UGA Final Days

It is hard to believe that it is all coming to an end, it seems like only yesterday I was arriving in Athens. The summer has gone by way to fast, but you know what they say - time flies when you are having fun!

Monday (7/27)

Hanging up balloons

It’s the big day – final banquet showcase! We arrived at O’House at 10am and immediately got to work; we had a lot to accomplish before the event so the whole day seemed like a blur! First, we had to hang balloons from the ceiling, with the ceiling being so tall this task took a lot longer than expected.   Thankfully everything was done in plenty of time before the guests arrived! The finished product was beautiful! It is so rewarding to see the end result after working on a project the whole summer; I was very satisfied with how it turned out.

Next, Florence and I worked on assembling the giant flower centerpieces; at first it became very clear that we are not florists. Haha After many failed attempts we finally arranged something that looked good! We were pleasantly surprised on the results. The rest of the afternoon was just dedicated to making sure the rest of the decorations were put up, the tables were set, and the serving lines were ready to go.

Flower Centerpiece

People started arriving around 5:45 and the show had begun! My job during the event was to run back to the kitchen and grab items that were low on the food line. I was very happy that service went very smoothly, nothing was out of control at any point. The students seemed to enjoy the event and everyone had a good time.

The best part of the night was getting to try the food that we had been talking about all summer and it was surely worth the wait – it was absolutely delicious! My favorite dishes were the Risotto and the Macaroons. Once everyone had eaten we did some minor clean up so that the dining room would be able to be used the next day. By the end of the evening I was definitely worn out! It was a long but definitely rewarding day. Our 1920s Speakeasy banquet was a success!

Outside Enterance to the 'Speakeasy'

Tuesday (7/28)

Clean up

This morning we had to finish cleaning up O’House. We had to pack up all of the service dishes and the decorations and take them down to the basement for storage. We also had to take off everything that was hanging from the ceiling, all the balloons and the chandelier. It took a lot less effort and time to take down everything than it did to put it all up. We finished cleaning up the dining area and putting everything back the way we had it and we were officially done with the banquet. It was amazing that it took us three days to put it all up and only took us a few hours to take apart everything and put it away.

We had a little bit of time to put our feet up and then we went to a Peer Nutrition Education class. Today they were learning about food demos and how to be effective when teaching an audience. We were able to see a couple of food demos and then we were able to participate in the class activity! We were assigned to create a simple recipe using the foods you could find in the dining hall. It was such a fun assignment; I made a fruit salad from Greek yogurt, whipped cream, orange slices, walnuts, sugar, and lemon juice. I thought the class was very informative and I will take some of the things I learned and apply them in my studies.

The rest of the day I took to pack up, it’s sad tomorrow is our last day… L

Wednesday (7/29)

Today is the final day at UGA… how bittersweet. Today was a busy day tying up loose ends and wrapping the summer up. Florence and I started the day off putting the finishing touches on our grab and go project and then were off to our farewell lunch! It was really nice getting to see a lot of great people we’ve gotten to work with over the summer and get to say our goodbyes.

This afternoon we had a resume critique, which was incredibly helpful! We had a few people sit down with us and helped us perfect our resumes. After that I had my final evaluation with Kris and got to talk about some of the things we did this summer! Now off to pack up and load up my car to head back to Virginia.

It’s been truly an amazing summer and I am so lucky to have been able to work with such amazing people. I learned so much this summer and will take away so many valuable skills and knowledge with me. I’ve had SO much fun this summer and I just cannot believe how quickly time flew by. Until next time Athens!

Kara :)