I arrived Sunday afternoon (6/3/12), and checked-in to my dorm room at the Beverly Cleary building of unit 3. Fiona, the other intern, and I met for the first time at dinner that night and really hit it off! It turns out we have a lot of the same goals for seeing the area, and we're both here to get an awesome experience; immersing ourselves into the community of Berkeley, CA.
The first week consisted of introductions to a lot of faculty members in management and then a lot of cooks as well. Cal Dining is the company under which we are interning, and I was really impressed by its size and lay-out on campus. Cal Dining has four dining facilities, its own bakery, a coffee shop, and catering services! Fiona and I have time scheduled to experience all of them while we're here which is awesome; we are both looking forward to it. I was also really impressed by the size of the staff Cal Dining houses, there is a lot to be learned about each position and how they all work together to develop a large, successful foodservice institution. Renee Simpson is their dietician, and was welcomed to the team almost a year ago. Renee is AWESOME! She has done so much with her career, from owning a catering business and owning a dessert company, she became a registered dietician eventually and was even featured on some local news stations. I think one of my favorite things about the staff is that EVERYONE loves to eat and talk about food. The staff members are really looking out for us, giving us insight to the culture in the area and making suggestions about where to eat and what to do!
We visited a gluten-free bake shop and were able to meet with the owner and hear her motivations for getting it started, we went to a Whole Foods and sat in on some nutrition lectures; it was a great review for me from my course material this past semester, and also really great insight from the lecturer about possible career paths. We also visited a chocolate shop, and had a great conversation with the owner! He's even going to allow us to come in for a day and see what he does!
This weekend we took a trip to San Francisco, got to walk through Chinatown, see Fisherman's Wharf, Ghiradelli square, and the beautiful bay complete with Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco is my new favorite city of all time; it's absolutely gorgeous and full of culture. We plan to go back and tour Alcatraz (next weekend) and then ride across the Golden Gate Bridge on our bikes at some point :-).
It has been great so far working with Cal Dining, and I am really excited to continue on with our schedule and see what we learn along the way!
^All Gluten-free baked goods! Delicious.
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