International Cultural Night and society handovers

It has been an absolutely exhausting week full of major deadlines, including the almighty Third Year Project deadline! Sadly there’s no time to celebrate or rest because final exams are coming up in just a couple of weeks. This has probably been one of the most stressful months of my university experience - however, once finals are over in a few weeks, so is my time at Southampton! I’m going to try and keep this in mind and enjoy the next few weeks as I focus on revising for exams. While it’s somewhat sad to be finishing University, my friend and I will be travelling around Europe soon afterwards so we really have something to look forward to. I’ve booked my tickets to Australia now as well, so there’s no changing my mind now! I’m very excited to be moving back in just a couple of months and looking forward to seeing my family and starting a new adventure.

The last day to elect a new committee for student societies is today, so this week Green Action had our AGM and have voted in a new committee to take over next year. Soon we’ll be having our official hand-over!. I’ve really enjoyed my time as President of the Green Action Society and have been able to meet so many interesting people with similar interests, all passionate about the environment. Thanks to coming from a huge range of degree backgrounds, many of us had different perspectives on current issues so I was truly able to learn a lot from them. In particular I've learnt about new perspectives and arguments from a social side, which I’ve come to understand is also important.

I’ve also been able to get involved with many additional events which I’m not sure I would have if I wasn’t a part of the society. I’m confident that the new committee will do a great job next year and I hope they can continue the progress we have made on our campaigns this year.

Last week my housemate and I attended the International Cultural Night 2015 which was held at the Turner Sims Concert Hall on Highfield Campus. The night was organised by the International Committee at SUSU and AIESEC Southampton and was filled with performances from the different international societies at the University such as the India Society, the Vietnamese Society, the Greek and Cypriot Society, the Bruneian Society and many more. The event allowed them to share and showcase some of their unique culture with everyone. We really loved all the performances and it’s definitely inspired me to want to travel more, especially around Asia.

Some members of the Vietnamese Society performing a traditional dance

All performances were really unique and it was fun to appreciate the differences between the cultures. Most of the people in the different performances also wore traditional clothing from their country. This filled the night with rich colours which was really beautiful to see.

The Bruneian Society during their performance which included both a dance and a story

It was clear the everyone had put a lot of effort in to their performances and the night was really enjoyable. My wanderlust is growing everyday! I just need to get through these last few weeks and then the world is my oyster. I can’t wait!

Kristin