Category Uncategorized

Colombian Night: By Kaavya Manjunath

Yesterday, I attended the Colombian Student Association’s annual Colombian Night. This was my first time attending this event, so I was very excited. For their 25th anniversary, the theme was “Legends that Bind Us: A Quarter-Century of Tradition”. The event consisted of a show that brought Colombian stories and myths to the stage. This was truly such a fun event, and I am glad I got to learn more about Colombian culture. 

The show had various musical and dance performances that told the story of traditional myths in Colombian culture. We were given a pamphlet that explained the background of the stories performed. The first performance was El Dorado and La Gallanita De Los Huevos De Oro. The story goes as told: When a new ruler comes to power, the native people (the Muisca) gather at Lake Guatavita, which is a sacred lake. The ruler’s body is covered in gold dust and sails across the river on a raft with treasure, and these gold treasures were offered to the lake to honor the gods. Because of this ritual, Spanish explorers thought this city was filled with gold. In the story of La Gallanita De Los Huevos De Oro, a greedy farmer kills his hen, thinking there was gold inside, as the hen lays gold eggs. But after killing the hen, he loses his source of wealth. This story was performed as a “merengue campesino danced in carranga style”. Another performance I enjoyed was the salsa dance, specifically El Diablo en Juanchito. The Salsa dance originated in Cali, Colombia, and consists of fast footwork and spins. In the story of El Diablo en Juanchito, in a nightclub, an elegant man appeared and danced with a woman. When she looked down, she saw he had hooves. Then, the smell of sulfur filled the nightclub when the man disappeared, and everyone knew the Devil had been there. Another performance that was fascinating was the story of El Mohán, who is considered the guardian of rivers and caves. El Mohán also seduces women, steals from fishermen, and loves tobacco. This myth came from the Magdalena River region. The show also had other performances from various dance groups and singers.

Colombian Night 2026 was truly an event to remember, and I enjoyed learning about these myths and legends, as this was something I had never known before. I am glad I was able to celebrate the 25th anniversary of COLSA and learn more about the rich culture of Colombia.

Another Sick Lunar New Year!

My third year at OU, only the 2nd time I have found out about the AASA Lunar New Year Celebration at the last minute. Somehow it crept up on me despite the fact that I always go and I started talking about Lunar New Year in December. At my friend Fiona’s house over break we discussed the year of the horse, which is her sister’s birth year. Her mom read us some nice Chinese proverbs about the horse, but we pressed her to find good ones about the monkey, which is our birth year. Whereas the horse proverbs read “When a horse arrives, instant success”, sayings referencing monkeys seem to have lower praise. Some memorable ones for me: “Monkey head monkey brain” and “When the tiger leaves the mountain, the monkey calls himself king”.

Fiona celebrated at UMich already, and sent me this picture a few weeks ago. She said she spun a wheel and answered a riddle to win it an Asian Student Association activity.

I am here to write this blog post for all my dutiful fans ( my friends know about this blog but very few of them have looked to find it, they feigned outrage when I said none of my posts were public anymore.) and for future me, who would find it easier to write about events sooner after they happen.

My friend Savanna and I planned to go, and at the last minute I convinced my friend Logan to come as well! It was great to have them with me to mill around.

Every year I get here super early and just have to wait for the food and performances, so I went up to the Tapioka magazine booth again. At the booth we pestered Erik, the creative director and later MC, about the magazine. Last year the guy at the booth was really confusing, so it was only in the last 5 minutes of talking to Erik that it was clear the magazine was not actually in print physical copies. Also I don’t think he had read it himself. It is really cool that students can come together to make something like that, and he said they did get money allotted to them from the AASA this year to print and distribute some magazines, which is cool!

After half an hour, we got food, sat down and I noticed the girls behind us were speaking German. I summoned all my courage and the deep knowledge that if my mom were here, she would have 10000% have made me talk to them, and turned around and asked, in German, if they were German. This sounds stupid but it is a super easy way to indicate that you speak it, and it IS always possible they are from Austria or something! I talked to them a bit, asked why they were here (study abroad), what they were studying (to be teachers), and they said they had met one of the German instructors, Frau Preuss, also because she had heard them speaking German and came up to them. It wasn’t the longest or greatest conversation because the room was loud and I had to turn fully in my seat to speak with them, but I’m glad I did it and I never have to wonder what could have been…

We stayed for the dance and musical performances, unfortunately there were pervasive microphone technical issues, but the performers were all great! I never entered in a raffle, and I vow to make sure I do and to be able to stay until the very end next year. Happy Year of the Horse! Instant success!

Welcome to GEF’s New Blog Site!

All GEF students are required to keep an E-Portfolio during their time with the Fellowship. Below are the requirements for all students:

  • While Studying on Campus, students must publish the following:
    • Five Blog Posts Per Semester – Minimum 250 word count each
      • Two must be on International Events attended each semester
      • Two must be on an international topic of their choice
      • One must be about their OU International Student Organization
        • If you are not a part of an organization yet (mostly applies to freshman), you can write on the ones that you have explored!
  • While Studying Abroad, students must publish the following:
    • Long Term Study Abroad Students – must post at least twice each month about their experiences / each minimum 250 word count
    • Short Term Study Abroad Students – can post about their experiences the semester after they have gone abroad to count towards their five blog posts per semester requirement!

Please know that this is a shared blog site for all Global Engagement Fellows to publish their blogs on! We look forward to reading your blogs!