Multicultural Night

Yesterday was a pretty good day at work! I got an email to set up an appointment to sign my new contract for next year. Hooray for having a job! Secondly, I got set up with a mentor- FINALLY!
After all that good news, it was so exciting to return to work last night for our Multicultural Food Evening.
Okay, it does seem odd to be happy to return to work on a Friday night, but it was so worth it! One of the most incredible aspects of an international school is, well, the internationalness of it.
Every year our school has a multicultural night. Many of the parents and teachers run tables, where they serve oodles of food from their home countries. There is a 2 Euro charge for entrance, which goes to our PTA, and then you get all the food you could ever want. This year, it was totally packed, but the food was sooo good! I only wish I could have had more room to eat!

I met up with my friends Iris and Alison, while Joern and Marcel stalked off to start eating :) We headed to the Thailand table first. Unfortunately, I never even made it over to Japan, simply because the line was way too long. The Thailand and Israel tables were next to each other, so this is why my first plate includes delicious Pad Thai and Hummus with pita.

Some tables also had information and items from the country as well. We snagged some great Dead Sea products from the Israel table. Wahoo!

I'm still a little sad too that I didn't make it to the Mexico table. Besides the amazing food, it was so much fun to mingle with colleagues, parents, and of course, the kids. Many of the little ones, and their parents too, dressed up in their nation's traditional dress for the evening. Once again, imagine all our little Japanese kids in their amazingly beautiful kimonos!
Joern got some homemade pizza and cured meats from Italy, which really whet our appetites (literally,) for our upcoming trip. One of our Italian students from last year even gave me an Italy travel guide and a few recipes.

I stopped by to take some photos of the Nordic table, which was Sweden, Finland, and Denmark.

Of course, I totally enjoyed the India table. In typical Indian fashion, my plate was totally overfilled with rice, a HUGE Samosa, Chloey, and the perfect ending, a sweet.

By then, I was starting to enter my completely stuffed, overdone stage. Then,
we bumped into one of my current students, who is Hungarian and Spanish. She brought her father over to talk to me and my friend Alison, who just completed her student teaching in the EAL (English as an Additional Language) department. She talked to her dad in Spanish, but I could tell she was excited to tell him that Alison spoke Spanish. She was also excited to tell her dad that I could say 8 and 17 in Spanish. Oh, the kids are just so cute!! She then ran me over to the Spain tabe to see her mom. I was able to squeeze in one piece of Tortilla, before bursting.
It was such a fun night!