International Festival

I feel rather guilty for not writing a blog post about this momentous event in the Tepper calendar.

International Festival was last Friday. It's been on the radar at school for quite some time. Volunteers to help coordinate the festival were requested right as school started in Mini 3, and plenty of information sessions were abound with how to set up a stall and showcase your chosen country.

I'm going to put this out there straight away: I didn't participate as much as I would have wanted to. At the time, the march 30 date was also the date for the "Day in the Bay" interview session - where a collection of 6 or so schools get together to host interviews from Bay area employers. EA was one of those companies, and I thought I had a good chance of getting an interview with them. Additionally, there were other companies that I also applied to. As such, I did not commit to the Festival.

I found out two weeks prior to the Festival that EA had cancelled their interviews. A number of other companies had also done so earlier, so this meant that I no longer needed to go to San Francisco that day. Good thing I hadn't bought my ticket.

So, the Festival itself. The first part, in the early afternoon, was the Performance Showcase. I unfortunately didn't attend (due to a doctor's appointment for my allergies that flared up for the season! I love the Spring here, but sheesh, pollen).  There were dances primarily, although two of the Mexican fellows sang a duet and an Indian woman also performed a solo song.

After the performances came the Food! It was essentially B**Rs, but a number of countries (and places that wanted to be considered a country *coughTexascough*) had set up booths around the B**Rs area.

Countries represented:

- Sweden: Swedish chef, meatballs, and ligonberry pancakes
- Germany: Sausages and potato pancakes that ran out way too quickly
- Russia
- France: bagels? I don't know, I didn't actually get any of the food from these two tables
- United States of America: Crab dip. The fellow manning the table was from Maryland
- Texas: Yes, I know, not a country. Beef jerky and pecan brittle
- Mexico: Beef, Chicken, or bean Fajitas
- Indonesia: I don't remember what it was, but it was extremely delicious. One of the fellows at the booth was an alum (don't think he came in from Indonesia however)
- Japan: Sushi
- China: Again, don't remember the food spread, since it was amazingly difficult to stop people from getting in front of the camera. They also had a table opposite where people's names were being written in Chinese
- South Korea: Again, no clue on the food. Bigger difficulty getting a clear shot
- Thailand: Thai Iced Tea, spring rolls, and a delicious green chicken curry
- Pakistan: At this point, my plate was really full, so I was focusing on the photos.
- India: mm.. samosas. I could balance that on my plate.
- Egypt: I got into serious trouble at this table. Moussaka is amazingly delicious, and one of the table fellows knew how much I loved it - and insisted on giving me a giant hunk of it!
- Turkey: Juggling camera and two plates of food made it impossible to have turkish food. Unfortunately, no turkish delight
- Israel: .. I had to squish a piece of baklava in the food somewhere.
- Switzerland: (Thankfully), all the food had run out by the time I got to the Swiss.

Obviously, not all the countries that our classmates are from are represented. Canada, for sure, was missing, as was... duh.. Australia.

Instead, I hammed it up a little, and ended up apologising to everyone who saw me for wearing my Ugg boots out in public. (I was doing it to be ironic; Australians don't wear Uggs out in public (unless going to the store or something); it was the Americans who picked up and ran with that trend.)