A weekend in the Smokies

K and I took advantage of this 3 day weekend to go on a road trip - to the Great Smoky Mountains outside of Knoxville. It was a great weekend: beautiful scenery, a vigorous but fun hike that balanced the 10 hours we spent driving, and some peace and quiet away from the busy city/internship life.

We tackled Cade’s Cove on Saturday afternoon and made the 5 mile hike to see Abram’s Falls. The falls were not huge, but were worth the trek. Lots of people out there swimming in the water, and some brave souls climbed to the top of the rocks and jumped in.

On our way back, we ran into a woman who was curious about K’s t-shirt (an old “Food and Nutrition Club” shirt from college) and said she was a retired clinical dietitian. Small world - it turns out she did her internship here too, worked for years in research and then as a renal dietitian, and…. rented her house out to a few interns one year, one of whom is now our program director! Crazy, crazy! And all because of a nutrition-related shirt. haha

On Sunday we drove into Gatlinburg early to beat the hoards of labor day vacationing tourists. Although it can be pretty tacky, I felt that K couldn’t leave without seeing Gatlinburg. We had fun in the shops, eating fudge samples, and people-watching. I had wanted to go to the aquarium, but it can’t be worth the $20. And, I went home with half a pound of fudge, which always puts a smile on my face

So, back in Nashville now. Laundry done. Groceries for the week bought. Tennessee’s first football game is tonight; everyone in the city seemed to be in Kroger buying groceries with me, wearing orange, and in a rush to get home before the game starts. I considered wearing my Tennessee shirt, since I’m no longer at risk for being attacked in it, but decided against it. I don’t even know that I’ll watch the game; tennis is still too much fun. And kudos to Sam Querrey today for playing a great game against Nadal, I was cheering you on buddy!

A love for local food

This first week of the internship finished with a meal and panel at the Nashville Farmers Market. The food was to die for! There was a table full of wonderful food prepared for us, all local ingredients. It included:

• pork chops (from a farm outside Bowling Green, KY)
• 3 varieties of tomatoes, sliced, with balsamic vinaigrette
• corn, picked 2 days ago, straight off the cob, with no other flavorings/seasonings (it doesn’t need anything!)
• sauteed fresh veggies with orzo and feta cheese
• squash casserole
• grilled zucchini and eggplant
• Eggplant strips baked with cheese and topped with a red pepper sauce

And for dessert: cantaloupe, watermelon, and angel food cake from the market with homemade whipped cream and blueberries. Unfortunately, the blueberry crop ended last week in Nashville, so that was our only non-local produce item.

After enjoying our meal, we had speakers from several organizations, including the Farmers Market, Friends of the Farmers Market, and Food Security Partners of Middle TN, who spoke about supporting our local foodsystem and working to make healthy, local food available and accessible to everyone. This in particular is an area that I’m really passionate about, and it’s something that many people don’t think about as a huge contributor to obesity. One statistic was thrown out that for every grocery store in your neighborhood (walking distance), your risk of obesity drops 11-32%, depending on race. How amazing is that!? And yet, know one thinks of putting more grocery stores in urban neighborhoods as a way to combat the obesity crisis. Luckily, that’s just what Food Security Partners is working on, in a project called “reSTORing Nashville”.

So here I am, full of delicious food, listening to these people talk about how much there is to do in our community to reach people, and this part of my brain is off and running (what else is knew?), planning to go to Boston next, and get my masters in food policy at Tufts, and work to help provide a healthier environment in America. It just seems like being a clinical dietitian, or teaching people about nutrition can only go so far. If the neighborhood/city/country in which they live is so “obesigenic” (no sidewalks, no grocery stores, excessive fast food, no playgrounds or parks, etc), can we realistically expect them to be responsible for living a healthy life? It’s something that really angers me, and I could talk about it all day, but I won’t.  It’s just another reminder that there are so many different directions I could see myself going in after this internship is over, and who knows what will happen?

What have we learned this week class?

Just finished day 3 of our “Clinical Readiness” rotation, basically familiarizing ourselves with all our clinical rotations, and reviewing clinical nutrition and counseling skills.

We spent the morning today with the diet techs and observing their routines. They do so much to help out the dietitians! Thank you DTRs!! And I’m proud to say that I’m feeling good now about knowing where I am in the medical center and getting to different buildings. I haven’t mastered the tunnel system that connects everything underground, but I have another 9 months to figure them out!

I have also sanitized my hands today more than I probably have in my entire life! After learning that hospitals are going to soon be held financially responsible for hospital-acquired infections, I realized that I need to put my personal issues with hand sanitizer aside and just do whatever I can to not spread germs. I may not agree with people using these products in their everyday life because they’re terrified of germs, but when you’re in a hospital setting with some really sick and susceptible people, it’s pretty selfish to not help out.

