布里安娜·奥斯瓦尔德在西西里岛的留学项目中发现了食物和家庭

Ohio University alumna Breanna Oswald says a study abroad experience changed her life when she realized that family and culture can revolve around food.

在“西西里岛的美食”学习计划期间的休息日，奥斯瓦尔德决定从俄亥俄大学学生所在的奥提吉亚岛乘火车前往西西里岛中心的恩纳镇。

Oswald had decided to go to Enna not because of the immense beauty of this ancient Roman citadel on a plateau 1,000 meters above the Dittaino valley, but because her relatives from the Restivo side of her family lived there.

“I had never met them before,” Oswald explained. 他们不会说英语，所以他们的邻居打电话给她在德国做翻译的孙女。“当然，她不能一直打电话，所以剩下的时间我们分享食物，我们通过食物分享我们的情感。They were so happy to share what they had grown from their garden in a meal, giving me hugs and kisses. 我们都哭了。我们之前甚至都没见过面。奥斯瓦尔德说，他于2017年从健康科学与职业学院获得了儿童与家庭研究学士学位。

Of course, not everyone on the Food in Sicily program experienced such intense encounters, but Sicily is a most convivial of places for visitors. 食物通常是西西里文化的中心。

“我觉得西西里岛的很多人都很热情，”奥斯瓦尔德说。“无论我们住在哪里，无论我们在哪里吃饭，无论我们去哪里，人们都很开放。我认为我对我们如何在文化上有竞争力有了一个很好的认识。I was with such a good group. 我们都记得，我们真的很想完全沉浸在这种文化中，感觉我们可以成为其中的一部分，你知道，即使作为美国人，也要尽可能地像西西里人一样。”

For Oswald, the daily food activities brought her closer to Sicilian culture.

西西里的食物是俄亥俄大学的一个由教师主导的项目。在俄亥俄学分课程中，学生获得俄亥俄学分，与俄亥俄的教职员工一起旅行，并与其他俄亥俄学生一起旅行和上课。A student's full financial aid package applies the same as it would for on-campus courses. Food in Sicily is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. (Students interested in the Food in Sicily study away program, scheduled for May 6 through May 26, 2022, are invited to attend an Info Session via Teams.)

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这段经历包括参观意大利奥提吉亚的市场和景点，包括圣乔瓦尼的地下墓穴、中世纪的犹太区和疯子城堡。一日游将带学生去意大利的卡塔尼亚，在那里他们可以参观鱼市场、威廉希尔亚洲的市中心、本笃会修道院、希腊剧院和大教堂。学生们还可以在埃特纳火山徒步旅行，在西西里的海滩上享受时光，以及游览诺托和陶尔米纳的历史城镇。

“The things that we did with our daily activities, being able to go and learn about the culture and see different sites was amazing,” she said. “But even better was how it connected to the food activities that we did. So when we learned about a certain place, we learned about its food traditions and why that was so important to know to understand the places we visited. It was just so interconnected. I felt there was this interconnectedness everywhere because you would go to the fish market, and then later, you might eat that fish, and then you would have learned where they catch that fish and why the fish came to be so popular in that area. 我觉得这些经历是如此真实，就像我们做马苏里拉奶酪，和真正的‘奶奶’一起做披萨一样。”

奥斯瓦尔德欣赏活动的节奏和她在西西里的时间节奏。“There was so much that we got to do,” she noted, “but we never felt rushed. 我们在每个地方都度过了很长的时间。We got to really take our time and connect with the locals. We weren't just someplace and then quickly leaving. 我们在休息的时候玩得很开心。We were able to go to beaches, and we had free days, which were great. 你可以在当天的行程之外做你想做的事情，探索你所在的每个小地区或小镇。And that was really cool to just kind of wander and not have a plan and just do what you wanted. I just loved every part of it.”

对奥斯瓦尔德来说，奥提吉亚是这个项目的完美地点。“We stayed right in town on the island of Ortigia. 所有的东西都可以步行，而且很近。奥提吉亚没有机动车。我喜欢走我们做了多少。尽管我吃了那么多美味的食物，但我的体重并没有增加。我们走了这么多,我觉得我失去了一些英镑。即使我们有一个长途旅行，公共汽车是愉快的。我们都很放松，直到到达那里。And it was totally worth it wherever we were going; whatever the destination was worth the trip.”

奥斯瓦尔德对想参加这个项目的人有什么建议？

“At the beginning, I was really hesitant about choosing the program because it didn’t seem to connect to my major, Child and Family Studies. 但我之所以选择“西西里美食”这个项目，正是因为它与众不同。能够选择这样一个项目，让我通过人们吃的食物完全沉浸在当地文化中，真是太吸引人了。I felt that that was the most authentic choice.”

“And, of course,” Oswald added, “it was nerve wracking to think about going overseas for my first time. And I was I was definitely anxious. But at the end of the day, I know that there was a reason I chose something different. Because I think that having that variety in life is so important. You have to branch out, you have to choose the things that you're scared of. 一到西西里，我就不再想家了。I was I fine. I wanted to stay. I wasn't even ready to go home when it was time."

奥斯瓦尔德指出,采取了不同的路径”改变我现在的生活方式。我已经能够塑造我的生活的,我可以与周围的食物。I think that that was a big driver of why I chose my grad program at OHIO. I had to decide between a master’s of global health or public health. 我之所以选择公共卫生，正是因为我可以通过食物与人们建立联系。”

“The Food in Sicily Program was awesome,” Oswald concluded. “It changed so much about the way I see the world. 我在恩纳有我的表兄弟！I stay in touch with the younger ones through social media.”

For more information about the Food in Sicily study away program, contact David Bell, Ph.D., director of the Food in Sicily program and associate professor and chair of linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences.