I have the Best. Internship. EVER.

Okay, so, intern orientation. I got to White Plains on Tuesday evening (after lugging my bags through the city’s biggest station, getting off at the wrong train stop and finding a taxi)…and the hotel did not have a room for me. Not the best beginning to the trip. As fate would have it, the other intern from my office, Justin, arrived just as I was checking in, so at least I wasn’t room-less and stranded alone. Everyone was really nice about the mix up though and we found me a room pretty quickly. I unpacked and relaxed for a little bit before heading down to dinner with the rest of the group – about 25 of us I’d say.

It was nice to have a informal ice-breaker type of activity before the official sessions start tomorrow. I got to know about half of the room (the other half was too far away to make conversation easy). There were people there from all over – New York, Ohio, Utah, Vermont, Boston, Texas – involved in a wide cross section of functions – HR, sales, accounting, analysis, marketing, research and development – and from all different education levels and backgrounds – undergrad, masters, PhD, business, engineering, food science. Overall it seemed like a pretty good group.

The next morning we were all bussed to HQ (and had yogurt for breakfast…anyone surprised?). We met the rest of the interns (about 35 in all) and began our sessions. Wednesday consisted mostly of “culture” information. We discussed CODE (“at Dannon, we’re Committed, Open, Doers, Empowered”) and the concept of HOPE (Humanism, Openness, Proximity, Enthusiasum) as well as the six pillar focus (Health Credibility, Nature, People, Blue Ocean, For All, Blockbuster). It was nice to learn the terminology everyone at the office has been using – conversations make MUCH more sense now! We broke for lunch, but I had to work because I had two huge reports due for Walmart the next day and only had internet access at the office. I got them mostly finished before it was time to leave for our Corporate Social Responsibility project.

We carpooled to the Food Bank of Westchester, and, after a brief overview and tour, we helped pack bags for the Backpack Program (a program started by a nurse in Arkansas that provides kids with food over long weekends and breaks) and helped dole out a gigantic box of macaroni into two pound bags for distribution. With so many of us there, the work went very quickly, and we were finished about an hour ahead of schedule. Once back at HQ, we had a quick wrap-up session, then were dismissed for the evening.

The group decided that the best way to spend our free evening would be to travel into the city for dinner. I made us dinner reservations and we caught the train to Grand Central. Once in the city, we stopped by Rockefeller Plaza for a few pics then had a fabulous dinner at Ruby Foo’s followed by cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery and a tour of Times Square. We then decided to trek downtown a bit to see the Empire State Building. After that we were pretty much beat, so we took the subway back to Grand Central (that was a mini-adventure in itself), and headed back “home.”

The next day was at little more “information” filled than the first. A representative or two from each department came to visit the group and talked to us about what their department did. We heard from marketing, sales, R&D, procurement (“sourcing and supplier development”), supply chain, finance, and even had a session with some previous interns who are now working for Dannon full time. I would have preferred a more interactive layout (especially after lunch – which I worked through again – when we were fading a little), but the information was good.

What was really exciting was hearing about all of the international opportunities available with Dannon. They will do their best to help you work abroad (for any amount of time you’d like), and you don’t have to wait ten years like you do with most companies. They have what they call “exchange missions” where you basically swap places with someone who does your job function in another country (like France or Spain), they even help you with language classes! I would LOVE to do that, and I never considered I’d be able to so soon!

After our sessions, we all took a bus back into the city to Chelsea Piers. We then boarded a private boat for a dinner cruise around the city. Have you seen the episode of the Office where Michael takes everyone out on the “booze cruise?” It felt like I had walked into that episode – just minus the awkward tension and love triangle. We ate, drank, and mingled with the exces all to the backdrop of the sparkling New York skyline – so much fun!  Have I mentioned I have the BEST INTERNSHIP EVER?

That was pretty much it for orientation. We all had pretty early flights the next day, so we all said goodbye before heading off to bed. Dannon sent a car to drive me to the airport the next morning (see? awesome internship!) and I caught my flight to Memphis. I spent the rest of the weekend there watching one of my best friends from high school get married (congrats Holly & Will!) before finally heading back to Fayetteville. Boy, was Gigi happy to see me!

