a night around the world

Yesterday, Midwestern held its annual "A Night Around the World" celebration of culture and diversity. I wasn't too excited about it because it seemed cheesy; but since everyone else was going, there weren't many other options for being social on a Friday night. Sometimes, it is nice to be wrong, because I actually really enjoyed the event. First of all, they had SO MUCH free food from a wide array of different countries. You would just get a plate and wander from room to room sampling all the different goodies. I had tasted a bunch of stuff, ranging from falafel to samosas to pupusa to ziti. I also stopped by a table and had my name written in Chinese calligraphy.

After the food, there was a show in the auditorium in which students would perform different cultural routines. We have some pretty talented students here! Some of the acts included a group of girls that did an Indian/Bollywood routine, a girl that did a traditional Chinese silk dance, a guy that read the Quran in Arabic, a group of students that did a hula/Polynesian dance, one of my friends that sang played guitar and sang a song in her native Alaskan language, and a tae kwon do demonstration. The tae kwon do demonstration was pretty cool. One guy held an apple on a popsicle stick in his mouth while the other did a roundhouse kick and knocked it out. Then, the one guy (the one that has been a dental TA for my lab class) lined up 9 people jumped over them Bruce Lee style and then broke 3 boards held together with his foot upon landing. I was impressed. Overall it was a really fun night.