So about a month or so ago when the weather started getting really nice, I came up with an idea that we should have an outdoor grill time when everyone can get together and just be social. And not with any obligations - no presentations, no movies, no shop talk, just getting together for fun. I thought it would be great to start this out with the interns as a test group, and what do you know - my idea actually caught on!
We mentioned the idea at the daily intern morning meeting last Friday to see whether the interns would be interested, and they definitely were. We outlined it as being a BYOM (Bring Your Own Meat) cookout, but we would provide soda. Also we encouraged them to bring chairs, blankets, and lawn games (I offered to bring bocce and ladder ball). We also took care of arranging for a grill with Facilities, and Bob provided charcoal and lighter fluid. We decided our first try would be Thursday (today), since we plan to have it on Fridays but there was a scheduled field trip for this Friday.
I started to get pretty excited as I saw the interns posting on their blogs about how much they were looking forward to grilling! I was especially impressed yesterday when Bob told me that they actually took it upon themselves (entirely on their own!) to plan out who would bring what and fill out a sign up sheet. This morning you could definitely feel the excitement in the air!
Well the grill time went GREAT! The weather today was absolutely perfect - clear blue skies, bright sun, low humidity, temps in the 80's. There were games of bocce, ladder ball, and frisbee simultaneously going on, and everyone looked like they were having a blast. The Blue Angels just got into town and were doing practice fly-overs right over campus, so they really added to the fun (I have no idea how we'll top that next week). After getting through a few games, and after Bob came to the rescue by getting more buns, the interns took the responsibility of grilling their own food. There was quite a spread - burgers, hot dogs, chips, fruit, and brownies! They all sat together in a circle and ate and chatted, and once they were done took it upon themselves to clean up everything they brought outside.
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| Matt H., Evelyn, Emily, and Sarah play "Xtreme" bocce |
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| Alex appears to really be in the ladderball zone... |
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| And the cookout begins! Sarah learned that vertically-dropped burgers tend to fall through the grill... |
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| The irony was not lost on us that at this internship, commonly described as "better than flipping burgers", the interns are, in fact, flipping burgers. |
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| The ladies got to sit around while the boys grilled :-) |
On that note, I would like to exclaim how impressed I am by our group of interns this year!!! They are really on top of things and organized, without our help or suggestions. They organized getting each others' phone numbers and blog addresses; established their own daily lunches; and really ran with the idea for today's BBQ. They are also all very close and friendly with each other. I am so proud of our group already, and they've only been here for 1 week! I am excited for what's to come.
As for the weekly cookouts - I think they will definitely be continuing!
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