2.27 Interview with Hannah Rosenfeld
Hannah and Riccardo are a newlywed couple currently living in Pittsburgh. Before cohabitation, they had gone through a long distance relationship for 7 months. They love food and cooking, visiting a farmers market every week.
Remote Communication in Distances VS When Living Together
For first 3 months, she lived at Bangkok and he lived in a small island in Thailand. They communicated mostly by call and text through phone because internet connectivity there was not great. Communication mainly relying on phone was bit hard since his english was not good at that time. They got in touch each other a couple of times a day and sometimes met in person by taking bus and boat for 12 hours.
When they decided to get marry, she moved to Pittsburgh, for her graduate study. He was back to Italy, waiting for U.S. immigrant visa. Since there is 8 hour time difference between Pittsburgh and Italy, their communication could happen in the early morning or at late night for either of them. They usually called on Skype once a day. Immigration took major part of their conversation since it was hot issue at the moment. They talked a lot about food as well. He teased her about the things he was eating because he knew how much she loved the food his family made.
Compared to the call before cohabitation, they don’t talk as much because she’s in studio a lot. Their conversation through phone now are very transactional; logistical stuff, such as when he picks her up, and first thing she asks is what are they eating for dinner.
Cooking and Eating Routine
For dinner, she usually cooks and he does dishes. While she is cooking, he is sitting in the dinning table and talking with her, and vice versa. They always sit in the same seat when they eat.
They visit famers market together every Saturday. They like it. When they don’t have time , he or she will go to grocery once a week alone. Since they are habitual eaters and share grocery list over time, they know what to buy to cook and eat. She found an interesting pattern that when they go grocery together, they are more likely to be adventurous to new items than when they do alone. They decided together to try something new. There is a special things with Italian foods; he always reminds her he’s the one who introduced her to all these new things.
Intergenerational Remote Communication
They sometimes skype with his mom about mom’s recipe. She explains in Italian, then He translates into English and she writes down it. Since she was thinking while talking and does not have very structured instructions, the explanation is usually in random order. When they make it done, they always take picture of finished product and sent it to his mom whether it taste good or not. She likes it and feels good at it. She is older now doesn’t cook often as she did, but she cares more about caring for others; sharing her recipe is one way she takes caring others. They asked his mom and his sister a duck recipe, when his mom found out that, she wasn’t so pleased about that.
Hannah gets in touch with her parents through phone. They are not used to Skype, whereas her aunt always skype her. She told that that might because her aunt uses skype a lot to have video call with her grandchildren. Her father has always started conversation with asking “how’s the food situation?”, which now become a kind of joke.
