| Tastes from the melting pot |
By: By CATHERINE ROBERTS
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Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 12:36 am
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Students, faculty, staff and community members packed Sayles Hill to enjoy Carleton’s One Love: International Festival 2008. (News photo by Catherine Roberts)
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NORTHFIELD — What if you could visit more than 50 different countries in two hours without ever exchanging currency, or dealing with airport security? Students, staff, faculty and Northfield community members did just that at the Annual International Festival held at Carleton College in Sayles-Hill Great Space on Saturday.
The One Love: International Festival 2008 showcased a wide variety of ethnic food, dress, dance and other demonstrations hailing from various cultures around the world, but it wasn’t always this way.
“The International Festival used to be called the Food Festival. People would show up, fill up their plate and walk away. It wasn’t very educational,” said Petra Crosby, director of International Student Programs at Carleton College.
After Crosby met with some international organizations on campus in 2000, the festival began offering performances and activities in addition to the traditional international food buffet. The celebration has been growing in popularity ever since, and has been including members of the Northfield community. It is estimated that between 300 to 450 people attended Saturday’s festival, Crosby said.
A celebration of this magnitude doesn’t happen overnight.
“We started planning this event about 12 weeks ago,” said Khant Khant Kyaw, Carleton freshman and member of the Doh Burma Community, a club established to celebrate and educate others on the Burmese culture.
Hungry students packed the Sayles-Hill Great Space. Various examples of cultural cuisine simmering upstairs filled the air with exotic aromas, while performances were conducted on a stage downstairs. Singing, instrumental solos and various dances and demonstrations entertained and educated the crowd as the line for food started at the Sayles-Hill entrance, snaked around the back of the hall and up the stairs.
Dishes offered to the curious included rice and beans with sweet chicken, created by Club Caribe from Belize; The Korean Student Association offered Kim-bob, or a Korean roll; the Coalition of Hmong Students offered a Thailand favorite called Quab, or papaya salad. The list went on and on.
“I made Kaiserschmarrn,” said Jan Eisel, a German language associate, as he served bowls of his delicate sweet dessert. “It is a German pancake with raisins, cherries and powered sugar.”
“I really liked the flan from Spain,” said Jarvis Benson, a student visiting from Texas A&M University. “The cheese from France was pretty good, too. Many of the dishes offered I’ve never seen before. I like trying new things.”
Those who attended the festival were not the only ones to learn something about cultures around the world. Festival participants acknowledged learning a little more about their own culture while preparing for this celebration.
“My mother is Cambodian,” said Stephanie Mayer, a Carleton junior and an International Festival performer. “I don’t get to connect with that part of my heritage very often. This festival allowed me an opportunity to do that. I hope that everyone can experience the richness of cultures and genuine beauty and complexity that each has.”
Along with cultural education, the festival hoped to raise awareness of those in need in China and Burma. Postcards and cook books were sold to raise donations for a relief effort aimed at the survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Burma, and the earthquake in SiChuan Province, China. Approximately $500 was raised, said Crosby.
“This is a student-organized, student-driven and student-led event,” said Crosby. “It is an incredible collaboration between international students, campus cultural organizations and interested individuals. It really showcases the cultural diversity here at Carleton in a condensed two hour format filled with new tastes, smells and visual impact that really incorporates all the senses.”
— Reach Catherine Roberts at croberts@northfieldnews.com or 645-1114.
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