Abdullah Gül University members see first AGU Intercultural Series event of the 2018/2019 Academic year in the form of Syrian Edition!
Organised by the AGU International Association (student club), with support from the AGU International Office, our Intercultural Series are the opportunity for the University’s international students to showcase their culture to their fellow students and AGU employees, via presentations, music, dance, food, games…etc.
The AGU International community had already successfully organized four previous editions in the last two and a half years, starting with Kenya, followed by Morocco and Pakistan, as well as Egypt.
With the AGU Intercultural Series gaining in popularity and thanks to the motivation and involvement of our AGU International Association President, Abdishukri Aden, from Kenya (who had also presented the very first Intercultural Series, with his fellow Kenyans), it was not difficult to find the contenders for the latest and fifth Edition in the Series: SYRIA !
AGU’s Syrian students were looking forward to (re)presenting their country. In the current international context, it was also the opportunity to show a different face of the country and to show the beauty and richness of its heritage and culture.
Our Syrian students and AIA club members worked hard on the preparation of the event, into the last details (such as custom-made traditional outfits worn by everyone) and even invited external members to contribute.
Indeed, the audience had the pleasure of watching a traditional dance show by a professional dancing troupe, as well as to taste the food prepared by a local Syrian restaurant.
As has now become tradition, the AIA President played a trailer video of the past Intercultural Series editions, while the audience settled into their seats in the University Conference Room (watch the videos of all previous Editions here).
Once everyone was ready, both AIA President Abdishukri and Head of the International Office Emeric Abrignani took to the stage to introduce the event, tease future intercultural projects and thank their guests for joining and AIA members and international students for their hard work.
After the playing of the Syrian national anthem, our Syrian hosts dove straight into their presentation, which covered geography, history, key monuments and UNESCO World Heritage Sites, as well as languages, handicrafts, art, music, dance, interesting facts and food.
Their event was punctuated by interesting performances, including two dance shows, with the traditional Dabke dance and typical wedding day dance, in which our Syrian students also joined in.
The audience also had the pleasure of joining in an interactive Kahoot quiz on Syria key facts and watch our Syrian students in video wrestling with Turkish tongue twisters (laughs ensued).
Our hosts also showed a promotional video of Syria, which gave the audience the chance to see the beauty of the country’s landscapes.
The Syrian team concluded their spectacle with a heartfelt statement:
“This is what Syria was … is … and always will be”
At the end of the event, the audience rushed to line up in order to discover the Syrian specialties prepared for them, some cooked by our students.
They had the chance to discover Tabula (a parsley, bulgur and tomato salad), rice and Shish Barak (meat dumplings in yogurt).
After the meal, our students still had not had enough, as they organized some dance-offs with Syrian music outside the Conference Room.
The audience was very enthusiastic about the event, which had been prepared by our Syrians and International Association members with a lot of motivation and dedication (and also brought a lot of laughs).
The result was very positive and we can’t wait to organize the next Editions !