I took part in a short-term study abroad program in March 2008 at the College of Saint Elizabeth in New Jersey, U.S.A., which is our affiliated school. The group included five students and two professors, Dr. Fujii and Dr. Mizuno.
Following a warm welcome, they provided us a lot of great opportunities, such as having field trips to a local supermarket and a farm, attending a lecture and a laboratory of the college, visiting a hospital, going to see
‘Grease’ on Broadway, traveling to New York, and going to mass. When we visited a hospital, I got the great impression that the staff and patients were very friendly and cheerful, and also the registered dietitian worked together with the rest of staff vivaciously. At ABMA farms, we learned that children who have an unbalanced diet or a food allergy, helped grow vegetables that they had only known after being cooked, and they were able to eat them after their farm experience.In addition, we were impressed to know that the dietitians actually commune with nature at their own farm to provide dietary education, teaching children the value of life. The idea of the United States pioneering new fields and its huge scale made a deep impression in my mind.
They also kindly accepted our request to
prepare Japanese dishes in front of students and staff there. At the presentation, we made sushi, tempura, some kinds of noodles, hamburger steaks made of tofu, curry rice, potato cakes, and bean-jam pancakes. At first, we were very worried whether people at CSE would like those dishes since it was the first time for us to do that kind of presentation in a foreign country. It turned out that the presentation was quite successful with no leftovers, owing to some good advice by exchange students from Japan. We met a lot of smiles while sharing a time to think about food, and it gave us a sense of fulfillment.
(Megumi S. Assistant, Food Science and Human Nutrition)