International Festival

Last Wednesday, the international office of HKBU put on the international festival, where 9 groups of exchange students representing more than 11 countries hosted tents representing their countries.

Of course we couldn't let America be left out, so Izzy and I put together a booth to host for the night. We included several foods to taste, including cheddar Sun Chips, sour cream and onion Lays, as well as Jambalaya with shrimp and ham. The Jambalaya was a little hard to make. I had to improvise with several steps, like the whole dish was made in a wok and my measuring cup was a washed out coke can- still tasted as good as usual though!

No matter the steps to make it, the food was a hit!! Students and teachers were coming back for seconds and thirds, and many brought friends back to try the food as well! Part of what helped us, was that we were serving little testers, whereas many of the other booths were dishing out plate fulls of their dish, so they ran out of food within the first half hour while we had food till the very end!

Besides food, we also had a Prezi slideshow constantly running that featured beautiful pictures from across the US. Pictures included everything from the Texas State Fair, to Myrtle Beach, the Washington Monument, and Bush Gardens. I had a playlist made to go with the show that featured American Oldies like Queen, The Beach Boys, MC Hammers You Can't Touch This, Journey's Don't Stop Believing, Wagon Wheel and other favorites.

To get people involved at our tent we had a game they could play. They would draw a slip of paper out of a box that had one of the state names on it. They then had to match the name to the map of the US we had taped to the table. Attendants really loved this! Even other Americans  played (some did better than better than others). People typically knew immediately where states like Texas and California were, but most of the time people knew the general area, or were really off in their guesses. We didn't make it easy for them though! I had printed off the map of the US, and didn't realize that it didn't include Alaska or the Hawaii Islands, however, Izzy made the slips of paper and left those states in the mix, so several people pulled states that weren't even on the map! Oops!

Then, for further entertainment, there was also a fashion show where countries could wear the traditional outfits of their country. Most countries had these beautiful outfits with colors and embroidery and real significance to the country. However, America- represented by Chris, a boy from my school- paraded around in his cowboy boots and hat, plus jeans and a plaid shirt. The whole thing was a little (okay a lot) cliche, but it made me laugh and Chris did a great job up there!

The whole night was so much fun! We got to go around an see the other tents and try their food, like Crepes (France), Nutella (Italy), and local dishes I could never pronounce. Plus, students love America and several had studied abroad all around the country and enjoyed to talking to us about their visits! It was so great to hear from other people and watch as they tried our food and played the game. Many even wanted pictures with us! We felt famous:) It was an incredible experience and I'm so glad I was here for it since it is only in the fall semester.