Hello World, It's Me Gretchen

Hello.....is this thing on?

Okay, let me introduce myself. I'm Gretchen Smiley, one of three interns at the University of Connecticut this summer. It's been a long journey out to Connecticut for me, but I arrived on Saturday after a 12 hour car ride from Indiana, which was preceded by a 10.5 hour car ride from Kansas to Indiana. I'm staying in a dorm suite with the two other interns (who are Phe-nomenal) and I'm just starting to get settled into my new home.

Day one for me was filled with lots of emotion. I was anxious to get started, nervous about the unknown, and excited for the journey that the next eight weeks were going to take me on. Day one went off without a hitch. I spent the day going through orientation with Brittany, one of the other two interns (Mahalia, the other intern, arrived two weeks prior to Brittany and I). We sat down with Eric, my internship director and the area manager of one of the dining halls here at UConn, and went over the guidelines for our summer and introduced us to what some of our special projects for the summer would be (more on this to come). Eric took us on a tour of the campus and we got to meet many people involved in the dining service operations. We got our ID's for the summer, our meal plans all worked out, and our uniforms for the summer. We ate lunch at one of the retail operations run in the union, and then finished up by getting my parking pass for the summer. All in all a good day.

Day two (which was 5/25) was the start of the journey. I arrived for my first real day of work at 8:30 and found I was going to be a KA (a kitchen assistant) for the day working in salads. I worked with Pam, another KA, for the day. She showed me the ropes, and I helped with chopping vegetables, prepping dressings, and the actual set up and layout of the salad bar line. After lunch, we met with the IT department and got all set up to use the computers on campus as well as have access to the internet. Brittany and I ended the day by starting to brainstorm for our main project for the summer. We are to plan and execute a themed luncheon for a large conference coming through later this summer. First on the agenda...figure out a theme and get it approved. Much more on this to come as the summer progresses. :)

Random side note...we got our schedules for the summer today, and I'm very excited that we will have all but one weekend off this summer. I think I'm going to like it hear (sung in the tune of Annie). Can someone say excursions? My roomies and I are already conjuring up plans to hit up Boston and the Cape for a long weekend sometime this summer. Also on the agenda....Six Flags, the beach, and touring Yale's campus. I promise I will become an avid amateur photographer by the end of the summer and will have plenty of photos to share of our adventures. This is unknown territory to all three of us, so any suggestions from all you wonderful readers, will be highly considered. Credit to be given to the best suggestions later :)

For all of you who know me well, let me put a second side note in here. There are ALOT of wineries out here in Connecticut. And we all know my love for wine. Eric is going to take us on a trip down to the coast where we will visit a winery and go and have lobster afterwards. In the words of Rachel Ray, YUMO! I also was given a wine guide to all of New England, so maybe I can convince my roommates to branch out and go on a wine tour with me one weekend, as well.
I'm out for now. More fun updates coming soon......

Gretchen