Weeks 7-8 - Texas Tech, Final Presentation and the Market

Texas Tech University

Carolyn Greene

Hello ya'll!  This post is reallllyyy late (like three weeks late - eep!) but it's been such a busy few weeks since I left Texas that I just couldn't find time, or even a reliable internet connection for that matter, to actually sit down and write about my last two weeks.  Now that I'm home, and have a free day before my busy week starts up again, I'm hunkering down and working on all the things that I had put on the back burner since the last month of the internship.

Post-presensation photo with the one and only Alan!

Last time, I said the girls and I were getting ready for our final presentation.  In short, we did great!  Everything went so smoothly, and I think our ideas were well received by all parties involved.  We had a delicious lunch afterwards, by Top Tier catering themselves, and then had the rest of the day to ourselves.  I caught up on some sleep, and made sure I got a good dinner that night.  We knew we needed a little R&R after our stressful prior week to recuperate for our busy two weeks at the Market!

Tuesday through Friday had us buzzing like bees at the Market.  We had a projected 1500 or so campers expected that week, and the only way to describe the experience is that.  It. Was. Crazy!  In all the years I've done food service, I don't think I've ever served so many people in such a short period of time!  The kids came in waves, and it was almost constant movement for the entire duration of the shift.  I definitely learned a lot about handling high volume that week!

We all got to try our hands at different stations all around the unit.  Most of the time, I was either serving at the Carvery, which was the main line, but I also served at the Taco station, and had a night or two plating fruit.  Some days I fronted, which meant I kept the front of the unit in order, or looked over the dining hall while   At the end of week 8, we got to meet with the main manager, Jessie, who talked to us about the managerial side of food service,  That was an informative meeting,  and I had the chance to ask all the burning questions I had about topics like employee training, production, and ordering and storage.

During week 8, we were at the Market again, but the counts for those few days were much lower than week 7, having no more than 250 people a day.  I got the chance to ride Zamboni, our motorized floor cleaning contraption, which was a lot of fun!

On Wednesday morning or week 8, I went to my last crossfit class at Paladin.  It was such a pleasure and honor to be able to train with all the folks that morning!  I just wish I had more time with Crossfit Paladin - the environment was so welcoming, and it definitely had started to feel like a family!  I'll be back one day!

To end our time at Texas Tech, us girls had to go out with a bang.  With the help of Dee, the head of recruitment in Hospitality, we turned Alan's office into the Batcave!  As we were working on Alan's office, we had the brilliant idea to also do Dee's office too.  The results were spectacular and we had so much fun with it!  This is the goodbye Alan never saw coming!

Alan's office - The Batcave!

Dee's office - aka Robin's office

Friday was our last official day of the internship.  We had a short debriefing session with Alan, Dee, and Cape, and reflected on our two months with Hospitality.  Those two months were such a blessing, and I would not have traded the experience for anything.  The people I've met, fellow interns and the Hospitality staff, were such wonderful, embracing people, and I'm so glad I have this chance to meet them.  I'm so excited to see where these experiences take me going into my last year of my undergraduate career!

Weeks 5 and 6 - But most importantly, Turnpike Troubadours @ 4th on Broadway

Texas Tech University

Carolyn Greene

I'm two weeks behind, but better late than never!  It's be a busy couple of weeks, and our project is finally about to come to an end with our final presentation tomorrow.  I just can't believe that the bulk of this internship is basically over!  We have two more weeks left, but we'll be doing our second food service rotation at the Market, so the hectic part concluded on Friday, when we finalized our presentation slides and all the material for it.  All that's left is to present it to Hospitality's admin, and then we'll be done!

For week 5, most of our work day consisted of brainstorming ideas for our final project.  Emma and I were in Marketing for the first three days of the week.  We had a second day working the resource fair during RRO's, but we also got the chance to talk to all the different specialists within the department, and we were able to get a little inspiration for how to go about marketing the capstone event.  These three days were laid back and informal, but we learned so much about how the department markets and plans all its events!  We had plenty to take away to apply to our project in the following week.

As I mentioned in my last post, I said I would be hanging out with Sports Nutrition and the Texas Tech football team.  I went in twice that week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, and got to see how sports nutrition is actively involved with the athlete's health.  On Tuesday, not much happened, but I handed out pre-made recovery smoothies to the incoming freshman athletes after their lift sessions.  I came in an hour earlier at 6am on Wednesday and actually helped make the smoothies for the athletes.  One of the smoothies we made was a weight gain shake that added up to a whopping 908 calories per serving!!  

One of the things I have to constantly remind myself of is that the conventional concepts and teachings of dietetics does not really apply to sports nutrition.  Nutrition in athletics is all about fueling an athlete for performance, and sometimes, proper fuel means an athlete needs to eat 6000 calories a day to meet a weight goal.  Changing mentality is definitely hard, but it's such a cool perspective to look into!  I'm so thankful for Dayna, the sports dietitian here, and Jenny, the sports dietitian back home at Virginia Tech for showing me around and letting me get involved in this part of dietetics!

For Thursday and Friday of week 5, we all had a rotation with Top Tier Catering.  For Thursday, we met with all the different staff members who helped run catering, and we saw how bookings were made, and how client demands were met.  On the second day, the associate director of Top Tier gave us a tour of the catering facilities.  We'd been hearing about the different venues all around campus for weeks, such as the Frazier and Merket, but we had never actually been in the locations in person, so it was really neat seeing what all the fuss was about! 

Frazier Alumni Pavilion

McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center

  

That night, we all went out to the First Friday Art Trail again.  Kayla, someone we'd met in Hospitality, introduced us to Crusty's Wood Fired Pizza, which was served out of a street truck.  It was delicious, which says a lot because I'm not a huge pizza person!  It was so fun getting to hang out with everyone, while checking out the local art and music scene!

This piece is actually a super tiny room in a box!

Week 6 started off with a real bang, since Monday was the 4th of July!  The night before, I went out with Nick and V to see a live show again.  This time, the Dirty River Boys and the Turnpike Troubadours performed for 4th on Broadway, which was a street dance held the night before the 4th of July in Downtown Lubbock.  I'd never heard of either group until only a few weeks ago, and I can honestly say that I really enjoyed the show!  They're both on Spotify, so give them a listen!  On the actual 4th of July, Kayla invited us to a cookout, where we had great BBQ and got to see a fireworks display!  The weekend was just so fun overall - probably one of the most memorable Independence Day's I've ever had!

Turnpike Troubadour at 4th on Broadway!

The rest of the week was crunch time.  We spent every day in the office putting together the last of our project.  Since I have InDesign from when I went to design school, I was in charge of the table tents and social media graphics.  I always think that my old major is of no help for dietetics, but it always comes in handy when I least expect it!  Over all, we were so productive last week.  Almost everything was done by the time we left on Thursday, and the finishing touches were added Friday morning before we met with Alan to go over our presentation.  The kinks were worked out during our practice runs, and now we're eager to show off what we've done for the last six weeks to the department!

To end the week, Emma, Megan, and I bought tickets to see Pirates of Penzance in McKenzie Park at the Moonlight Musical Amphitheater.  I admit, I went in with rather low expectations, since I'd gotten used to Broadway shows from when I lived in New York City.  I was so happy that the group went above and beyond what I had expected!  The musical was about a young pirate who leaves his pirate ship to go off and be his own person, with the intent of finding himself a bride from civil society, but realizes he is still contractually obligated to stay with the crew.  The whole story was ridiculous, but it was a comedy so I guess a quirky plot line is appropriate in this situation!  We all had a blast, and I'm so glad we decided to go on the spur of the moment!

One of the closing scenes of Pirates of Penzance!

So that concludes the recounting of the last two weeks.  Tomorrow is the presentation, and then we'll be wrapping up the internship with two weeks at the Market.  Stay tuned to hear about how our presentation goes!

Texas Tech- Weeks 4&5 (Catering, Training, Marketing, and Dietetics)

Week 4

At the start of this week, the dietitian Mindy assigned us with a “Week in a Glance” project, similar to what we dietetic students have done during class. The project is essentially creating a week day menu for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even snacks (but not beverages).

The parameters for my “Week in a Glance” were as follows:

1. for the TTU Student Union Building

2. Vegetarian Diet

3. (self-imposed) 1600-1800 calorie days.

I was surprised it took almost two full work days to complete. First I had to go through the online menu and nutrition facts for every dining concept in the SUB and look for vegetarian options. I then started arranging the ideas for different meals. The final part was to sum the calories, macros, and fiber for each meal and day.

Mindy helped by taking me to the Student Union Building on Tuesday so I could see in person what I’ve been planning. I realized I had more snack options and also could better understand what the concepts have to sell.

Mindy had all four of us interns complete the project for different locations that week. She says she is interested in distributing our Week in a Glances to her clients, especially the ones living on campus, who want meal ideas.

Since I’m not vegetarian, this was a good challenge. I do appreciate non-meat protein sources because I don’t buy much meat while I live on campus, both here at TTU and at Auburn (my school). I’m pleased with my 1600-1800 calorie days reaching more than 60g of protein.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The second part of the week was with Marketing. Megan and I spent one morning visiting different marketing employees, learning about what they do for the department. We also spent two days working at the Red Raider Orientation, talking with incoming freshmen and their parents about how TTU meal plans operate. I love working with freshmen at my university; I felt right at home.

