March 18, students filled the Foreign Language Department classes with dishes representing different cultures across the globe.

During the 80 Bites celebration for Foreign Language week, students like sophomore Itati Delacruz represented their own heritage by contributing a dish to the event. Delacruz made Agua de Jamaica, a popular Mexican red iced tea made from hibiscus flowers.

“My mom helped me use my grandma’s recipe,” Delacruz said. “But, it was my first time making it actually. I ran out of time and made it at 9pm and missed a lot of ingredients, so I kept running back to the store.”

Delacruz not only enjoyed the chaos of making her dish but also trying food made by other students in the department. 

“My favorite room was Senior Marco’s room because he had so much savory food like esquites which is corn with mayonnaise and cheese,” Delacruz said. “And he had taquiza, which is a big freaking row of tacos.”

Sophomore Amanda Weidauer also enjoyed eating the food found in the Spanish classrooms but for a different reason.

“My favorite dish was the rice from the Spanish rooms because it was a little difficult finding what to eat because a lot of stuff has gluten in it,” Weidauer said. “But, if you’ve been gluten free for a while like I have, you already know what generally is gluten free, and what isn’t.”

Although Weidauer was limited on foods she could eat during 80 Bites, she participated in the event by making Chocolate Mosse to represent her French IV class.

During the 80 Bites celebration, students like Weidauer and Delacruz represented their foreign language class through food, but others participated in the talent show or made an art piece following the chosen theme, Travel the World With Us. Inspired by this, Senior Bindu Ramireddy created a digital art piece to be displayed in the foreign language hallway.

“The first thing I thought of was the water, because it was the original way that people used to travel,” Ramireddy said. 

Rammireddy included this vision in her art work through drawing a swirling ocean filled with paper boat versions of world flags carried by large octopus tentacles. 

“I just found the thing that connects all countries, so I incorporated that into my artwork,” Rammireddy said.

The 80 Bites students, like Rammireddy’s, artwork was added to the ongoing gallery outside the foreign language classes.