What’s behind every international night?

Discover how the Spanish night was arrange. 

Text by Sonia Gonzálvez Juan

The International Night is an event that takes place three days per month. Every event is focused on showing a different country, and international students are in charge of representing their own culture and traditions on their own nights. For that, Rokken is the place where more than 30 different nationalities meet together with the aim of spending a fun time knowing about other places and tasting a little bit of traditional food. But how are they being prepared?

¡Bienvenidos a la noche española!

Azahara, Carmen, Pau, Rubén, Laura, Álvaro and Sonia are the Spanish students this year at Volda University College. As the Spanish night is one of the most popular nights according to Pepe García, member of the international club Pangaia and coordinator of the event, these students have the challenge of arranging a big night. Why are they going to do?

Inspired by Picasso

One week before the event:  Pau, from Palma, is in charge of making the posters. It is a tradition to make and put them all around the university, and also around student residences or places that they visit frequently so that everyone knows that it’s going to take place. This year he got inspired by Picasso as he put a photo of the famous painter making a tortilla de patatas (one of the most famous dishes in Spain).

5 days after the event: Laura, from Lleida, tells how everything is going on lately.

– After a couple of meetings, we discussed how we are going to represent the country, and what we are going to do. We all agreed that we want to make something different so is going to be a lot of rehearsals.

She also has made the list of the groceries. This year, our amigos are going to prepare Spanish omelet, picadillo, and churros for all the people who want to join the night. But it is harder than expected.

Nervous

2 days before the event: the Spanish team has met in Alvaro’s kitchen. After 4 hours non-stop peeling potatoes and onions, everyone seems a little bit tired, but between jokes and music, the mood is really good.

– This is going to take all day long and also half of tomorrow’s day. We’ve been peeling vegetables for a lot of time and we need more. The dessert, for example, needs to be done just right before the show begins, so people can eat it warm. Explains Azahara, from Malaga.

Finally, the day of the event arrives and everyone seems to be nervous. They put a lot of effort on this special night and they want everything to be great, so the last rehearsal is taking place at Rokken, just to make sure how everything should be.

Great opportunity

At 7:30 pm the main door opens and attendants are taking places around the stage, where Laura and Sonia are ready to start the play prepared as the way of opening the Spanish night. Right after, presentations about the cities where the students live back at home begin. Following the taste of the food, and games until the end of the night. You can see in their faces they were happy about how the event was being.

– I can believe it’s over. The night passes by on a blink of an eye in comparison of how long it took to prepare everything. Says Carmen, from Malaga.

And that’s how a typical international night is arranged since the beginning until the end and that’s why you should not lose the experience of joining these nights.

As Hans Reidar, Norwegian student at Volda University College says, it’s a great opportunity to meet new people and knowing their cultures and countries, and of course, tasting new food is always the best part.