Building connections through food

Text by Griselda Garcia 

Photos by Bella White

As I stepped from my airplane into the heat and brightness of Southern France, I could only feel the anxiety of being alone in a foreign country. I panicked as I tried to find my way to the shuttle bus that took me from the airport to the train station, in fear that if I didn’t get on it, I would miss my train to Arles. It felt like the world was spinning. On the phone from 5,982 miles away, my boyfriend helped me find the shuttle bus. I made it to my train and continued my lonesome journey. 

My anxiety eased a bit when I arrived in Arles, and people from my study abroad program took me to the family who would be hosting me.

But then I felt overwhelmed again, unsure of how I would communicate with my host family since I don’t speak French. My host mom, Aurélie Pelletant, introduced herself in English, and I did the same. She told me about her two sons, Soéli and Eloann. I later found out that she speaks a little Spanish, which is the language I also speak, aside from English.

Still, the first few days felt difficult since I was not in the comfort of my own home with my family. I fell right to sleep the first night, but the second night I woke up wanting to see my parents until I remembered that they were thousands of miles away. 

Then, on the first weekend, I heard a knock on my door as I awakened from a nap. It was Aurélie. I walked out of my room to see a kitchen filled with ingredients for a cake. She then asked my housemate, Bella White, and me if we wanted to bake something. 

We went through her recipe books and stumbled on brownies. Bella and I explained that we had never made brownies from scratch before, and that we usually buy premade brownie mixes, to which we just have to add eggs, water and oil.

“That’s cheating,”  Aurélie said.

The three of us let out a chuckle, and it hit me that we were building a connection through our different experiences of making brownies. 

Her recipe was in French, but the language barrier didn’t disrupt the experience. Aurélie began to translate each step of the baking process. 

The rich smell of chocolate filled the air as it melted. It brought me a sense of comfort and calmness. This smell eased my anxiety, and I began to feel more comfortable speaking to Aurélie and Bella.

Little by little, I began to settle into this strange and new environment, and just like closing the oven door, letting the brownies rise, my anxiety slowly drifted away.