International Day

Today was International Day, the day at our school where the parents of the many nationalities attending the school showcase their diverse cultures. Of course, culture means food. This year there 28 countries represented. In my professional opinion Egypt won on the vegetarian food front (some sort of pasta, chickpea and fried onion concoction with spicy sauce), followed closely by India (chana masala, potato curry and chapatis). On the sweet front, the UK won me over with what I believe was hand made shortbread. The meat eaters recommended the South African stall, with borewors rolls (with mustard) and biltong. Thailand had excellent eggrolls. Israel could have done better, the humus was not up to scratch, and the falaffel was cold. They did have milkies and Bamba, which along with soup almonds (shkeday marak) are the only true Israeli foods. The event was well organized, well run and well attended. Our PTA rocks.

I like this day. My kids are very fortunate that they are exposed to so many diverse cultures on a daily basis. The school is truly international and daily on campus you see kids of all languages, colors and sizes, interacting and fooling around as all normal kids will. It's great that to these kids "international" means a lot more than just weird foods.