International Cultural Festival at CEU

The week of January 14th at CEU was even more international than ever: in addition to hearing a bunch of languages being spoken here, one could attend various dance classes, movie screenings and see some breath-taking photos of places that one should  immediately put on his/her bucket list. All these nice events comprised the CEU International Cultural Festival, one of the beautiful annual traditions we have. “Celebrating diversity” that week translated itself into something even more tangible, danceable and eatable!

The biggest event and the one that attracted a great deal of people was undoubtedly the International Bazaar that took place at the CEU Conference Center (also known as…the dorm). With fearless attitude towards the cold and forgotten arrogance towards people living in the dorm, even the city center dwellers were taking that metro and the bus to reach the mythical far-way land known as the 10th district to see what this bazaar was about.

And, no doubt about it, it was worth it! This time, it was way more than just the universal magnetic combination of students and free food that made it work: in one room, one could see traditional costumes from dozens of countries, join some folk dances, touch impressive artifacts from different continents, and, well, yes – taste some delicious foods as well as strong drinks.

“It was awesome!”, when asked about the International Bazaar, says Hani, a student from Indonesia. “I did learn about many cultures of the world in one place, it felt like some culture center.” “Also,” Hani laughs, “I could show off my cooking skills by presenting Indonesian foods to fellow students.” What the CEU Weekly team would add here is that Hani’s skills and that magical peanut sauce were highly appreciated indeed!

The festival ended but the diversity element stayed: now we know what delicious desserts our friends from various countries can make and so we can start lightly harassing them.  So let’s thank our CEU community, our Student Union and everyone who contributed to this awesome event for letting us travel without leaving Budapest. Who knows, maybe due to this festival some people have decided to have Indonesian food in Bali one day and to see the mesmerizing landscapes of Kazakhstan after graduation. Expanding our minds: isn’t this what the CEU is all about?

Justina Poskeviciute

Lithuania

Department of Political Science

Photo: Natalia Mileszyk