Another thing that really surprised me so much was the amount of paper that is used in the nutrition department. Every day, hundreds of papers are printed for menus, patient meal tray tickets, etc in the diet office. Even though medical records are now online, the RDs and DTRs still print out patient records and assessments before making their daily rounds. It made me a little sick to see imagine how much paper must go to waste, but I just kept it to myself.

There are lots of other blog-worthy comments that I’ve had in my head for the past few days, but of course it all escapes me now. In non-internship news, things are going well. I’m having a hard time adjusting to these early mornings and long days. Getting up at 4:44 this morning is not fun! And by the time I get home late in the afternoon, I have to prioritize the to-do list and debate whether to workout, cook dinner, run errands, or just get straight to studying. Forget reading books for fun! I did go to the public library the other day, however, and signed up for a card. So I do have a few books sitting next to my bed, I just hope I can eventually read them!

Today I took advantage of the cooler weather and went on a nice 4 mile walk. I’m happy to hear that a lot of my fellow interns are interested in the Country Music Half-Marathon (including a few walkers besides myself!). And dinner tonight was yummy - Ranch roasted potatoes and scrambled eggs Who doesn’t like breakfast for dinner?

Now I’m watching Project Runway and US Open tennis. Go Federer! I’m still worried about him, but praying that he can go all the way.

The joy of unpaid internships

I was catching up on one of my favorite blogs, Stuff White People Like, when I came across this particular post about Unpaid Internships. Everything they said was, as always, so accurate in the white middle-upper class, especially in the community here at Vandy. My 10 month dietetic internship, which is required for me to become a Registered Dietitian, is basically unpaid. I pay them $6,800 in tuition, and in return for my hard full-time work, I receive a monthly $90 stipend. Yes, laugh at me if you wish. I liked how SWPL put it:

“you would assume that the most sought after internships would be in areas that lead to the greatest financial reward. Young White people, however, prefer internships that put them on the path for careers that will generally result in a DECREASE of the material wealth accumulated by their parents.”

People think that “Well, being in an unpaid internship for a year is tough, but afterwards you’ll get a high paying job and you’ll be able to pay off your debt and live a comfortable life”. Obviously, they have not read SWPL and do not understand these internships. Continue reading:

“If all goes according to plan, an internship will end with an offer of a job that pays $24,000 per year and will consist entirely of the same tasks they were recently doing for free.
When all is said and done, the internship process serves the white community in many ways. First, it helps to train the next generation of freelance writers, museum curators, and director’s assistants. But more importantly, internships teach white children how to complain about being poor.”

Hahah. And for those of you who are fellow fans of Stuff White People Like, they just came out with a book that has been on the New York Times Bestselling list for 7 weeks now. Of course, us unpaid interns can’t afford to buy it, but we can put it on our wish lists

Weekend food finds

I have had a good food weekend thus far. Last night, a group of interns went to a Nashville Sounds game, and I splurged on a funnel cake. Mmmm. I haven’t had a funnel cake since a carnival my freshman year of college, but boy was it good. Unfortunately, they didn’t have napkins, so I did my best to not get covered in powdered sugar.

Next up was trying one of the famous popsicles from Las Paletas. People have been talking about them all week, and then the Nashville Rage mentioned it as a great way to cool off in the Nashville August heat. And for only $2.50, I knew I had to try one! Plus, they beat Bobby Flay at a throwdown! So after exploring the vintage stores on 12th Avenue South today, we stopped by. The assortment of unique flavors were pretty awesome, but I settled on the “double chocolate chip cookie” popsicle. It was soooo good. I think there was actually a choc. chip cookie in the middle, with chocolate ice cream around it! Yummy yummy yummy!

And then for dinner tonight I experimented with my latest batch of organic veggies (from Delvin Farms) that I bought at the farmers market. It was a pilot program, held outside the Childrens Hospital, originally created by a former dietetic intern (yay us!). So anyway, I’ve had these tomatoes and yellow squash sitting in my fridge, waiting to be consumed. And tonight I wanted to make a pizza, so we put it all together. Who knew that layering thin slices of tomatoes, squash, olive oil and mozzarella would be such a good pizza? But it works! I love creating new pizza combinations. Like my pesto and smashed white bean pizza from last year, that was a good one too…

CORRECTION

I wanted you all to know that I actually won’t look that scary when wearing a respirator. Silly me didn’t understand that the hood is only worn during the fit-testing to ensure a proper fit. Our director and classmates laughed when they heard that I actually thought the whole outfit was worn. Poor Elizabeth….

Who knew I moved to the TB capital of the world?

Would you be freaked out if you saw me like this? haha, probably! Today we were all fit tested for respirators, which must be worn in the rooms of certain patients. But don’t worry, this isn’t what we really look like. It gets better. I haven’t shown you the hood yet!