When we weren't with someone from Marketing, Megan and I had time to think about our Captsone project.

Our Capstone project is in two parts. First, we worked on developing or modifying gluten free recipes that the new gluten-free facility will make this fall. Second, we will create an opening event for the venue. “The sky’s the limit!” says our superviser.

A few weeks ago, I didn’t appreciate why we had started working on the Capstone project so early. Now I understand. That would have been too much work for the week we have set aside to work on the project. As of right now, we feel pretty confident about our progress.

Week 5

This week, Megan and I worked with training and catering. Training has great Title Nine and Clery Act videos. Catering was neat to see because I knew so little about it. We learned about the whole process. They showed us how they enter their event information into their catering software and interact with the clients. We also looked into how the financial side of catering works.

We had a very detailed tour of the massive catering kitchen. In the end, we were driven around to different catering sites (some were preparing to host events that afternoon!).

All in all, the catering staff was modest about their jobs, but the numbers they mentioned for their events just in the last two months were staggering.

Next week, we will be 100% working on our Capstone Project! Our presentation is July 11th!

Week 4 - Training, Bowling, and a Whole Lotta Macro Counting

Texas Tech University

Carolyn Greene

We've past the halfway mark, and I can't believe how quickly everything is passing!  I'm starting to think a little bit about my drive back home to Virginia, and it's just so crazy to think that I'll be driving cross country again in less than a month!  For now though, I'll try not to think too much about everything I need to do in the future, and focus on the present and the experiences I've been so fortunate to have since arriving here.

We had two different, short rotations last week.  Emma and I were in training for the first half of the week, while Emily and Megan were working with Mindy in the office.  For the second half of the week, Emma and I switched back to the office and worked with Mindy, and Emily and Megan were in a Marketing rotation with Dee and Alan.

Chef Dewey gave us some leftover meat samples,
so of course I made some tacos for dinner

During training, Emma and I met Jeff Caperton, otherwise known as "Cape".  Since there was not too much to do in the office, he kept us entertained with videos of oscillating fans and aquariums of fish on the projector screen.  Playing around aside, we actually filmed a few more clips about gluten-friendly food choices and Celiac's Disease with Evan from training.  Once again, I was a nervous wreck through the whole filming process, but all things just take practice, right?

Cape's birthday was actually on our first day of training, so we celebrated by joining the Hospitality management staff for lunch at the Cast Iron Grill, which is known for its home style, southern food, and hand crafted pies.  I ordered a grilled chicken dish with mashed potatoes, green beans, and a roll.  It was delicious!  I would love to go back to try more of the menu soon.

Emily and Megan, on the other hand, helped Mindy with building a "Week in a Glance" menus for different dining units around campus.  This project had them looking at the nutritionals for various dining locations, and then make a "Smart Choices" menu with a healthy, balanced meal schedule someone could try to emulate.  By hospitality standards, Smart Choices means any food item that is less than 400 calories, and less than 30% calories from fat.  Emma and I switched over to working with Mindy on Thursday, and got to work on the Week in a Glance menus as well.  For my dining location, I chose Sam's Place at Murray, which has multiple Build Your Own concept stations, including an Asian Wok, a "Mexican" station, a sandwich line, and a grill.  I had an entire excel spreadsheet with every day of the week, with a section from breakfast, lunch, and dinner, calculating out all the macronutrients, fiber, and calorie counts for all the meals and days.  As someone who loves excel spreadsheets, I was basically in heaven for those two days.

While Emma and I were working in the office with Mindy, Emily and Megan were doing more Red Raider Orientation (RRO) work, this time with Hospitality in the Student Union Building (SUB).  We got to try it out ourselves this morning (6/27), and I had a great time talking to parents and new students and educating them about how dining plans work, and what their options are on campus!

On Thursday night, a friend of ours from our food service rotation at Bledsoe-Gordon, Nick, invited us out to cosmic bowling.  However, due to a bowling tournament that evening, it turned out to be just regular bowling, which was still fun regardless!  I learned that all I have going for me is brute strength and zero aiming ability - I think I finished last in every game we played, even though my bowling ball had quite a bit of speed behind it.

I also checked out Crossfit Paladin, one of the local boxes in the area.  Having been active in my Crossfit community back in Blacksburg, I had really missed that camaraderie derived from mutual suffering and hard work, so getting back into high intensity workouts was so refreshing!

Fun Fact: Lubbock is the birthplace of rock legend Buddy Holly.  As a result, the music scene here is very much alive and well.  Many local bars and venues host a wide array of well known, and less known, artists.  Nick invited me out to hang out with him and his friend V at a small show at the Blue Light Live in the Depot District.  I didn't know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good the artists were.  As far as I know, the live music scene in Blacksburg is almost nonexistent, or at least so small that you rarely hear about it, so I'm really loving these different forms of entertainment here!

