The exhibit was awesome and I have to tell you about it even though it is no longer on display. (Also, fyi, I got the job and as long as all my paperwork and visa and what have you go through, then I start in October! WOOT!)

The Rubbish exhibit was put together by artist Joshua Sofaer. For 30 days he, and others, collected rubbish that was discarded from the museum by visitors, staff, and contractors. But it wasn’t just trash as it was thrown into the bin, the exhibit also included rubbish as it went out to be recycled and sorted. You know sometimes at Whole Foods you can buy a reusable bag and it says “I used to a plastic bottle” or something like that? Well I couldn’t fathom that until I saw the shredded up bits of plastic in the exhibit.

I fell in love with the exhibit because of this letter from a presumably pre-teen girl to a boy she liked. It is heartbreaking! She says she’ll get over him and she says not to show the note to anyone. Oops. Looks like the museum (and I) are breaking that request. It was just innocent and sweet and I felt thirteen again. I felt connect to her and what was likely her classes’ school trip experience. I remember being so excited for school trips so I could sit on the bus with my friends and maybe get assigned to a group with the boy I liked. I remember passing notes, sitting near the boys at lunch, and getting all abuzz with my friends when a boy would look over.  I also remember getting notes like that and promptly showing the notes to my friends. I might have been the worst adolescent girl. Anyway, as a museum educator today I tend to think about how people learn content and experience the museum. I tend to forget all the other experiences and emotions that can happen. I found it fun to see the museum from a more social perspective.

I actually think that a museum would be a great setting for a TV show. Think about the format of Scrubs, where the main cast are the hospital staff but sometimes the patients are influential and central to the story line. So, in my museum show, the main cast would be some combination of visitor services, education, curatorial, and maintenance staff and then the story would be how they interact with the people who come to the museum. Imagine episodes tracking a thief in the shop, or adolescents being awkward and flirting, or protesters outside the museum picketing some exhibit. I’d watch that show.

Anyway, back to the exhibit. It’s crazy the types of things people throw away. These people below are the backs of signs used to show where the bathrooms are. Above them in the word bubble are a series of notes that were put in someone’s lunch. Another of my favorite items are the pieces and rules for a homemade game. How cool is that?!

A book I liked when I was a kid was From the Mixed Up Filed of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. The main character, Claudia, and her brother, Jamie, run away to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. They pick the museum in part because it will be comfortable – and this exhibit has me convinced that it would be entirely possible to hideaway in a museum. Look at all these medicines, cleaning supplies, clothes, and a sleeping bag. There’s even a suitcase to fit it all!

I really liked the row of shoes. Who the heck throws away shoes? And why so many shoes? Years ago Ryan lived in Alexandria, VA and many times when he and I would drive into DC we’d see a shoe on the side of the road. This was not just once, it was many times over many years, all on the same road. WHY? Why did people throw their shoes away? I still don’t have the answer, but I know people throw shoes away in all kinds of places.

Most shocking though were these items. A negative pregnancy test and a condom wrapper. What are people doing in the museum? I think this just reinforces my idea that a sitcom would work. There is a whole world of things happening in the museum!

Joshua Sofaer, the artist said, “Museums generally display objects that have a special status, that are rare, or valuable. In this project I want to give that treatment to the stuff that is normally discarded.” I liked that he rearranged broken things to look normal or he stacked random things to look orderly. I liked getting a glimpse into the various arenas of the museum and not just what you could see as a regular tourist.

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Basically, Ryan’s job gave him a promotion and a transfer to their London office. Exciting right?! I’ll be honest, I’ve felt a ton of emotions about all of this. Excitement, over living in a new city and seeing new sights! Fear, of starting somewhere new. Stress, over all the logistics of moving. Proud, of Ryan’s great accomplishment. Sadness, over leaving my wonderful job and moving away from family and friends. And happiness, that Ryan and I are able to take on this wonderful adventure and live abroad, which is something we have both dreamed about.

It’s been a few weeks since we made the decision and started announcing it to the people closest to us, and now my top emotion is definitely excitement. There’s tons to do as we prepare for our move, but I can’t wait for the museums, experiencing a new culture, and traveling. I have always wanted to see the Globe Theater. I’ve been dying to return to Rome. And now I can do those things more easily. But also, I can’t wait to have new food adventures.

To start the food adventures, I ran out and bought a British cookbook as soon as we officially decided we were going. Barnes and Noble only had one British cookbook, but it’s ok because it was the one I wanted. I bought Jamie Oliver’s Great Britain. This book is gorgeous! Full color pictures, an image of the food for each recipe, and great pictures of places, restaurants, and people from all over Great Britain. However, the book showed me that I need to learn some British jargon because I’m not totally sure what a “knob of butter” equals or how exactly to know if I’ve made “squiffs and quiffs” with the mashed potato topping.

Truly, I don’t know anything about British food, so I decided to start with the only dish I slightly knew about: shepherd’s pie. The recipe is so flavorful, aromatic, and satisfying. It’s the kind of food that as you eat it, the pace of the world seems to slow down, and staying snuggled up in the apartment flat (I need to practice practise my British lingo) feels like the best thing ever.

I’ll be honest though, the first time I made this, it came out soupy. It tasted delicious, but it was all wrong in texture. The problem was, I followed too closely to the recipe and didn’t listen to my intuition. That might sound counter intuitive, because shouldn’t the recipe lead me in the right direction? Yes, sometimes. But pots, pans, ingredients, and heat levels are different across kitchens and so sometimes the timing in a recipe isn’t what works best for you. For example, the recipe said that a liquid would thicken in a few minutes. It wasn’t thickening, but I moved on anyway, and that’s how I had soupy shepherd’s pie. The next time I made it, I really waited for it to thicken even though it took way longer than a few minutes. My end result was much better because I trusted my eye and watched what was happening in the pan.

So for this recipe, don’t worry too much about times and instead be patient and trust what you see and feel. It will be worth it and you’ll end with something delicious. Most importantly though, if you have any recommendations or advice about London please leave it in the comments!

This recipe is adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Great Britain

Ingredients:

2 yellow onions

2 cups chopped carrots

1 tbsp olive oil

3 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, divided

sea salt & white pepper

leaves from 8 sprigs of thyme

2 bay leaves

1 lb ground beef (or veal or lamb)

2 tbsp all-purpose flour, divided

zest from 1 lemon

1 cube of chicken stock

1/3 cup of beer (preferably something English!)

2 pounds russet potatoes (I’ve also done this successfully with waxy yellow potatoes)

1 cup of milk

1/2 white mushrooms, thinly sliced

3/4 cup light cream

1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Chop the onions and carrots into small, bite sized pieces, about 1/3 inch.

2. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter in a large sauce pan. Add the onions and carrots. Season with some salt, pepper, thyme and bay leaves. Cook for 8-10 minutes, until the onions have softened a bit.

3. Add the flour. This will soak up some of the excess liquid. Then add the ground meat, lemon zest, and stock cube. Stir everything until it is all well mixed. Use a wooden spoon to break up the meat.

4. Once the meat starts to brown and is sizzling, add the beer. Then, add just enough water so that the meat is 1/2 covered by liquid.

5. Bring everything to a boil, then turn the heat to low and simmer with the lid askew for 1 hour. Stir occasionally.

6. While the meat is cooking, peel the potatoes and cut them into quarters. Put the potatoes in a large pot, cover with cold salted water. Bring the water to a boil and cook until the potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork (this can take anywhere between 15-30 minutes).

7. When the potatoes are done cooking, drain the water. Let them sit an steam for a minute or two. Then, mash the potatoes. Add in the remaining butter and slowly add the milk. Mash until you have nice fluffy potatoes.

8. When the meat has been cooking for 30 minutes, heat the oven to 350°.

9. When the meat has been cooking for about 1 hour, add in the sliced mushrooms. Then add the cream. Turn up the heat a bit and bring everything to a boil. Allow to thicken on it’s own for a few minutes

10. Slowly sprinkle in the remaining tablespoon of flour. You might not need the whole thing, but stir in the flour until the meat mixture has thickened. You want the meat to be like it’s in a thick gravy and when you pull a spoon through the pan, it takes a little bit liquid to fill in the spoon’s path.

11. Transfer the meat to an oven safe casserole pan. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese on top.

12. Spoon the mashed potatoes in an even layer over the meat. Make it pretty or make it messy, whatever look you like. Or try to make a Union Jack, like I did.

13. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, or until it’s a bit golden on top.

14. Spoon out the finished pie into a bowl or plate.

Messy level: This recipe has a lot of steps, ingredients, and dishes. It’s not hard work, but it does take a bunch of work, so I’m giving it 4 stars. This is the kind of meal you make on a leisurely weekend day because it takes a long time and there’s a lot of clean up. Transferring things between pots, pans, strainers, and casseroles there is lots of opportunity for spills, splashes, and messes. It’s a good recipe, but it’s not clean.

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