That’s all for today – I’m going to go finish watching the Spain v. Portugal game (¡Viva España!) Thanks for reading!

Free Week in NYC? Yes, please! Thanks, Dannon!

About a month ago Dannon sent me to White Plains, NY for Intern Orientation – awesome job perk, yes? If you’re wondering (as I was) where exactly White Plains is, it’s about thirty miles from Manhattan.

Now, this was awfully convenient seeing as my best friend lives in the city. I hadn’t seen her in about a year and had been trying to invent an excuse to make it up there and ta-da! Intern Training! It’s apparently pretty common for the interns to schedule their flights so that they get to NYC the weekend BEFORE training starts so that they can spend time in the city (and since Dannon was going to pay for me to go up there anyway, there was no additional cost to fly up early). I got to stay with Whitney for free, so it was probably the cheapest weekend I’ve ever spent in New York.

I actually got to stay for about four days, which felt a lot longer considering Whitney had all the fabulous things planned for us to do. She’s lived there for about a year now, so she’s been able to find all of the neat “local” hang outs (which translates to tourist free and cheaper – who wouldn’t like that?)

I got there late Friday night, and the first thing we did on Saturday morning was have tea (as an early birthday celebration – thanks Whit!) at Alice’s Tea Cup. Oh, it was precious. If you’ve been to Serendipity III, it’s very similar but cuter and less crowded. We had tea, roasted asparagus and pears, granola, yogurt and fresh fruit, and two perfect Nutella and raspberry crepes. A lovely way to start a Saturday.

The rest of the day was spent checking out a couple of neat, less traveled, New York City sites. First stop: the Cloisters – an old cathedral filled with a collection of medival Spanish and Italian treasures. Who would have thought an area like that was hidden in the middle of New York City?

After that: the High Line – once an above ground subway line, now a really long city park. Then, drinks at the Frying Pan – a ship that used to reside on the bottom of the Hudson that has since been converted into a restaurant and bar – and dinner at the Trailer Park – classy, huh? We did have a show to get to that night, but we made one last stop here: the Strand – miles and miles of new and used books. We could have wandered for days.

Whitney and I are both Broadway fans, so no trip to NYC would have been complete without a show or two. The first one we picked was Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. It’s an Off Broadway musical (at the Public) that tells the story of Andrew Jackson’s life…set to emo-rock (imagine Green Day meets the Patriot). It was hilarious! We had the best time. Not to mention, the tickets were only $25 each.

That wrapped up our Saturday. Given that we had exhausted ourselves the day before, Sunday was pretty relaxed. I went with Whitney to the class she teaches every week and we caught another show afterwards – Everyday Rapture with Sherrie Rene Scott. The musical is basically a one woman show that features Scott describing her journey from a Mennonite childhood to Broadway. Oh, and we scored those tickets for $10 each! It’s nice to have a BFF with connections. After the show, we had dinner in Central Park, made the evening service at Redeemer Pres, and headed home.

Monday was fairly laid back, too. We got up, walked the Brooklyn Bridge, had pizza at Grimaldi’s, and headed out to Coney Island…this was a bad plan. It was Memorial Day…oops. I have NEVER seen that many people on a boardwalk. After fighting our way through the crowd at the train station, then on the street, then down the boardwalk, we finally found a less crowded spot of beach. THEN, just as we put our towels down and got comfortable…the sun went behind a cloud. Not a little cloud, the kind that stretches on forever. It didn’t take long for us to start shivering and give up on beach time. We headed back to the station, fought through the crowd again, road the most packed subway car I’ve been on since my trip to Japan, ordered Indian take out and Pink Berry and watched BBC shows on Netflix – a much better plan.

Tuesday was my last day with Whit before heading to White Plains, so we kept it simple. Breakfast at the apartment, some packing, and lunch at one of our favorites – Ruby Foo’s (in Times Square). Then, she had to go to work, so I headed off to Grand Central to catch my train to White Plains (not the easiest of feats by myself seeing as my luggage was to heavy to carry comfortably up and down the subway stairs). I made it, though, and in one piece. More info on Orientation to come in the next post.