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International Fest

May 14, 2009 at 1:29 pm
By Margaret Taylor '10

International Fest, or ProFusion, is an annual chance for Carleton students to show off their talents from cultures all around the world.  The festival utterly took over the inside of Sayles for an afternoon last Saturday, with food up on the balcony, and activities and entertainment below.  The food was incredibly popular – so popular, in fact, that festival organizers had to make sure that people took the right set of stairs up to Upper Sayles so they would not disrupt the lines up there.  Back downstairs, there were activities such as origami, Burmese face-painting, calligraphy, and henna.

Meanwhile, at the talent show, a bunch of student clubs and individuals took the opportunity to show off.  Members of the Kendo Club arrived wrapped up in fearsome blue full-body armor, looking somewhat like a cross between samurai and sardines.  There was a good reason for all this protection, though – they lunged back and forth, attacking each other with wooden swords, as another kendo member told us something about the history of the sport.  In keeping with the martial arts theme, Tae Kwon Do club showed off some of their sparring and board-breaking.  Not all of the performances at International Fest were militant, though.  Lizzie Fink ’10 performed a hula that interpreted a song about a mermaid with glistening hair.  Another pair of students danced a salsa/merengue mishmash, to uproarious audience response.  And this campus has a thing about a capella, so why not sing a capella in German?  The emcees informed us that the song was about bicycles.

A fun and educational experience was had by all involved.