Okay, that's all I have for week four (plus a few days)!  I'll be up bright and early tomorrow; I contacted the resident sports dietitian a few weeks ago, and she's been allowing me to shadow her in the mornings before work.  I love love love sports nutrition, so this is a great chance for me to witness this niche in person.  I'll post more on that another time!

See you next week!

Texas Tech Week Four

Hi Everyone!

     I am officially half way through my internship here at Texas Tech (don't remind me). I feel like I am just getting used to the hot temperatures and dry air here; even though my hair disagrees. Here is what happened in week four!

(sorry in advance for the lack of pictures, it was mostly office work this week)

At the Office:

     This week I got to spend Monday and Tuesday with Mindy and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday with Alan and Dee. With Mindy I got to finish up my "Week in a Glance" project where I outlined a week of meals at The Market that are all under 1500 calories. The goal of the "Week in a Glance" project will be to make these menu outlines available to students looking for certain meal parameters. I also got to go on rounds with Mindy! We got to see more of the back food service operations and taste some of the juices that are made at Smart Choices in the Student Union Building. 

     With Alan and Dee, Emily and I got to table at Red Raider Orientation and also a prospective student orientation as well. Tabling was so much fun because we got to interact directly with admitted and prospective students to inform them why hospitality services at Texas Tech is so awesome! We got to start the event planning aspect of the capstone project which we are all very excited about! Being able to talk with all of the staff in the marketing department has helped so much with beginning to plan this project out.

Next Week:

     Next week Emily and I will be going through some more employee training and working in the catering department too! Stay tuned for updates on Sunday! 

TTU Week 3: Lets Get These Projects Started!

Introduction

     So, as said in the Week 2 blog post I am sorry that my posts have not been on time. The good news is that after this post I will be up to date and you should look out for the Week 4 post this Sunday. The better news is that Week 3 had SO much in it and I have tons of pictures to share as well. This will be a super lighthearted post and I am sure you will enjoy a couple of my baking failures (pictures included for your amusement). Here it goes! 

Projects

     As you know our capstone project for our internship this summer is to help convert Hulen/ Clement into an all you can eat gluten free dining facility. I have to admit that at first I thought I would breeze through the recipe creation, I mean how hard could it be? The answer is that creating large scale recipes is incredibly hard because you have to keep costs low and labor minimal. Being at The Market during Week 2 showed me how hard everyone works to create each dish and so I knew that the recipes I created had to be simple and not time consuming. I am proud to say that after a lot of trial and error during this week and the first week I did finally come up with two recipes that will work. One is an Italian stuffed bell pepper and another is a Chex Mix cereal bar using chocolate gluten free Chex Mix. Both recipes are easy to make, low cost, and are options I think college students would eagerly choose.

     I also finished my Wellness Wednesday: Eat the Rainbow, Taste the Rainbow post which will be featured by the Dietitian Mindy Diller sometime in the fall. Writing this post was a lot of fun because it was about the topic of how eating fruits and vegetables from each color group can benefit your health. I am passionate about this topic because it really boils down to the micro-nutrients level and shows us exactly how food can impact our health. I think this is a reason why those of us are passionate about nutrition chose this path. Food is our fuel but its also a vessel for getting the nutrients that help our body processes. I won't go all philosophical on you guys but you really should read into the color groups of fruits and vegetables and the phytonutrients that each group contains.  

   My favorite project this week was filming a video about how many students get excess sugar by drinking sugar sweetened beverages. Each of us got to talk about a certain aspect of the topic and what our personal tips are for reducing intake of sugar sweetened beverages. I think this was my favorite part because students at TTU will be able to see me on video and relate to me. After all, I am a student too! I know how tempting these drinks can be but I really think our video will connect with students and was also informational. My part of the video was talking about how to avoid sugar sweetened beverages by looking at the food label to detect if there are added sugars. Explaining food labels is important for me because I know before I studied dietetics, food labels confused me and were not really explained well. Now I am more informed and so I hope the video will help other students too. 

Here is a picture of all of us on filming day: 

Juicing and Baking Oh My!

As I mentioned in my introduction...this week we tried making gluten free cookies without any grains and it did not go well.... But before I talk about that I will talk about the success that was our juicing project. Smart Choices in the Student Union Building serves juices that were created by students for students. Some of the recipes were even created by the NACUFS interns from last summer! We created about four different recipes but our favorites were the Tasty Tropic juice (orange, watermelon, and pineapple) and the Kickin Kale (kale, ginger, apple, pineapple).

Here is a picture of us prepping some of the produce!

And here is a picture of us trying some of our concoctions!  Not shown the sugar coma that happened afterwords.... :)

Now about those cookies I mentioned earlier.....they were a terrible failure. We were attempting to make gluten free cookies without any sort of flour including almond flour or gluten free flours. The batter was made with egg, banana, baking soda, vanilla, chocolate chips, and corn starch. Unfortunately in the end it was too wet and the cookies didn't rise but the scraped off chunks were actually kind of good. If you want a lesson on how not to bake gluten free cookies, here it is.

It's my birthday and I will eat all of the mini cupcakes if I want to.

The week ended pretty spectacularly with my birthday and a trip to Palo Duro Canyon. Thursday was my birthday and our internship coordinator Alan was nice enough to bring in cupcakes! Little did he know lemon cupcakes are my kryptonite and suffice to say all of the mini cupcakes have since been eaten. 

Palo Duro Canyon

While we all keep busy during the week, the weekend excursions are my favorite! Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the U.S. and for an inexperienced hiker such as myself I have to say...hiking was hard. It was a lot of fun though and we all got some really great pictures! Not to mention we saw some animals like collard lizzards and *gulp* spiders. While my hiking skills are sub par I made it on the CCC trail which is one of the more difficult trails.

Here are some pictures of me and the scenery!

Until Next Time!
Megan

This Little Intern Went to The Market (TTU week 2)

Introduction

Hi everyone! I'm sorry the weekly postings haven't been on time, the weeks go by so fast and there is so much to do! Here it goes!

Week 2: Working at the Market 

      We've heard the nursery rhyme "This little piggy went to the market" well, this little intern went to the market and it was a whirlwind!!!! I wish I had more pictures of this week but I didn't have my phone on me at work so imagination will have to do. 

     The Market is a dining facility here at TTU and during the year it is an a la carte option, however during the summer it is all you can eat which as you can imagine attracts a lot of customers. Emily and I did a lot during week two but to highlight a couple of my favorites we got to serve the TTU athletes and the campers from the cheer and science camps, and I learned how to cook large amounts of burgers! Serving was a blast because we really got to learn a lot about how to serve a large amount of people at a fast pace. Also we got to experience serving different lines so we really got to see how all of the items were put together. We also helped with prepping items in the back such as produce and desserts. Additionally, we learned what each of the managers does and also how to order products from US Foods which TTU contracts with. 

      For those wondering how the burger cooking went, I didn't burn anything..which is always a plus. The grill in the production area is fairly huge and you can cook an entire box of patties at once! While my new perfume scent for that day was eau de hamburger it was still a lot of fun. This week was a full week packed with tons of activities. There was never a shortage of things to do whether it was helping to prep the food, reorganizing the cereal shelves, stocking the milk cooler, mopping the stations, or serving. I am incredibly grateful to have gotten so immersed with food service this week!

Look out for my Week 3 blog post to learn more about juicing, week in a glance, the capstone project, and my Wellness Wednesday project as well.

Until next time!

Megan 

Juicing, Canyons, and Lots of Talking - Texas Tech

Texas Tech University

Carolyn Greene

Hello again!  This post is coming a little late due to a busy, eventful week, which has left us all rather tired over the weekend.  So much has happened, that I can't believe it hasn't even been an entire month since we got here!  At the same time, I'm realizing that we're creeping up on the half way mark of this internship, and I already know the next few weeks will pass in the blink of an eye,  I really look forward to everything I'll experience before the end!

Delicious Sidenote: Chef Dewey
made us lunch one afternoon!

Let me back track a little bit before I go on - I realized I never explained our capstone project for the internship, which is a major part of what we are doing as interns.  Our goal for our time at Texas Tech is actually to help convert one of the existing dining locations, Hulen-Clement, into a gluten-free facility, to accommodate the rather large population of individuals with Celiac's Disease or gluten intolerance.  We have been asked to develop eight recipes that could be used in the dining hall, calculate the food cost of the recipes, and scale it to 60 servings.  Another component of the task is to develop an in-service to properly train the employees working at Hulen-Clement, and to organize a special event for the grand re-opening of the facility.  So much is going into this project, and it's amazing how much I have learned in just a short week about large scale food service!

Last week was an interesting week in the office.  We spent most of the time working with the resident dietitian, Mindy, but had a few afternoons working with Chef Dewey in the test kitchen.  

First course of action: we all finished and turned in our Wellness Wednesday blog write ups.  This morning, I found out my write up was posted on the blog!  Go HERE to read about Summer Fitness Fuel!

