Episode 18--Thanksgiving Mixer with ICCers at Greenfield Intercultural Center

Friday has always been my favorite day, not only because it should be celebrated due to weekend, but also because I get chances to participate in lots of fun events. Today's noon, we just had a great Thanksgiving lunch at Greenfield Intercultural Center with current and second-year ICCers. The host is one of the students in my program. She is from Korean, and she is doing her Service Learning Project in GIC center. This event was created by her, and sponsored by the GIC.

One of the thing that I loved about this event was that the lunch was almost home-made (except for the turkey), and the best part was that we got to taste a combination of Korean and Chinese food. My roommate and some of TESOL students volunteered to help out before the event. I am very proud to show my roommate's dish (with picture) later. She is good cook and she did amazing job for the lunch!

When we first arrived at GIC, we did a little exploration of the whole building. It is a fantastic center for both Penn students, both undergrad or grad. Similar to Graduate Student Center (GSC) that I introduced in previous blog before, GIC is also a home for students. From the outside, it might just be a regular house that you see on the street, probably not going to grab your attention. However, remember the saying, "Never judge a book by its cover!" It totally gives off a different vibe if you step inside. The rooms spreading over three floors might be a bit compact, but they are equipped with everything you need. Students are welcomed to come here for relax, studying, meeting or just sitting on the couch. ( One thing to point out: the building is filled with super comfortable couches. They are all over the place. So I'll definitely take advantage of that when I think about a place to chill out.) Also, there is computer room for students to do their assignments, work on their papers. FREE PRINTING by the way. What sets GIC apart from GSC or library is that since few people know about this place, it is relatively quiet. Usually, it will be just yourself studying in the room without distraction from anyone. Pretty cool, huh? Besides, there are also rooms for international students or ethnic groups to hang out and have a little chat.  The rooms are not spacious, like I mentioned at the beginning. But you will get pretty comfortable using the facilities. It makes you feel like home, especially for international students away from their homes and parents.

Another reason that I want to highly recommend this center to you is that it has many events and activities throughout the whole semester. Whether you're interested in the intercultural communications, meeting different people, discussing various kinds of topics and etc, this is the right place for you to. And each semester, Penn will have some classes that are going to take place in the center room (where we had our Thanksgiving lunch) on the first floor, and those classes are actually counting as elective courses to your program. (You will get credit for that.) It is another way to form a classroom and gather students around.

The picture below is the feast that we had to celebrate Thanksgiving(in advance). ICCers and GIC staffs were coming together. Foods were all HOME-MADE! (except for the half turkey....and also beverages)

I want to insert a close-up for the dish that my roommate cooked for us. It is a traditional Chinese dish called "红烧排骨", with nicely cooked pork and potatoes. What brought out the flavor was the star anise that she put in, and that was delicious! 

This is photo capturing all the attendees. Our program professor also attended this event. She is in the front, second to the left, and also our internship advisor and peer advisors. The host is in the front, second to the right, the girl in red and black.