And there you go everyone - me in my complete respirator outfit, ready to see you now for a nutritional assessment. I didn’t realize the whole process that you have to go through to be fit tested - they spray this saccharin solution into your mask, and if you can taste it, then obviously the respirator isn’t fitted properly, since it’s not filtering everything out correctly. These are N95 respirators, meaning they filter out 95% of all the junk in the air. So imagine, a classroom of 16 interns wearing these scary KKK / ET looking outfits, with a woman walking around spraying a sugar-water solution in our faces, and telling us to move our heads up and down, side to side, breathe deeply, breathe normally, read this poem out loud, count to 20 out loud, etc. Several of us got claustrophobic, hot, and a little dizzy; I can only imagine how fun it would be to visit a patient like this. And the more kiddos in the children’s hospital, I think I would be scared to death if the healthcare team waltzed into my room looking like this! That scene from ET still freaks me out where all the people are in isolation, zipped up in suits and masks. Poor patients…

So anyway, after we finished our fittings, someone remarked “Well, we’ll probably never have to wear these anyway…” but the woman in charge of the respirator fittings said “Oh no, Vanderbilt is practically the TB capital of the world, you’d be surprised!”.

I don’t remember seeing that fact on the application anywhere… little did I know.

“Don’t worry, you’re all going to make it”

Those were the words of a former intern we met yesterday. We had a fun meet and greet with several former interns as well as lots of dietitians and nutritional services employees at the medical center. It was a good opportunity to see everyone, since we’ll be working with all of them at some point. Afterwards the recently-graduated interns held a Q&A panel for us and shared their advice. They seemed to have been just as anxious and worrisome as we were at the start, but assured us that we’ll all finish strong. Just manage your time, stay ahead of the game, and give yourself some time/hobbies outside of the internship. I think we’ll all be just fine.

We had our first lunch in the hospital’s cafeteria; it’s being renovated right now so we have to use a much smaller temporary cafe. Unfortunately, vegetarian options are limited, as are our funds (although a 40% discount helps), so I brought my own sandwich and just bought a carton of chocolate milk for 66 cents.

Last night was my first taste of Nashville’s music life. A friend of K’s offered us tickets to a TV taping for GAC’s new show “Into the Circle”. It was basically a free concert featuring Kelly Pickler and Rodney Atkins that will be shown on TV September 20th. I never realized how much of a pain TV recording must be for artists - Kelly was stopped several times to have her hair stylist run on stage and fix her hair, add lip gloss and powder to her face etc. She also had to repeat a song because she admitted that she hadn’t shaved, and unfortunately ended the song with her arm straight up in the air. Haha. She seems to be a very nice and honest girl, but also just as ditzy as she was portrayed on American Idol. Rodney had a good performance. Of course I’d never heard of any of his songs, being the non-country fan that I am, but I still had a good time. We’re looking forward to September 20th and having a viewing party to see if our faces show up on TV!

The internship is here and we are ready!

I realized that the whole reason I started this blog was to record my experiences during my dietetic internship, and as I look through the past posts, I have hardly ever mentioned it. Granted that it didn’t start until this past Friday, but still…

We had our first day of orientation on Friday. K and I are lucky enough to catch the med center’s free shuttle and not have to worry about driving or parking at all! We met the interns in the lobby of the clinic, all anxiously awaiting what lies ahead. So much for us getting there early and being the first ones! Getting there 15 minutes ahead of time, half the class was already waiting. If there’s one thing I’ve learned so far from meeting all the interns, it’s that these girls (and 1 guy) are smart, organized, and on the ball!

After filling out lots of paperwork and writing multiple checks for roughly $4,000, we left our first day of orientation overwhelmed and broke. Our $90 monthly stipend is going to be fun… let’s just think of it as money to save, and not to spend, because really, it could go so fast! I’m already trying to be as frugal as possible, resumed clipping coupons, and have limited my shopping excursions. But I can already tell you exactly how to get to all nearby malls and shopping centers, including the nearby outlet mall (see, that’s a smart shopper!).

This upcoming week is more of the same: orientation programs, health screenings, get-to-know-you type things. Thursday morning we have to meet at Cracker Barrel for a true southern breakfast experience, which is intended to be an educational experience for the northerns / midwesterners in the group. K isn’t looking forward to it so much. Me? Give me scrambled eggs and biscuits and I’m a happy camper!

I think all in all it’s going to be a great year. Crazy busy, yes. But rewarding too. I know most of the girls are ready to be done with school/internships/part-time jobs, and enter the ‘real world’ with a regular pay check. I’m not so sure that I fall into that crowd. I really could stay in school and part-time jobs for many years to come… haha. But I know my mom is reading this, so “don’t worry mother, I’ll get a real job in a year, so you don’t have to pay for me anymore… but don’t be surprised when I return to grad school later on!”.

Oh yes Federer!

I feel like a crappy fan for not following the tennis much better during the Olympics, but it’s hardly received much coverage from NBC. I checked this morning online to see what was going on, and was so happy to see that Federer and Wawrinka won gold in the mens’ doubles. Yay Roger! He finally got his olympic gold medal