Students crowded the Memorial Union Main Street on Friday as they made their way from table to table to taste teas from different cultures. The office of international education hosted The Colors of Emporia State and the International Tea Party.
Soojin Bae, senior management major from South Korea, said she originally came to ESU for the nursing program, but after she was here, she decided she had more characteristics of a business major.
“The school is very involved,” Bae said. “They really involve students. The faculty are really student oriented and relationship oriented. Some schools have a lot of students verses one professor, so they don’t really have good relationships between the professor and the student. But here I can develop very good relationships.”
Bae is a member of the Model United Nations group. At the tea party, her table had tea from South Africa, England, China and more.
ESU has had an International Tea Party every semester for over 15 years, but only started The Colors of ESU last year. This gave the international students an opportunity to wear traditional attire from their home country.
Rozita Smith, director of international student and scholar services said having the tea party at the same time as The Colors of ESU provides an opportunity to learn about others cultures, meet new friends and enjoy tea from all over the world.
Though most students served tea prepared the way it is in their home country, others chose to serve something different. Anastasia Motiti, junior music major from Cypriot served soup instead, and some Japanese students served coffee as well as tea.
Joseph Sommer, senior elementary education and member of the J.A. Sakura club said the main difference between American tea and Japanese tea is the sweetness. American tea tends to be sweetened whereas Japanese tea is usually more of a natural flavor.
“They are really about natural plants and using natural greens,” Sommer said.
Though Sommer is not from Japan, he has studied the culture a great deal and hopes to travel there one day.
“A big difference is our passion to tea,” said Vladyslav Remeniak, senior political science major from the Ukraine.
Remeniak said they usually drink tea every morning, evening and during the day and like it more than coffee. They also usually add lemon.
A popular tea in the Ukraine is made from rose hips. Rose hips are formed when a rose bush becomes wild. A sort of fruit begins growing on them. The fruit is picked and dried or baked and mashed up. Placing the rose hips in boiling water will create the tea.
Chloe Baldwin, sophomore dental hygiene major and Bethany Solida dental assisting major, said they have a communications class with many of the participants in the International Tea Party, so they had a lot of previous knowledge about the different cultures.
Baldwin said her favorite drink was the Japanese coffee. Solida favored the Bohemian tea.
