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On Sunday April 1, the Champaign-Urbana community and campus were treated to the 18th Annual International Dinner and Performance Night at the University YMCA. This year, as usual, the event was cosponsored by the YMCA, the Cosmopolitan Club, and the U of I's Office of International Student Affairs (OISA), with Y program director Menjiwe Winfield, Cosmo executive director Andrea Shields, and OISA assistant directors Gifty Ako-Adounvo and Adam Blough masterminding the whole operation. The evening started out with one of the big attractions: namely, the food. There were main dishes and desserts brought by more than 35 cooks from 26 countries from around the globe, served buffet-style while the campus a capella/comedy group The Other Guys performed on stage. After everyone took their turn by the serving tables and finally sat down to begin eating-a rather lengthy process, as the options abounded and almost 300 people were in attendance, filling the Y's Latzer Hall to capacity-co-emcees Ruxandra Costescu (Romania) and Adam Duus (Australia) started off the performance portion of the evening. Associate Provost for International Affairs Earl Kellogg gave the welcome address. There followed two award presentations: the YMCA's John Price Award to Ivan Feitl for his international leadership on campus, and the Cosmopolitan Club Award to Lishomwa Mulongwe (in absentia) for his undertaking in bringing books to school children in his native Zambia and for his dedication to Cosmo's mission and work. And last but not least, the evening continued with the entertainment, another much-anticipated part of the event. First on the bill was the drummers' group Musik Minang, with a variety of songs from East Sumatra, Indonesia, after which Corina Harhandow performed Penyembrama, an Indonesian dance from Bali. The African American dance group Omnimov was next with a piece called "We Are One," and Ms. Zhang Xin of the Chinese Student and Scholars Union delighted the audience playing a classical Chinese stringed instrument. The Philippine Student Association then took the stage with Singkil, an intricate dance performed with criss-crossed bamboo poles. And, finally, dancers from the Hellenic Student Association closed the evening with a literal "bang" as they went through several dances from various regions of Greece involving lots of foot-stomping and lively melodies to which the audience clapped along enthusiastically. Besides being provided with such varied and exciting entertainment, audience members were lucky to have a shot at three door prizes in a drawing of entrance tickets. Moreover, there were delicious dairy-free chocolate bars to be won throughout the evening in an international trivia contest involving questions collected earlier from the cooks. These ranged from "What are the official languages of Peru?" to "Which country is known as 'the land of the morning calm'?" (answers: Spanish and Quechua, and Korea). With all of these different aspects, the Annual International Dinner was, once again, an opportunity for the 300 people who participated to acquaint themselves with a little from a variety of cultures and traditions, in a festive atmosphere and with plenty of food to be sampled. . . . May all of our multicultural experiences be this good! (See photos in article, "Highlights from the International Dinner.") |