Students celebrate 25 years of Foster Living Learning Center

The word “mambo” translates to “hello” in English. From what country does the word “mambo” originate?

Students from Foster International Living Learning Center and the Global Village partnered Thursday night to test their knowledge and celebrate International Education Week.

Foreign cuisine from countries such as China, Japan, Belgium and Germany were served along with an international music mix and global Jeopardy.

“Our goal is to interact and get to know each other as one community,” said freshman June Park, the Foster International Liaison Chair. “Both residence halls have a lot of interest with international themes, and we thought to join them this past summer.”

The celebration began with a variety of foreign munchies, such as Japanese trail mix, German pretzels, chips and salsa and an assortment of European cookies. There were about 45 students lined up to take from the buffet style of snacks.

Global Jeopardy began halfway through the evening, and questions varied from categories such as culture, language, geography and politics. Park said both the committees wanted to help educate people on something they might not know about, and jeopardy prizes were an incentive to get students to participate.

The event also helped celebrate the 25th anniversary of Foster’s Living Learning Center.  The top five winners walked away with food prizes, but Park said everyone left more educated about many different countries.

“Foster International is more culturally focused, and the Global Village is more language based,” said senior Victoria Clark, chair of the Liaison Committee. After living in the Global Village last year, Clark said she decided to stay because of her great experience.

Clark said she’s learning a lot about management and has shopped at every international grocery story in Bloomington since she became the liaison chair. 

Freshman roommates Adrianna Pappas and Addy Bryan heard about the event through the Global Village. Pappas said she is majoring in non-profit management and Greek, and Bryan said she studies anthropology and Near Eastern languages and cultures. Both girls said they enjoy studying different countries and make an effort to participate in several international events.

Pappas said she wanted to live with people who felt the same attraction to international studies, and a good way of meeting these people has been in her dorm through a mixture of ethnic food nights.

“I try to go to as much as possible because they’re fun and have free food,” Pappas said.

Bryan said she enjoys the international music constantly being played on their floor, and Hindi Bollywood is her current favorite.

“Half of the music being played on our floor is not spoken English and that is true for just about everyone,” Bryan said.