This past fall, juniors Maya Zimmerman and Claire Sanguedolce studied abroad in Seville, Spain and Siena, Italy, where they experienced everything from strange mustard pasta salad to being mocked for scrambling eggs. Spain offered the challenges of dinners stretching from 10 p.m. to midnight, while Italy proved a difficult place to be gluten and lactose-free. Despite early challenges, the girls fell in love with their abroad experiences.

Zimmerman traveled to Seville for a semester through a Council on International Educational Exchange program called Language and Society. Spain, along with Italy and Mexico, is one of the most popular destinations for University of Oregon students to study abroad. Zimmerman stayed with a host family, which she enjoyed as it helped to improve her language skills immensely.

Sanguedolce chose Siena to spend a term. She embarked on her journey through AHA International, a UO study abroad academic program. She lived in an apartment with a fellow UO student and a girl from Sicily.

“She spoke some English, but you definitely had to know Italian to be able to communicate with her. So that was good because it forced me to speak the language,” she said. “In Siena, not a lot of people speak English so when you’re running errands you need to know how to speak the language, but you can also get away with charades,” Sanguedolce said.

Both girls are self-proclaimed food lovers and each faced challenges navigating their country’s different diets. Zimmerman recalls a cold pasta salad her host mom made one night, which consisted of bow tie pasta, little pieces of ham, squeaky cheese, Manzanita olives and pineapple chunks. To top it off, the dressing was made of mustard and mayonnaise, the latter of which she hates.

Sanguedolce, who is allergic to gluten and dairy, faced difficulties finding restaurants she could eat at. Especially in a country where the main diet consists of pasta and pizza. Luckily, she had a kitchen of her own and was able to cook for herself.

“I’d be cooking eggs one day and my Sicilian roommate would come in and laugh at me,” Sanguedolce says. Surprisingly, Celiac disease, which doesn’t allow for gluten, is very common in Italy so she was able to find a few restaurants with gluten-free pasta and pizza.

While many students opt out of missing football season by studying abroad in the summer, Zimmerman and Sanguedolce are both happy they decided to study abroad in the fall as opposed to other months.

“Certain circumstances make it easier, like the fact that you’re coming from summer. You have more time to plan, and it’s still really warm,” Sanguedolce says. She also admits that it was hard to miss the excitement of Eugene’s arctic blast.

After spending fall term combating unfamiliar food and language barriers, coming home has been a culture shock for both girls. One of the biggest things Zimmerman misses is the opportunity to travel to other cities so easily.

“A big reason I went to Spain was to travel after. More memorable stories and events happened while I was traveling. I haven’t even counted how many cities yet. It’s somewhere around 20,” Zimmerman said.
The number of study abroad programs is increasing. Students now more than ever have the opportunity to live, see and taste the world abroad.