I hate you. You suck.

Right inside the entrance were we entered the museum was a little gift shop. There was a sign that stated no strollers in gift shops. That was your first mistake. How can I buy something if I can’t enter the shop while pushing my two-year-old in his stroller? You think I’m going to get my kid out of the stroller just to go inside your gift shop? Ha, that’s more disastrous than taking a stroller in.

We were barely into the museum and were in what I consider to be the best part: the room with the Egyptian mummies. There were six of us, two of us had cameras and were taking photos of the exhibits without the flashes. Next thing I know, someone behind me is saying, “Ma’am? Ma’am?” Took me a bit to discover he was talking to me and then he started speaking. He wasn’t American, had some sort of foreign accent and I honestly could not understand him. I listened to him twice with “what?” before I turned to my sister-in-law and said directly to her, “what did he say?” I’m usually not so rude but I just could not understand him and he was getting quite frustrated. She started to say something and he finally spoke clearly:

“You can take photos, but no flash. You cannot take photos with the flash.”
“Yeaaahhh, I’m not using the flash.”
“Yes, you did, once,” he held up a single finger, “I saw it.”
“Noooo, I did not.”
“Yes –” he was cut-off by a woman from a group of people standing closer to him than us. She admitted using the flash, said it was by accident, that she had been trying to figure something out on the camera. Only then did I remember that happening, I had seen her do that, it was by accident and she wasn’t taking a photo of any display. Any photo she got would have been of her feet.

That was your second mistake.
It is fine if you don’t want us to use flashes, whatever (I for one already knew this and it is common sense anyway because your flash will just reflect off the glass right into your photo most of the time). But please, do not send your Gestapo into a room to accuse people of things they did not do when they are just slowly enjoying the exhibits and not harming anyone or anything. A better way to handle this would have been to have your little agent say to the whole room (as he never did fully come in or walk up to me but stayed completely across from the room and had everyone‘s attention), “Hello everyone, I would like to share with you one of our policies. Photography is permitted, but please refrain from using the flash…” etc. Also, I must note here that throughout the whole museum, I never saw even one single sign related to photography or videography, etc.

Now, I do have to give this guy a little bit of credit, he did start apologizing to me. However, he never did approach me directly and he only did after the other woman “confessed” – when she spoke up, my attention was immediately turned back to the exhibits and my family, the apology was directed at the back of my head.

We then walked through about three other rooms before stepping into a larger room with a higher ceiling and more space between the exhibits. Another Gestapo agent was standing there and as I was saying something about an item on display to my sisters-in-law, he interrupted me instructing me to put my coat on. I just kind of looked at him and said, “excuse me?” My suede coat was slung over my left arm and my camera was in my right hand. He told me again to put on my coat. I said, “oookay.” He said it was museum policy and I sort of laughed a laugh that says “you’re stupid” and said that I was “burning up” (it was HOT in that room). He said, “that’s what the coat check is for, it’s free.” Or maybe it was something like, “then you should have left it in the coat check.” Whatever. I’d already put my coat on and was walking off.

Then my two-year-old realized he could echo his voice in the room and started making loud noises. I told him to shhh because I was just sure this guy was going to yell at me to keep the kid quiet. So the agent had to start making a big deal out of my kid, “Oh, he’s just having fun.” “Oh look at him, he’s happy.” Yes, I know my kid’s a good, happy boy. But wasn’t it clear that I did not want to talk to you?

From then until we got to the big lobby like room, I was wearing my coat… burning up. I kept thinking about this museum policy and wondering why no one said anything when we came in. When we got into the large room and were waiting in line for the large exhibit, I saw a little sign. It was on a pole at eye level for a 10 year old and was about 6 inches wide and 9 to 12 inches tall. It stated something about large bags and how they may be subject to search and that bags and coats should be worn or checked. Then I remembered when we came into the museum for the first time. There was a sign near the front door just like this one that I had been trying to read. But guess what? There was a male museum employee standing right in front of it chatting it up and flirting with a female employee. I tried to be obvious that I was trying to read it, but just gave up on it, figured it wasn’t that important, and we went on in.

