This week marks a milestone event: our Theme Meal. My partner and I planned the menu, found the recipes, calculated the food costs, and created/passed out fliers and posters, and now we will cook the food, decorate, and serve the people!

Whew.

Most, if not all, dietetic internships include this in the agenda. It helps us see/experience every step of the food service career: from planning a menu to ordering the food, to cooking and serving food. Every step is important and it all takes a lot of work. I remember looking at pictures on the internship web site of what the interns in the past have done. They look so proud and happy that “the day” is there and will pass, and they survived!

Neither my partner nor I have a lot of experience in food service (besides class-work, not the same!), so this has definitely been a learning process. I have to admit, I’m nervous about the whole thing, knowing that we’re solely responsible for pulling it off! But, it’s one of those things you know about since day one of the internship, and you just have to do it.

Last week I completed my major case study by finally giving my oral presentation. After this week I’ll be done with the majority of food service. I’m starting to feel the progress! Having these two huge things out of the way means that it’s generally “downhill” from here.

We only have about three and half months left, and the majority of that time will be further technology training. There have been many days where this time doesn’t seem to pass quick enough, but most of the time I stop and can’t believe how fast it’s going!

It’s about that time to start looking for job openings and thinking seriously about where I want to be and what I want to be doing in July! And that is the next big project!

Posted by Mary Ellen Nunes at 03/18/2009 12:00:38 PM