RMC 2012; Fargo, ND

The last 5 days I have been away from home at the Reciprocal Meats Conference (RMC), sorry about no posts!

I left Friday night after work to Ames for a night stay at our house. I then left Saturday morning with 4 ISU Meat Science Grad students, another undergrad that is a teammate of mine for quiz bowl, and a hitch-hiker student from Ohio State (he needed a ride and we had room...........)

Saturday from 830 AM to 4 PM we drove.... North to Minneapolis, then NW onto Fargo, ND. If any of you have never been on this route... ZzZz.....Saturday evening we went out for dinner at Texas Roadhouse where we attempted at hooking up one of the Grad Students with our Cute AND Funny waiter. He was on a mission to get someones number, and being as Emily is the only single one.... She got nominated for the adventure! :) We left him a not and everything on her receipt! We then managed to facebook stalk him! haha. We had quite the time Saturday night.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early for the Quiz Bowl Competition and for RMC registration. Registration started at 9AM so of course, we were up at and em' around 7. We registered, checked in, and began frantically studying for our competition. The three of us were all seniors this year, so we knew a majority of our notes and handouts that we were given to review. We got into the FIRST round of the competition and were immediately eliminated... (thank goodness for double elimination!). We preceded to attack from the rear through the "losers bracket" and made it all the way up to the 3rd to final round. We made it to round 7/10, meaning we tied 3 other teams (due to elimination in round 7) for 4th place. We were very proud of ourselves and the achievement we gained this year. Sunday night, after the competition, we went for dinner at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead, MN. Here we had some fun with the statues, the huge viking boat, and the old remake of a church. After an eventful dinner and the final round of the quiz bowl competition (for the championship) we preceded out to a bar called "Chubs". We had a BLAST at the bar. There were over 100 RMC participants here and it was great to chill and hang out with everybody. It was a very relaxed and entertaining night. Many memories were made, and there were many laughs to be had.

 Some of the ISU students, Black Polos = Graduates, Red = Undergrads (Quiz Bowl Team). 

 We managed to make it to Round 7 which means we Tied with 2 other Teams for 4th place. We did very good this year and were very excited about our accomplishments. 

 My certificate for being in the Quiz Bowl Competition. 

The quiz bowl team and our two coaches. Shannon, Me, Emily, Kelly, and Kyle. Our coaches were very encouraging this year and we had a lot of fun learning throughout the spring semester! 

Emily and I thought the wooden gnome statues were pretty cute! :) The guy we decided was pregnant because he had a HUGE belly on him! 

Emily and I pose for a photo-op with our favorite Meat Scientist, Dr. Steven Lonergan from ISU. He is my academic advisor, as well as my boss in the research lab! :) He received the Distinguished Research Award this year. 

Monday morning came WAY to fast for, I think I'm safe to say, all of us. The student breakfast started at 6AM so we were all up and moving by 5 to get ready. We did some networking at the breakfast, and then headed off to the RMC meeting. Here I participated in the key note lecture, two speeches on pork, pork fat, and distillers grains effect on pork quality. I also listened to a couple of reciprocation speeches as well. Tuesday was much the same as Monday. There were more networking opportunities, as well as speeches and lectures to attend. I was able to sit through some very interesting ones today over food waste, how the consumers drive the products, AND I got to listen to Janet Riley again this year (she is one of my favorite speakers). Tuesday night we always have a formal dinner. This is when they hand out the awards (like Steven's) and we sit there for 2 hours listening to people thank their mentors, spouses, families, and co-workers. The meal was a delicious rib eye steak, twice baked potato, and .... ASPARAGUS! We also received complimentary steak knives (an RMC Tradition).

All of the Current members of the Lonergan Lab... Shannon Cruzen, Dr. Elisabeth Huff-Lonergan, Myself, Dr. Steven Lonergan, Emily Arkfeld, and Kyle Grubbs. 

This is the Quiz Bowl Team and Coaches, along with Dr. Joe Sabranek (Minus Emily Benedict). Kyle, Kelly, Dr. Joe, Shannon, Myself. 

The Steak Knives of the 2012 RMC; North Dakota State University 

Wednesday morning was a repeat of Monday and Tuesday. We attended the last Key Note speech as well as a couple of reciprocation talks. Around 1230 we loaded up the van and headed on home towards Ames, IA. After a very long drive, traffic jams in Minneapolis, terrible storms with lightning, rain, and thunder... We eventually made it home. I enjoyed being a part of the RMC 2012 and I hope to continue my adventure in years to come. Hopefully I can land a job where I can persuade them to allow me to attend this amazing meeting. 

<3 Roz