Montana State University

So much to catch up on!!!

Last weekend (June 28-29):  On Saturday Sam, Carla and I went whitewater rafting on the Yellowstone River!  It was really cool!  We went about 14 miles and hit 4 rapids, it was intense.  No one fell off but we did get a lighting storm for a while.  I really want to go again sometime!
On Sunday, I competed in the Bozeman triathlon.  I did the sprint triathlon which consisted of  a half mile swim, a 12.4 mile bike ride and a 3.1 mile run. Paul had a team that did the full triathlon.  He had a former intern that did the running, he did the biking and Rose, our administrative assistant was supposed to swim but she hurt her back just before the race.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day for a triathlon.

After the triathlon Carla, Sam and I went to Chico Hot Springs.  It was really relaxing! 

Week of June 30th:  On Monday, we spent the day preparing for our annual meeting with Food Services of America (our prime vendor).  We got our notes organized and make some spreadsheets and other documents that would help the meeting go smoothly.  We also went through the whole meeting and figured out who was responsible for which topic. 

Tuesday (7/1): This was a big day, the FSA meeting day!  We have been talking about and preparing for this meeting since we arrived at MSU!  And it is finally here!!  We woke up early and had breakfast at the Western Café in downtown Bozeman (so good!).  At breakfast Paul answered any lingering questions we had about the meeting.  After breakfast we departed for Billings, where FSA is located, which is about 2 1/2 hours from Bozeman.  When we got to Billings we got a tour of the FSA warehouse, which is huge by the way!  And then we started our meeting.  The meeting took about 4 1/2 hours, we had a lot to talk about.  I talked in the meeting about; fall start-up plans, I communicated when the dining centers will open in the fall and what FSA should expect when we open.  I also talked about how many students will be on meal plans this year. This is important for them because they need to be able to estimate how much product increase we will be needing for the year.  I also talked about concessions for the football stadium.  There are four home football games in a row, so FSA needs to have more inventory than normal because it is important that the concession stand doesn't run out of anything.  I then talked about our system of receiving nutrition information and sub ingredients for products that we are getting from FSA.  We were hoping for a better method but it doesn't seem that is possible this year.  Also for the meeting, I made a spreadsheet of the new products that MSU will need stocked for this year and the items that we will no longer need stocked.  FSA needs to know this because they only have so many slots.  So if we discontinue an item it is likely that another customer of theirs will also have to switch to the product we are switching to.  After the meeting we went out for lunch with a few people from FSA.  We got to talk to them about their careers and how they got into food service.  One of the men, Bob, was a University of North Dakota alum (GO SIOUX).  He had some really good career advice and interview tips for us.  This is helpful as we finish up our last year of college. 

Wednesday(7/2):  This day was spent following up on some of the stuff that was discussed at the meeting.  Also I typed up the notes that we took during the meeting.

Thursday (7/3)- Sunday (7/6): This day was spent traveling to Glacier National Park!  It was nothing short of amazing.  It is a really cool park!  We got there Thursday night and set up our tent and got settled in and then we took the shuttle to Logan Pass.  There was SOO much snow there!  It was about 80 degrees and there was still ten feet of snow in some places, I have never experienced anything like it.  There were people hiking to the top of the mountain and skiing down! It made me excited for winter, I can't wait to ski!

 

After we explored Logan Pass for a while we headed back to the campsite and made dinner over the fire.  We had black bean burgers and asparagus, it was so good!  I am convinced that anything tastes better over the fire.

On Friday we traveled the whole "Going to the Sun" road.  Let me tell you, if you ever have the chance to experience this I highly recommend it!  It was so beautiful!  We made a few stops and did a few hikes.  We spent some time on the West side of the park at Lake McDonald, we kayaked and had lunch here.  The lake is realllllly clear! You could see down really far.  Which is so different for me because they lake I grew up with (Lake of the Woods, in Minnesota) is really murky.  There were a lot of people water skiing and tubing, this is one thing that I really miss about summer in Minnesota!After this we headed back to the campsite and got cleaned up, had supper and relaxed.  The sunsets at our campsite were amazing!

When we woke up on Saturday we headed to Flathead Lake, which is just outside the park.  We spent some time here before we headed to Rose's parents house, who we were staying with for the night.  They live in Whitefish, a really cool town on Whitefish Lake.  We hung out there Saturday night and made kebabs and played board games, it was so nice of them to let us stay for the night!  They were great hosts.  We headed back to Bozeman on Sunday, but believe me I could have stayed there forever!

Monday (7/7):  We went over what we are going to be doing for the week because Paul will be gone at the NACUFS conference.  He gave us some projects to work on and then we went to the bakery to help out because they were short staffed.  We helped scoop cookies and then packed some baked goods to send to the dining centers.  After we helped them catch up I worked with Sam on a special meal project that we are working on.  After work I went for a run and it was really hot out.  I had to stop for a bit because I was so hot! Then we had dinner and went and got frozen yogurt across the street and took it to the park to catch some rays! 


I cannot believe we only have 2 weeks left!  I still think they are going to have to drag me out.  I love it here and it has been a really sweet experience!

Katie Olson