Spring Break
Around the world in eight minutes
Vicky Smithee
Issue date: 4/10/07 Section: NEWS
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Gideon Alorwoyie of the music faculty led the parade while beating an African drum to celebrate the first day of an entire week of events sponsored by NT International Studies and Programs.
Some of the participants in the march wore their native dress, but some remained in their regular clothing.
"We don't really have a native dress," said Joern Howind, Hamburg, Germany, senior. "I would never wear lederhosen, just like someone from the northeast would not wear chaps and a cowboy hat."
Howind walked in the parade to support his home country of Germany.
"A lot of people were very interested," Howind said of the parade. "Some people took pictures."
International Week 2007: Celebration of World Cultures runs April 8 to 14 and encompasses many events on campus, including art exhibits, music performances and foreign films.
Halil Okur, Ankara, Turkey, graduate student, said the International Studies and Programs department contacted the international students at the beginning of the year to inform them of the celebratory week.
Okur said the students could then choose to participate and volunteer for specific events, and he was interested in the World Cultures Fair and Market.
"My uncle has a small shop in Turkey," Okur said. "It's all custom jewelry, custom-made by my uncle and his assistant."
Okur said he asked his uncle to send him some jewelry to display and sell at the market. He said many of the Turkish pieces have a central design element called the "evil eye."
"You can see a lot of stuff with the blue eye," Okur said. "It's believed to protect you from envy, jealousy, anything bad. It's more like a cultural belief."
Okur said that in addition to the market, he plans to attend the fashion parade, beginning 7 p.m. Thursday at the Auditorium Building.
Vendors, like Okur, set up booths in the University Union Monday morning, showing many kinds of jewelry, clothing and home furnishings from countries around the world.
Hookahs from the Middle East, jade statues from China and wooden animal carvings from Africa were all available for students to peruse and possibly purchase.
Angela Sangmu, owner of Juliet's Jewels, said she brought some jewelry from her store in Denton.
"I bring it all back from trips to India, Nepal, mostly Thailand," Sangmu said. "I have some specially made."
Sangmu said she has been bringing her items to NT to sell for eight years.
"Students and especially teachers like it," Sangmu said.
Dallas freshman Jessica Donaldson said she purchased a pair of multicolored earrings from the table representing Mexico.
"They're very unique and beautiful," Donaldson said. "No one else has them. I like to be original."
Festivities continue throughout the week to celebrate world cultures. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.international.unt.edu.
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