This year's International Culture Day, the most expected day of students and alumni of The Division of Preparatory Programs, was held on October 29th. The purpose of this event is to promote multicultural exchange. With the help of the Exotic Gourmet Garden Tour and performances, international students in NTNU can fully demonstrated their talent and that allow more teachers, students and community people to experience different cultures.
The theme of the event is the magic carnival and it was just the time for Halloween. Students from anime club dressed up as all kinds of figures like Snow White, genie and Harry Potter. The cheerleading performances caused a sensation in rather traditional Lingkou Old Street.
Oversea Chinese students showed their cooking skills and the most popular dishes are Myanmarese dishes and Vietnamese snack rolls. Malaysian coconut rice, Hong Kong curry fish egg, Indonesian fried noodles, pasta, handmade biscuits, assorted beverages and desserts are also available. Creative products of NTNU, henna from India and fun games are very popular.
Cultural performances are all arranged by the newly established student associations. In addition to music performances, there are Malaysia's 24 Festival drum, Myanmar traditional dance Songkran, Malawi students performing Chinese martial arts, street dance performances, catwalk, beatbox, and songs from alumni. The guests, teachers, parents and the audiences were very happy to see the outstanding performance of the overseas Chinese students.
The number of alumni this year has broken the record. In addition to Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Yilan, Kaohsiung, Yunlin, Pingtung and Hualien, these alumni returned to their alma mater to visit their schoolmasters and their younger school mates. Nearly 350 alumni showed up at the event venue. There was an onsite station for applying alumni card, which was widely welcomed by the alumni.
Although that students only study for a year in the Division of Preparatory Programs, alumni are still enthusiastic about coming back to visit the teachers and school mates on the International Cultural Day every year. Before the end of the event, it rained, as usual. Everyone said goodbye to each other reluctantly, and looked forward to next year's gathering.