It was a gorgeous day and the scent of distinctly ‘non-caf’ food wafted across campus, enticing slumbering students around the quad to wake up and mosey over to Founder’s Hall. Upon arrival, students discovered tables covered in free food. No, it was not a dream or a heat induced hallucination. The occasion was Guilford’s annual International Festival.”It was an opportunity for the International Club to show all the different cultures and countries that are represented here at Guilford, so we have this huge festival with a lot of food,” said senior Yacoub Saad, a key organizer of the event.

The festival began on the Founders patio, where tables represented different cultures that Guilford students identify with.

“It was fabulous,” said sophomore Bryce Bjornson. “I learned a lot and I got to try some great food.”

The German table was one of the most popular tables. Run by several students in traditional German clothes who studied abroad in Munich last semester, the German table offered samples of soft pretzels, sausage, fruit strudel, chocolate bars and Spetzi, a German orange cola.

“We didn’t have European cola, so we used coke and orange soda for the Spetzi,” said Allen Sharpe, a junior German major, who ordered 400 pretzels and made trips to and from Durham to prepare for the event.

The line to get into Dana Lounge spilled out onto Founder’s patio, as volunteers and members of the International Club set up a multi-cultural buffet offering trays of catered food from many of the countries represented at Guilford. Samosas, spanakopita, stuffed grape leaves, hummus, sushi, egg rolls, sausage and sauerkraut were among the smorgasbord of dishes available.

Later in the evening, a mini-international fashion show took place in Dana Auditorium. Traditional dress from the Bahamas, Germany, Japan, Turkey, Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, Pakistan, India and Palestine were represented.

All students were welcome to participate in the event, and some students who are not international chose to walk in the fashion show just for fun.

“The fashion show had a lot of really beautiful, authentic-looking clothing on display,” said first-year Emma Tessler. “I actually saw some of the same kind of traditional dress in the fashion show that I saw when I traveled to India last spring.”

Much of the clothing was brought by individual students who had clothes from their respective country of origin, but several items were provided by Hatice Dogan, a Guilford Alum originally from Turkey.

Living in the Guilford bubble can sometimes make it easy to forget about the outside world. The International Festival provided a colorful collage of cuisine, music and fashion that reminded students to celebrate the diversity we have at Guilford.