United Nations day (UN day) is celebrated annually at Narrabundah college. The college has an incredibly culturally-diverse body of both staff and students and this day is set aside each year to celebrate just that. The day is all but run by the languages department of the school which boasts an available 11 language courses for students to undertake at multiple skill levels- from very beginner to super advanced.
Typically on UN day each individual language group prepares a food stall serving traditional foods relative to their language/culture, and a piece of entertainment- usually a traditional piece of music, drama or dance. Donations are taken from the food stalls and all go directly towards UN. Special guests such as ambassadors and dignitaries are also invited to the school to come and celebrate multiculturalism with us.
Being a part of the French class, I volunteered to participate in the days festivities. We had to do some research into traditional foods and a form of entertainment that we could put forward on the day. We decided to cook up chocolate mousse, quiche and crêpes and for the entertainment performed a series of French songs (with rocking dance moves of course). The group I was put into met twice a week for the four or so weeks leading up to the day to make sure we were prepared. It took a lot of creative thinking to come up with our entertainment piece but we got there. It got really hard to organise sometimes because we struggled to get everyone together in the one room at the one time. There were a lot of us, some in year 11 and some in 12 and so our French classes and free periods never lined up. We also had to do a lot of cooking as well, this was mostly done in the lunch breaks on the days leading up to the event and some final last minute cooking at home the night before (very stressful, but we managed). I also helped out with setting up the French stall. This just meant painting banners, price tags and making flyers to post around the school yard to advertise the French stall. Another job I volunteered for was helping escort the special invited guests throughout the school whilst I wasn't performing. I met some incredible people; ambassadors, university lecturers and representatives directly from the UN.
I think that my favourite part of the day wasn't getting to perform myself or do the cooking, but getting to see what all of the other language groups had prepared. I not only learnt more about the French culture, but about some of the other cultures within my own school as well. The Chinese class did an amazing traditional dragon dance and the Spanish group cooked up some heavenly empanadas and churros. Here is a photo of the dragon costume- very cool right?!
It was really cool to see students be proud of their cultural backgrounds or the language they studied. I wouldn't be exaggerating by saying that there were more students participating in the days events than students whom came to watch and enjoy them.
Participating in United Nations day was definitely a highlight of my Narrabundah college experience, I worked hard at collaborating with others to coordinate the millions of different pieces of food and entertainment for the day. Whilst stressful, it definitely paid off.
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