Week 5 at MSU

This week Jeanette and I started shadowing the managers at The Gallery. On Monday, I got to do the late shift with the afternoon managers. Chris, one of the managers, showed Jeanette and I how they check out the stations after meals so that the student employees can leave. We also attended the daily meeting with the full time staff. They go over products that need to be ordered and upcoming meals at these meetings. Later in the afternoon, we got to sit in on an interview. The managers are trying to fill a few host positions in the cafeteria. I even got to ask some of the questions and take notes at the interview. It was much less stressful being on the interviewer side of things :) It was interesting to discuss after and see what things Chris took note of during the interview. Late night in The Gallery was pretty slow on Monday, but I did enjoy shadowing Sharon, another manager.

I also tried the sushi for dinner. I think I'm beginning to acquire a taste for it.

Tuesday was a really fun day. We drove up to Ferris State University (FSU). We met up with the interns, Emily and Margaret, and their coordinator, Brenda. They took us on a tour of The Rock, their dining hall. It was beautiful! I was really impressed with The Rock. We also saw some other areas of campus. 

FSU clock tower

We saw a hallway with a bunch of display cases about the history of FSU, a Starbucks on campus, and some of the sporting arenas, specifically hockey. Their hockey team is really good and kind of a big deal to FSU, so we got to see all of the behind the scenes stuff at the ice rink. 

There was a hockey camp using the rink that day

There were bulldogs everywhere!

I'm not sure who this guy is, but apparently he played hockey at FSU and is a big deal :)

We also ate lunch at The Rock. It sure was tasty! They have this awesome mongolian grill station, so I took advantage of that. It was fun to pick out all of my ingredients and watch it be cooked. Not too mention, it was delicious!

Watching my food be cooked

After lunch we listened to a presentation about the upcoming renovations to another dining hall at FSU. It was really interesting to hear all of their plans explained and see the blueprints. There's so much work that goes into planning a kitchen/dining hall!

Jeanette, Emily, Margaret, Me, and Brenda (the FSU dietitian)

I really enjoyed visiting FSU. It's fun to get together with some of the other interns and see a new campus. I'm excited for them to visit MSU this week!

Wednesday we were back in The Gallery working with the managers. Chef Eric was the only manager on duty, so it was a little different than Monday. I started off by making eggs benedict to help out the students. I had never poached an egg before, so that was fun. After lunch, Jeanette I decided to work on our project instead. We got a lot done that afternoon, which is exciting!

Thursday we spent the morning in The Gallery again. Since Chef Eric was the only manager again, we spent most of our time in the front of house making sure everything was good to go since none of the full time managers were there to do it. It was a pretty slow day since it was the 4th of July. I did get to put some napkin folding skills to use for one of the stations.

I was just excited I remembered how to make anything

We did some more project work in the afternoon, and then it was time to celebrate America! Jeanette and I met up with some of her family at a Lansing Lugnuts minor league baseball game in downtown Lansing. The weather was great, so it was really nice to sit out at the game. After the game was over, we watched the baseball stadium's fireworks. It was a pretty good fourth.

At the game

Jeanette and I enjoying the baseball game

 Jeanette took Friday off, so it was time for me to fly solo. I spent the morning doing project work. I got quite a bit done on the menus. I spent the afternoon in The Gallery doing pretty much the same things we had been doing all week. It was a very slow day because of the holiday weekend.

Overall, week 5 was great! Can't believe how close we are to being done here.