved wood, gilding, and metal hardware. Really complex from a structural, material, technical, and iconographic point of view. One of them has a merman with boobs. Liesbeth (the other paintings conservator, also very nice) asked what I'd call that. I said "a mermaphrodite." Not sure if that translated well back to her in Dutch. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time a joke of mine had failed. It'll be a tough project, and I'll prolly only get to treat one.

Had lunch in the museum cafe. that was nice. it's difficult because they speak Dutch most of the time, though... I'm finding I can follow the conversation well, though, just based on body language - but non-verbal communication is a topic for a later post.

I spent much of the afternoon walking the galleries. The collection is Amazing. if you want to see Dutch Mannerist art, go to the Frans Halsmuseum. can't be beat. It has quite a few of the greats that you might've seen in an art history course or in one of those big fat books that collects dust on someone's coffee table.

That's pretty much it for the day-- went really quickly. Sorry if the images don't illustrate well what i'm saying. I'll do better, i promise.

Take care, kids.
-m