If I had known this at the time we entered, I would have most assuredly checked my coat just because I wouldn’t want to carry it around anyway! Furthermore, now that I am home and I find their website and look for information on this, it says, “you will be asked to check these items as well as coats, jackets, and umbrellas.” So, your third mistake? Yeah, someone wasn’t doing their job. He did not even greet us when we entered the building, let alone ask us to check our coats. Flirting was more important to him. Had I been aware of museum policies from the start, I would have gladly complied. But as it were, we were ignorant of the policies. If you want people to know your policies, make sure your people do their jobs from the start and that your signs are noticeable.

I also got to thinking about that first guy, the no-flash guy. He never said one word about my coat over my arm or my sister-in-law’s little jacket hanging from the stroller. The second guy also didn’t say anything about her jacket, only my coat. How observant is he? Had I hung my coat from the stroller, would he even have noticed me? Probably not.

So, of course, while waiting in line for the big exhibit (we waited for something like a half an hour), it was even hotter than the rest of the building. I took my coat off again.

Your fourth mistake? Yeah, okay. Remember that I mentioned I never saw through the whole museum any signs at all about photography? I was in the big exhibit with the littlest sister-in-law and my kid. I had taken several photos in the first room and even of the entry way. In the second room, as I leaned in to take a close photo of some pretty beadwork:

Beads

I hear behind me: “Sweetie. Sweetie.”

Could I ever have dreamed he was talking to me? No, I did not realize this until he was right behind me. He was about my age or a little big older, maybe even younger, and he called me “sweetie” at least five times.

Sweetie? What do you tell these people when you hire them? The only person allowed to call me “sweetie” is my DAD. Had I been assured that I wouldn’t be arrested, I would have decked him right then and there.

When I turned around, he said to me, “photography is not allowed.”
I just gave him this exasperated look and almost sighed. I was thinking, then WHY didn’t someone say something to me already!?
He clarified, “this is a special exhibit, no photos are allowed here.”
“Okay,” I said with a look, and turned off the camera, then walked off.

Well, at least he didn’t ask me to delete the photos I’d already taken because I was certainly not about to do that. Especially when there had been no forewarning on this.

I wasn’t so, shall we say, upset about not being able to take photos – big deal, but the “sweetie” thing really got under my skin. My little sister-in-law, however, was royally pissed about the photos. She’s only 10 and rarely gets angry and she started saying to me, as I tried to look at other items, “c’mon, let’s just go, this place is stupid, these people are stupid, let’s go.”

In retaliation (haha) I snapped a couple of quick photos of what I considered to be the only really cool thing in there: the grand lyre. Didn’t turn out so great, but oh well.

We left that exhibit very quickly after that – the kids were grumpy. But then I find that the other half of our party is still in there. After waiting for a while, we went through to see some paintings we hadn’t seen yet. Then we waited at the main exhibit’s exit for another 10 minutes or so. When the gift shop attendant started giving us the evil eye (even though we weren’t in the shop which is the exit of the exhibit), we went outside. The kids had some cereal to munch on. We waited. We got cold. We went and sat in the car.

Oh well.

To tell you the truth, I wasn’t impressed with any of it, anyway. Only the Egyptian exhibit caught my eye, and that was only two small rooms. And you know me, I’m all about that Egyptian stuff, so, whatever. Oh, the suits of armor and such were pretty cool, too, though…

I guess in closing all I can say is, you suck. :P

Photos:
All from the museum
The Ur Exhibit
The Egyptian Exhibit

(Obviously, these will overlap.)

I will upload the others from today later, it’s getting too late. After the museum we went to the Jewel Box and did some pictures of the girls there that turned out better than I’d expected at the time…