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Cultural diversity on the menu

12/06/2016 | TU Graz news | University

By Ute Wiedner

The TU Graz Welcome Center cooks up a storm for international degree-seeking students and staff: social events like cooking together are fun and help people settle in.

All the cooks had a lot of fun at the international potluck dinner of the Welcome Center of TU Graz.
Help with organising your stay in Austria, monthly meetings and topic-oriented activities are on the menu of the TU Graz Welcome Center, the central contact point for international degree-seeking students at TU Graz. Staff energetically support “internationals” to get settled in Austria and to make new contacts. And because cooking and eating side by side brings people together, everyone lent a hand and conjured up dishes from their home countries at the international potluck dinner in November. The result was a colourful collection of recipes from Ethiopia, Greece, Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, India, the USA and, of course, Austria.
The Ethiopian dish Minchet Abish simmers on the cooker while the cook rolls up the flat bread which traditionally accompanies the meal.
All the participants were rewarded with delicacies, such the Ethiopian dish Minchet Abish, which is eaten on bread, as pictured.

Integration for „internationals“

Whoever comes from abroad to complete their whole studies or work at TU Graz can put their name on the mailing list of the Welcome Center. Mails regularly inform those on the mailing list about monthly get-togethers and other activities in Graz and surroundings – like the pre-Christmas excursion to the Franciskanerviertel for the Feast of St. Lucy on 13 December.
Two staff members of the TU Graz Welcome Center enjoy the aroma of Wiener Schnitzel and potato salad.
No uniform mish-mash: Staff of TU Graz’s Welcome Center provide individual services for everything concerning visas and residential status, including search for accommodation. And they organise activities where it’s easy to get to know country and people.

Idea for a Christmas present:
The international cookbook “EAT & MEET” doesn’t provide the range of dishes from the actual cooking event, but it does offer other recipes from exchange students and staff.

Cost: 7 euros
Buy it at: Service Department of International Relations and Mobility Programmes, Mandellstraße 15/II, 8010 Graz.
More information about the cookbook for students and staff in the Intranet of TU Graz

Information

Next get-together: “Graz during the holiday season”
Feast of St. Lucy in the Franziskanerviertel (area around the Franciscan Church)
Date: Tuesday, 13th December, 5pm
Registration for individual get-togethers or for the mailing list:
welcomecenter@tugraz.at

Contact

International Relations and and Mobility Programmes
Welcome Center
Mandellstraße 15/II
8010 Graz, Austria
welcomecenter@tugraz.at