‘Cooking is all about people. Food is maybe the only universal thing that really has the power to bring everyone together. No matter what culture, everywhere around the world, people get together to eat.’
Guy Fieri
And that’s the reason why we love to organise International Village!
This term we also met on the 18th of April at the City Hall of BB to spend a nice time in a beneficial way. During the term we successfully got to know our foreign students. It is now time to learn more about the culture and customs of the countries that we can’t find in the guidebooks. We welcomed our guests with bread and salt.
Each of the participating countries provided us with brief information or prepared an entertainment program, and during the breaks we enjoyed their typical national specialties. The host country - Slovakia - opened the event with live performance of fujara player and he told us about the history of this musical instrument (Slovak overtune flute). The next country was Germany. Montenegro and Serbia danced folk dances accompanied with their singing and music.
Since International Village is mainly about the food, there was a break during which we made the first shy tasting of specialties prepared. There was plenty of really tasty food, so after a while, nobody was shy anymore and everyone wanted to taste as much as he could. We could taste genuine Italian pasta, strong Turkish coffee and vegetable couscous, breakfast in German way, Czech potato pancakes or borscht and curdy pancakes from Ukraine. Several countries offered us their cheeses. On the Slovak table there were ‘korbáčik’ (cheese whips), ‘parenica’ or ‘bryndza’ spread, accompanied by sausages and potato salad. The ones with sweet tooth could be pleased by waffles ‘Horalky’ and ‘Mila’ or by bread with home-made jams.
As we all needed to make some space in our bellies, the social programme continued with disproving myths about Turkey and a small Turkish dance party we all could join. Italy sang to us a song for a good mood. Bosnia and Herzegovina provided us with the differences between two nations living within one republic. If you didn’t know, it is an ideal place to spend summer holidays for the lovers of virgin nature. Bulgaria bothered our brains with some puns, and Spain lifted us from the chairs with an unrestrained ‘macarena’. Lovers of good music and summer festivals expanded their horizons of possibilities with Ukraine, and the Czechs showed us how we can all become Czechs. The key is to be fashionably dressed in each situation and always be equipped with a quality beer. The closing of the evening belonged to the Slovak folklore ensemble Urpín.
All participants could vote for the best table throughout the program. We prepared an interesting reward for the winner. This year's winner has become Turkey. Then we all went to the afterparty, so we could lose the gained weight. Together we spent a wonderful evening and we are looking forward to the next years.
xoxo
Your ESN UMB BB team