Around the World In 120 Minutes

This week’s focus and theme of programming was the Global Marketplace. Our speaker was a dynamic and energizing author and business man who spoke about our future roles as global citizens. I was so impressed with his presentation, I made a point to introduce myself and extend an offer for him to speak to the students at my home university! Programming usually begins in the afternoon and may continue into the evening; however, on this day things kicked off first thing in the morning and continued well into the night. Speakers and breakout sessions were scheduled from 9 am until 12 noon. At 3 o’clock, students could return and attend the cultural festival where international students shared food and other aspects of their home countries. [I’m not sure if I ever mentioned before,] The Washington Center student body is represented by over 18 different countries and 48 states!
After lunch, students were invited to return to the Residential Academic Facility (RAF) to experience cultural diversity by immersion. There are 10 classrooms located on the ground floor of the RAF. Each room contained at least two different countries – represented by food, decor, and several ambassadors on hand to teach fellow students about their country. The student ambassadors did a great job. Each booth was top-notch and I was pleasantly surprised by the level of creativity. I tasted desserts from Korea, entrees from India, Japan and Mexico, and drinks from Puerto Rico.
After being able to visit almost 18 different countries, students were treated to a night of international talent. My roommate Shahenaz participated in the talent show portion of the program representing Lebanon with a traditional belly dance. (Go Shahenaz!) There were performances from Korea, Mexico, Japan, India, Brazil, African-Caribbean, Gibraltar, Taiwan, and Puerto Rico just to name a few. The students of TWC defined the showcase by determining what they would share about their countries. Presentations included a short introduction of countries by students who shared the geography of the land, the GDP, national pastime, history and interesting facts in a way that only an insider could present. The garments were elaborate and authentic and not at all costume-like. Songs were sung in native tongues and the dances were a mesh of movements familiar to me but performed in new and unique ways. During the course of the festival, I felt like I’d traveled around the world and back again. Everyone was so proud to share their country with the audience. Both pride and passion were in abundance and was infectious as groups really rose to the occasion in their performances, each surpassing the next. With jubilee and delight, the crowd cheered and screamed in support. The call and response of cultural chants from performers to audience members was melodic and natural. I reflected on all that make us unique, juxtaposed with everything we have in common as citizens of the world and members of the human race. After all the performances, an overall winner was announced. The winner this semester – Puerto Rico! About 30 students participated in dancing and singing. They showed Latin dance, African dance, played Reagaton dance music, and left everyone breathless as we all spontaneously jumped to our feet with them to sing Ricky Martin’s Cup of Life. Here we go! Ole, Ole, Ole! Go, Go, Go! Ole, Ole, Ole! I tried to include 10 second videos and pictures of most of the performances. (I was too busy dancing with the Puerto Ricans to record theirs, sorry).

Short video playlist from You Tube of the performances.

Halloween in DC

Halloween fell on a weekend… (If I have to explain this Geto Boys reference to you then, never mind! Oh and by the way, that’s the correct spelling of the 1990’s gangsta rap group). Those lyrics from Geto Boys seemed fitting as Halloween really did fall on a weekend this year. My roommates and I decided it would be fun to have a small gathering at our place for Halloween.

Since our social group is comprised of a number of international students, I thought this would prove to be a very interesting experience. Try explaining the concept of Halloween to someone who’s never experienced it –priceless! Luckily most students could refer to popular Halloween icons from movies that managed to make their way across shores, so they had some frame of reference. It turns out, it was the international students who managed to come up with some of the cleverest costumes of the evening. There was the 1980’s exercise guru, Richard Simmons, a beautiful serpent geisha girl, an evil surgeon, a snickers inspector – who looked a lot like Indiana Jones if you ask me, Thing 2 (I was Thing 1), Ginger and Gilligan, a Penguin, Robin – batman was a no show… everyone went out of their way to dress-up and show-up ready to party.

 

Being an eclectic international group, we played music that ranged from Jesse Jay and Arianna Grande featuring Nikki Minaj to Ricky Martin and other artist I’m less familiar with. We showed each other our dance moves, ate snacks and shared libations. (Everyone was of legal drinking age of course!). I led the group in every kind of slide dance that I could remember. My roommate gave everyone a taste of Middle Eastern dancing and everyone joined in when the Salsa music came on! It was so much fun that my face hurt from smiling by the end of the evening. I met a few new people and became re-acquainted with some I hadn’t seen since the program started.

Apparently it wouldn’t be a “college party” without a game of beer pong. This is something that I escaped during my initial exposure to college life. I don’t quite understand the rules and get somewhat grossed out by the concept of drinking from a cup that has just had a dirty ping pong ball thrashing about, but there’s no judgment here. I can think of a few interesting games I’ve participated in and to each his own.

The plan was for this to be a pre-party to all the parties happening on U and H Streets as well as in George Town. For all intense and purposes the party was a success. Everyone commented on how it was intimate the party felt, yet there plenty of guests in which to mingle. I think the steady stream of people stopping by and leaving out helped the ebb and flow of the night. There were conversations happening in at least 6 different languages at any time in groups around the party and when the music played there was no shortage of “Ohhh, I love this song!” as you grabbed the person next to you hand headed to the make shift dance floor or opted to dance where you stood.

Of all the things that happened on Halloween, the most surprising element of the night, we didn’t get a single trick-or-treater from the building. Now what to do with all these left-over treats…