Nationality Rooms celebrate culture at festival

Many people dream of traveling to at least one foreign country, but on Sunday afternoon, the… Many people dream of traveling to at least one foreign country, but on Sunday afternoon, the Pittsburgh community traveled around the world together in less than four hours.

The University of Pittsburgh’s Nationality Rooms Program hosted its annual holiday open house on Sunday afternoon in the Cathedral of Learning Commons Room. The event drew more than 40 people interested in learning about the cultures of the Nationality Rooms.

From Swiss chocolate to Lebanese grape leaves, the different Nationality Room committees provided ethnic foods from 23 different countries and sold items, including intricate Thai jewelry, brightly colored African clothing and Chinese chopsticks adorned in pink and gold silk.

As visitors walked in and out of the Nationality Rooms, others watched performances by various ethnic groups in the Cathedral of Learning Commons Room. The performances included the Chinese Lion Dance, Indian classical dances and the Middle Eastern dabke, among others.

Annamaria Gojdicova, a native Slovakian, is an exchange student this year at Pine Richland High School. She said she was excited to come to this event with two of her classmates.

“I really enjoyed seeing all the different costumes in one place,” Gojdivoca said.

The guides of Quo Vadis, a student organization that conducts tours of the rooms throughout the year, dressed in traditional ethnic costumes and led each crowd on a cultural and historical journey through the 27 Nationality Rooms.

One of the busiest rooms during the event was the Chinese Heritage Room, presented by Quo Vadis guide Annie Zhang.

Modeled after the reception room in the Forbidden Palace — the Chinese imperial palace in Beijing — the Chinese Heritage Room boasts a number of traditional Chinese lucky symbols, including a gold five-toed imperial dragon surrounded by an eight-point star in the center of the ceiling.

“Those are all bad dragons,” Zhang said, referencing the notion that dragons are usually bad. “But in this room, this one is good.”

Encircling the room is a blue frieze containing Chinese characters in clusters of twos and threes. The frieze lists the names of important Chinese people who have socially, culturally and politically impacted the country.

Zhang, a sophomore anthropology and communications double major, talked about the upcoming Chinese New Year and the transition from the year of the rabbit to the year of the dragon on Jan. 23.

“If you are turning a multiple of 12, and you were born in the year of the dragon, then it should be a very good year for you,” Zhang said.

Two floors up, people of all ages continued to take in the cultural revelry by peering into open rooms. One room in particular caught the attention of some visitors due to its unfinished decorations and Turkish greeter, Umut Ozbek.

In March of next year, Pitt students will have the opportunity to visit the Turkish Heritage Room. The newly approved room is currently under construction.

Ozbek, 29, from Ankara, Turkey, enthusiastically greeted all who passed by the Turkish Heritage Room and welcomed the curious stares. Ozbek, a Ph.D. student of biostatistics, has helped with the Turkish Nationality Room Committee during her four-year stay at Pitt.

She said the committee has been trying to make the room happen for the past 10 years, but “fundraising money was a big problem.”

Fortunately, the Turkish Nationality Room Committee has accumulated about $430,000 in donations, including $150,000 from the Turkish government.

As onlookers walked in to view the room, Malik Tunador, president of the Turkish Nationality Room Committee, described the future look of the room. It will contain nine glass windows imported from Turkey and panels depicting different historical scenes, such as the founding of the Turkish Republic.

Staying culturally accurate is very important to Tunador.

“Turks do not face their backs to others, so we’ve situated the seats around the room,” Tunador said.