Written by: Saylee Jangam
Last Week at the University of Sheffield there was World
Week, a week organized by the International Students’ Committee to celebrate
the international diversity in Sheffield. The following is my experience of the
World Parade that took place to mark the beginning of World Week on 15th
November, 2014. 
World Week began ceremoniously with the ever popular World
Parade that happens every year starting at the Students Union. Over 150
students participated this year and gathered outside the Students Union on the
chilly morning of Saturday, 15th November. As a fresher, the World
Parade, I had heard, was something not to be missed so although it was
drizzling and far too foggy for my liking, I headed outside to join this celebration
and I am so glad I did because I had such a great time!
Once at the SU, I picked up the Hong Kong flag as it was the
first thing I spotted amongst the other flags laid onto the welcome desk of the
International Languages Festival that was happening the same day (for which I
volunteered to face paint – more on that later haha). And once my friends had
picked out their flags, we walked outside to join the others in order to start
our parade to the Winter Gardens in the city centre.
After a brief photo session, we started our walk and to my
surprise, a fellow IEA was playing the ‘Dhol’ – an Indian drum-like instrument.
And what does one do when the Dhol is played, you ask? Bhangra*, of course!
Walking through the city centre as part of such a big group
was definitely interesting. We had a lot of people looking our way and some
even taking pictures. Once at the winter gardens, we had another photo session
(there can never be too many of these!) and soon after, I came back to the SU
for the Languages festival after a quick lunch in the city centre.
The International Languages festival was a two-day event
over the weekend where students volunteered to teach a language as part of
World Week, and other students came to learn. They had a total of about 30
different languages being taught that weekend which I found very impressive. I
was volunteering to face paint in the Activities Zone of the SU so this is what
I did when students came out of classes for a break or if committee members of
the ISC (International Students’ Committee) wanted to get their faces painted
as well. I mostly painted flags to go with the theme but at one point, was
asked to paint an elephant too.
I met so many new people during the World
Parade as well as the Languages festival and honestly had a brilliant time. To
make things even better, they had Masala Chai at Coffee Revolution for the
entire week! Now I can proudly say that I have checked off ‘World Parade’ from
my to-do list at Uni.
Have a look at the few highlights! :)
*Bhangra – an energetic form of Indian dance.