Most of the office work was actually recipe development and learning how to navigate and use the US Foods ordering guides.  One of the major challenges of purchasing for gluten-free diets is just being able to find the ingredients necessary for our recipes.  If we were lucky enough to find the ingredient, the product on US Foods would be cost-prohibitive, and would not be a sustainable addition to the Hulen-Clement menu.  I can fully appreciate the work foodservice managers do when working on the collegiate and university level!  It's such hard work!

We were fortunate enough to get some time in the test kitchen last week, which was a dream come true for all of us future registered dietitians.  In addition to our capstone project recipes, Chef Dewey and Mindy gave us the task of coming up with a few recipes for fresh pressed juices to be sold on campus.  We had free reign of the test kitchen on Tuesday afternoon, and we concocted four delicious juices, most of which had leafy greens and other nutrient rich fruits and vegetables.  I really hope a few of the recipes goes into production in the fall!

We also tested some gluten-free cookie recipes.
Let's just say we nixed the ideas and they will not
be going into production.

On Wednesday, we filmed a Smart Choices video about Sugar Sweetened Beverages.  I already have the WORST stage fright, but apparently I'm worse in front of a camera - I was so nervous, hands shaking, heart racing, probably red in the face too.  I'm so glad it's over and while I'm terrified to see the final product, I'm also so glad I can say I have this experience in my arsenal now.  

To break the monotony of the classic 9-4 that we've been used to, Mindy asked us to help with various events outside the office.  Last week was Red Raider Orientation (RRO).  Clubs and organizations tabled at the rec center, so Hospitality of course had a nutrition table, which we all got to work at on either Tuesday or Thursday.  Emma and I got to table on Thursday, and we basically talked to incoming freshman about nutrition and making healthy choices on campus for two hours.  On Friday, we tabled at a Health and Safety fair for the Physical Plant, and gave our schpeils about healthier snack options and portion control, and handed out fliers to the men and women who came by our table.  I'm starting to realize that my favorite activities are face-to-face encounters with people who are interested to hear about their health.  It's such a rewarding experience!

On Sunday, we kicked off the new week with a bang at the Palo Duro Canyon State Park!  I'm so used to mountains and valleys, since Virginia Tech is located in a small valley in Southwest Virginia, so the rough, arid beauty of the canyons was just incredible to see.  We drove up to the park, and went about halfway into one of the more difficult hikes, and I got so many beautiful photos of the scenery and wildlife.  When I get the chance, I would love to make another trip out there and hike some more before I head back to Virginia!

We made a little lizard friend!

I didn't notice the cricket till I had the photo opened on my computer!

Alright ya'll - it's time to bring this to a close.  A few things have already happened this week, but I'll save it for the next post!  Stay tuned!

Kids, Food, and Prairie Dogs

Texas Tech, Lubbock TX

Carolyn Greene

Hello again!  Week 2 has been a busy week for the Texas Tech interns.  This week was the first part of our foodservice rotation, and Emma and I were placed at the Fresh Plate at Bledsoe-Gordon, while Emily and Megan were placed at the Market at Stangel-Murdough.  The goal for the week was to gain some experience working in a food service environment, while learning about the behind-the-scenes management tasks that need to happen for an operation to run effectively, such as ordering, inventory, and handling cash deposits.  With everything going on, we were so busy this week that the days all seem to blur together, but I'll do my best to go in chronological order.

Soaking up the sun on the wet deck

Ever since we arrived two weeks ago, we've heard over and over that Texas Tech is one of the largest campuses in the nation.  So large in fact, that on top of all the open spaces available for recreation, there is also a small leisure pool, complete with a lazy river, water slide, kiddie pool, and a lap pool.  Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day, so of course we had to check out this pool.  Floating around the river in inner tubes was such a refreshing way to start the week.  We'll definitely be coming back in the near future!

The rest of the week was all food service.  Monday and Tuesday were both pretty slow, since the football camps we were feeding had yet to arrive.  Emma and I arrived at Bledsoe-Gordon at 8am on Monday, and most of the day was spent cleaning and organizing the facility.  Tuesday was not much different, except for a couple hours of food safety and customer service training for the staff.  During our lunch break, we got to visit the Market, an All-You-Care-To-Eat (AYCE) facility, and saw Emily and Megan hard at work serving the cheerleading and math and science camps.

Panoramic view of the Fresh Plate at B/G

Emma setting up the pizza station!

The high school football camp arrived Wednesday afternoon, so Emma and I came in at 1pm to help prep for dinner.  We started off by cutting and bagging fruit, which we would be putting out on the line for the campers.  The boys arrived around 5pm, and the following hour was a bit of a madhouse.  Emma was stationed out on the floor, while I was behind the lines by the fryer.  That was a whole new experience in of itself, since I've never really fried any foods myself before.  

