Staring at the ground as two bamboo poles clicked together, sophomore Kylie Price hesitantly leaped between them and rhythmically hopped back out before the rods clamped on her foot. As she danced through the poles, the two students clicking sticks together sang a melody from Taiwan.
"It's basically like a Tic-Tac-Toe," Price said. "It's really not that hard. It really is fun - you kind of have to think about it."
Bamboo Dance is an Asian custom symbolizing unity in which participants work together as they dance between bamboo poles. It was one of more than 25 activities and information tables at the International Festival on Friday.
Students from Ball State University's Rinker Center for International Programs amassed on the first floor of Bracken Library where they set up dozens of tables with information, games and food samples from their native countries.
Deb Goens, interim director of international student services for the Rinker Center, said the annual event was intended to educate Ball State's American students about their international classmates' customs and traditions, as well as inform American students about what the Rinker Center does. It has been at Ball State for more than 50 years, she said.
"I'm seeing more American students who are unafraid to interact with our international students," Goens said. "The real purpose behind this is international awareness."
The Rinker Center also partnered with University Program Board and the Multicultural Center, Goens said, which taught international students about U.S. culture.
The festival featured countries from Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean, among other global regions.
Over at the Caribbean booth, graduate student Karen Isaacs lectured about jerk-spiced culinary delicacies, and social icons of her homeland of Jamaica. Poster boards with information about national heroes around the Caribbean included photos and biographies of Bob Marley and Fidel Castro.
"If you want to visit paradise, it's any island in the Caribbean," Isaacs said.
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