Armed with lots of missiles and soldiers

I’m a museum curator based in Europe (very different from the Americas). It’s a wonderful job of travel, being close to history and bringing some goodness into the world, if you don’t mind the salary of working for a charity.

Jew here, and travelled through SE Asia. Israelis have always had a terrible reputation in parts of India and Thailand because after completing military service of 2-3 years, these kids get a lump sum before heading off to careers or university. They spend that money on booze and drugs and get off their faces before heading home to start their lives properly, and this is true of the Israeli Arab kids who serve too, as they are also no longer under the watchful eye of their parents or the military.

It’s not uncommon for youth hostels in Thailand not to allow Israelis in groups to stay there, with signage saying so. Always “Israelis”, never “jews”. I saw a lot of this backpacking maybe 8 years ago.

I work in a museum adapting internationally touring exhibitions to align with their host communities. It’s a great career - there’s travel, I get to see behind the scenes of museum collections, and I get to study other cultures as a job. I do get paid to match the fact that I work for a charity.

My background is in the museum sector, which you can get into either through a PhD in study of a relevant field to the specific museum, or through a graduate program in museum/ conservation studies (which is what I did).

So far as I can tell, there are only a handful of people that do this job globally, which I suppose makes it lesser known!

A hammer designed to smash glass - it’s a ‘safety hammer’ because they are kept in cars to smash windows in emergencies where people are stuck.