Thursday had us all up bright and early, since we needed to be in at 6:45am.  We worked breakfast, lunch, left for two hours, and then came back at 4:30pm for dinner.  In total we worked about 9 hours on Thursday.  The upside to such a long day was that we had time for some managerial shadowing - at the end of the day, of the unit managers, Nick, also a former NACUFS intern, showed Emma and I how to shut down a register, and do a cash deposit.

Friday was a short day, since the campers were leaving right after breakfast.  We arrived at 6:30 that morning, and were completely done with cleaning and closing down by 9:30.  Our second round of foodservice is in about four weeks, but we'll be at the Market next time - I'll really miss the managerial staff and employees at B/G!  They've been really sweet to us, and have helped us learn so much about the different parts of college dining.

With the weekend upon us, one of the first things we did was check out the South Plains Mall and do some much needed shopping for more office appropriate attire.  Afterwards, we, a group of dietetics students, and avid foodies, had to check out the unique food places in town.  The Pie Bar is about 10 minutes away from campus, and one of our coordinators, Dee, had mentioned it last week, so we just had to visit.  While you can get a traditional slice of pie, the main attractions are the pie cups, where you can choose your pie crust and your filling.  I bought the smallest cup, with a Nilla wafer and pecan crust and a dark chocolate mousse filling.  It was delicious, especially with a cup of locally sourced brewed coffee.  I'll definitely be back to try the other flavors!

Saturday wasn't that much different - we checked out antique shops around town, in search of the elusive, perfect pair of cowboy boots for Megan.  While we did not have much luck there, we did get to check out Yellow House Coffee, and adorable, hipster coffee shop about a mile from our dorms.  On Mindy's recommendation, we decided to splurge and go to Pie5, a pizza shop that makes custom personal pies.  I got the buffalo chicken pie, which was a definitely win, which says a lot because I don't even like pizza!

The highlight of the day, however, and maybe the week, was finding prairie dogs in a pet store in town.  You can buy a prairie for for $130, and if you feel like going a little wilder, you can even get a caiman in Lubbock for about $300!  Maybe I'll go home with a pet prairie dog at the end of the 8 weeks - my landlord won't mind, right? 

Week 2, in the books!    We'll be back in the office with Mindy and Chef Dewey, so I'm looking forward to what the next week holds!  See you next week, ya'll!

Suns up, Guns up! Week One

Introduction

Hi everyone! I'm Megan, a dietetics student from the University of Delaware (lets go fighting Blue Hens). I will be spending the next 7 weeks at Texas Tech as a NACUFS intern with four other dietetics students,...and chronicling my times as I go! In my blog I will talk about the internship, the campus, and of course all of the fun things to do around Lubbock. Here it goes!

Week One: Welcome to Texas Tech

                                      


Today I have officially been in Lubbock for a whole week! I flew in last Saturday from Washington D.C. and met up with two of the other interns Emily and Emma when they picked me up at the airport. We went to Tom & Bingo's BBQ which was my first Texas BBQ experience I have to say it was pretty great.That is certainly one thing I have learned about Texas, there is no shortage of great food. Later that day Carolyn arrived and our group was complete! Living with these girls has been a blast and there is NEVER a dull moment. Also, if you were wondering what the purpose of my title was, "Suns up, Guns up" is the motto for Texas Tech.

Everything You Need to Know:

1) Everything really is bigger in Texas (I'm serious)

2) The Texas flag is on EVERYTHING 

3) The weather is incredibly unpredictable 

4) The people are FANTASTIC 

Let me elaborate just a little bit. The other interns and I went to the Cadillac Ranch and The Big Texan steakhouse on Memorial Day and established that the food is huge and everything is served with a Texas flag. Thus, I can officially tell you that numbers one and two are confirmed facts about Texas. If you don't know what the Cadillac Ranch is, it's a line of old Cadillacs that people spray paint (legally of course). It started as an art project a very long time ago and it certainly worth checking out. Here's a picture of all of the Cadillacs after a heavy rain storm that I will explain later and of the TTU NACUFS interns (I'm the tiny head in the back, perspective is everything). 

Cadillac Ranch 

TTU NACUFS Interns 2016

 After the ranch we headed to The Big Texan steakhouse which is a staple when you're in the area. They have a 72 oz steak challenge that is entertaining and also kind of scary. A young man was attempting the challenge when we went but alas he stopped at 52 oz. Here is picture proof that the food is huge and served up with a side of Texas.

Dinner: Featuring a large steak, the Texas flag, and the souvenir cups

By now I have mentioned the weather a couple of times and I have to let you know it is both awesome and completely unpredictable. In the span of three days there was a dust storm, a thunderstorm with hail, and flooding. No worries though the buildings here at Tech are safe and stable (and have windows perfect for safely watching the storms). In order to show you the flooding I have to fast forward a bit to the second day of work where the city of Lubbock flooded. Apparently, there was a man kayaking down Quaker Ave but I didn't witness this myself so you might just have to google that one. I tried to get the best pictures of the flooding that I could but water is hardly cooperative for photos.

