Hi guys! The real Autumn (or Winter?) has finally come to Hong Kong! The weather started to be very nice lately. It's getting colder (especially in the morning) and windy that I need to put on my scarf. Daily temperature ranges from 22-27 degrees (FYI it's 17-19 today!) and it is not too humid anymore. I really love this temperature because I don't need to break a sweat when I run from one building to other building for class💦 The changes of temperature is really significant compared to the last two weeks. Me and my room mate even already slept without turning on the AC for about a week because we can let the window open during the night.
As I do my exchange period during the fall semester, I got the privilege to experience an annual event in HKBU that only happens during the odd semester. It's International Festival! The event was held on 25-27 October 2016 and this year is the 12th year of commencement. During this three days event, HKBU had ranges of activities that showcasing cultural diversity. There were photo exhibition, seminars, study abroad fair for the local students and also international market plus variety show.
The highlight of the International Festival was the international market and variety show which were conducted together. In these two events, students are encouraged to contribute actively. They can manage to participate to run the international market or show their performance on the stage. Of course, I won't miss the chance to contribute for the event. I applied to be the Master of Ceremony for the variety show and I got selected!😆😆 Aside from that, I also joined the costume parade during the variety show to present Indonesia's traditional costume. Quite a busy night for me, but I enjoyed the night!
At 7:30 pm, people started to fill the empty seat in front of the stage. The variety show was about to start! In the variety show, there were 10 performances to enjoy. We started with the costume parade of 10 countries traditional costume presented by the students. I was wearing batik dress to represent Indonesia, but many people think that the batik dress is too simple🤔 Perhaps I should bring Reog Ponorogo costume to wow the audiences😂 (google it!)
After costume parade, we had dance, music and action performances. For the dance, there were Japanese, Philippines and Scottish dance. For the music, we had students singing Cantonese and Mandarin song, a performance of Chinese zither and also Scottish piping music. We also enjoyed a breathtaking kung fu and judo performance. My Japanese friend was the one who perform the Japanese dance. She was so cool! I also love the Chinese zither performance. It was very beautiful and elegant. The performer said that she's been playing Chinese zither since she was 10, which is really a long time! By 8:30 pm, the variety show end. I really enjoyed the whole night. All of the performances were awesome and got to see many performances that I never see before.
In the international market, there were 10 booths of countries managed by the students: Mexico, The Netherlands, Philippines, Taiwan, USA, Malaysia, Japan, Germany, China and Brazil. Started at 6:30 pm, every booth offers their country signature snack or games. Some booths let you directly taste the snack, while some other booths will reward you with the food if you can win their game. The atmosphere of the night was really fun and alive! One of the snack that blow my mind was the snack from Germany's booth. It's a cube of cheese combined with a grape. The taste was... awesome! The saltiness of cheese and the sweetness of grape was a perfect match. It was the first time I pair cheese and grape together and I think there will be the second, third and more. Oh my, I'm craving for more now as I write this post. Thank you Germany fellas for introducing me that snack!
I also treasured my time being the MC for that night. I'm kinda proud of myself for being brave enough to take the role as MC. Although I'm used to do public speaking and MC before, this was my first time to do it overseas and in English😳 Big shout out to my partner, Pipi, from Cheng Du! Even though we just know for 2-3 weeks before the show, we did a great job! We succeed to lead the variety show from the beginning until the end and managed to solve the difficulties that we encountered.
Overall, I'm really glad to have the opportunity to experience this International Festival. I think it is a great event to allow students to know more about other countries and different cultures (and foods🙄). It's also a great opportunity for people to explore their capabilities: managing booths, performing dances and music, and for me, becoming the MC. Hope in the future I have another chance to see many more countries' traditional cultures and taste their signature foods. For sure, I will enjoy it again not in International Festival, but directly at the origin country😊 Finger-crossed! xx
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