I promise this is a road, not a pond

Finally, lets cover number four. The people here at Tech are amazing and so welcoming! I have to start with Karen, our residence hall Senior Business Assistant. From the moment I got here Karen has made me feel right at home, even though I am over 1,000 miles away from mine. Then there is Alan our internship coordinator. Alan has made sure that the other interns and I know where to go, what to do, and what to bring even before we came to Tech. He has tailored our program this summer to be very nutrition based since we are all dietetic majors; which means that this summer will certainly be a learning experience. Day one with Alan was filled with training and a review of food safety which is critical on a college campus. Finally, there is Mindy the registered dietitian who works with hospitality services here. Mindy is incredibly busy but she took time out of her schedule to work one on one with us and to make sure we had a clear idea about how to understand the food ordering system on campus. For the rest of the week, Mindy also helped us work on our capstone project, which will be to create recipes for a gluten free dining facility and also create accompanying training procedures with a big kick off event to promote it. I will talk more about the project in later posts because it is still in the development phase. Mindy also helped us out with writing "Wellness Wednesday" posts which will be featured on the Texas Tech Recreation page in the coming weeks. 

What to Look Forward to Next Week:

Next Monday Emily and I will be starting at The Market at 6:30 in the morning. We are both excited to experience a full day of food service and to learn from the staff. The Market is a concept at TTU that is designed to be a food court atmosphere and has a little bit of everything. Check out my blog next week to learn more about The Market, the capstone project, and my Wellness Wednesday.

Bye for now!

- Megan 

Hello, from the Lone Star State!

Texas Tech, Lubbock TX

Carolyn Greene

Today marks more than 1 week since my arrival in Lubbock, Texas.  I'm Carolyn, a dietetics student from Virginia Tech, and one of four NACUFS food service management interns working at Texas Tech.  I'm so excited to keep y'all posted about the cool projects we'll be working on for the next 7 weeks!

My journey here actually started two weeks ago, with a roadtrip down to Florida to visit a friend.  From there I drove to San Antonio, Texas, to visit the Army dietetics internship at Fort Sam Houston, where I hope to end up next year.  I then worked my way up through Austin, Dallas, and then cut across the state to get to Lubbock on Saturday, August 28.  This is the first time I've driven so many miles (2000!!) in such a short time frame, and I've enjoyed every minute of this adventure!

So much sky!

I was the last of four to arrive, and I met my fellow interns and roommates Emily, Emma, and Megan upon arrival.  We've settled in well in the last week, and we've taken the first few days to explore and try the food in the area.  The internship's official start date was Tuesday, August 31, where we met the wonderful TTU Hospitality staff during orientation, and got the grand tour of the campus.  Our project for the summer is to assist in converting a pre-existing dining hall to a gluten-free facility, to better serve those with Celiac's and various wheat allergies and sensitivities.  Mindy, the resident dietitian working for Hospitality, has been a great mentor these last few days, as she's shown us the ins and outs of ordering and purchasing for large scale dining establishments, as well as the nutritional aspect of campus dining.  

In addition to our overarching project, Mindy has also asked us to contribute to the weekly Wellness Wednesday blog and email list, where we write about a health topic that will be distributed to the Rec Center, Hospitality, and various other locations.  Click the hyperlink to check them out!  I've decided to write about fueling for exercise in the summer, since I love sports nutrition and fitness!

To wrap things up, I have a few take-aways I want to mention.

First: Everything is bigger in Texas.  Texas Tech's campus is enormous, which I quickly found out when I went for a run Sunday afternoon, and realized a two mile lap really only covered about a quarter of the sprawling campus.  

Second: The weather here is in a league of its own.  We visited Amarillo to go to the Big Texan, home of the free 72 oz steak (if you can finish it in under an hour), and to Cadillac Ranch, and on the way back to Lubbock, we could see a storm brewing on the horizon.  That night, we were fortunate enough to see a dust storm, a thunderstorm, and a hailstorm, all within the span of a few hours.

 

Cadillac Ranch (you can see my lime green tag!) and my steak from the Big Texan

Dust storm in Lubbock

Third: It never rains, but it always floods.  On Wednesday, our first day working with Mindy, Lubbock had rain all day, and lo and behold, the streets flooded.  The sidewalks were even submerged in some parts of town, and I heard stories of people kayaking down some of the lower streets.  Everyone kept saying that we brought the rain with them, because the area almost never gets rain!  What a way to start the work week!

Flooded, but these Texans still brave the roads

Stay tuned for more adventures!