All International Students of the University of Kent were invited to a Coffee Morning & High Tea organized by the Student Learning Advisory Service (SLAS) on Sunday, October 13th. Many students new to the UK or even those yet to visit the UK may have heard about English High Tea and (as I have) had visions of delicate, tiny sandwiches and the clink of intricately decorated teacups and saucers.
Having had the opportunity during Welcome Week to get to know many of the students enrolled on the LLM programme, I welcomed this opportunity to meet international students from other schools as well. Living off campus, I braved the Autumn showers to travel on to campus for the afternoon segment of this event. Students were required to check in at the door and be marked off the Guest List (all very exclusive) and then join one of the round tables at which you were guaranteed to find students from at least three different parts of the world. As I sat down and dried off with a cup of hot tea, I was introduced to students from Turkey, Korea, Taiwan and Germany. Aside from swapping notes about our countries of origin, we also found that we were a mixture of undergraduate and postgraduate, new to UKent and Alumni, and about 4-5 different programmes.
Once most students had arrived we were served to “The Tea”. Platters of scones, assorted tiny sandwiches (my dream come true!), cakes and steaming pots of coffee and tea were served to each table. We struggled to find room for all of this food, not just on the table but in our stomachs as well.
Amidst the clinking of our teacups and the consumption of cucumber sandwiches the organizers from the SLAS drew our attention to a Quiz competition. Each table picked a team name and received the forms containing the Quiz questions. A truly creative set of team names emerged: Naught-Tea, The Rolling Scones were just a few that had us all chuckling.
The Quiz contained questions ranging from general knowledge about the UK and Kent in particular, to the services offered by SLAS and even university policies and procedures. The students at my table pooled our knowledge and made a valiant effort. I was very proud that we came second…..no prize, just bragging rights.
However, by the end of the afternoon I had a bit more knowledge about SLAS services, the University of Kent, the UK, had experienced English High Tea and now knew a few more people on campus.
I look forward to the other events planned throughout the academic year for international students. I appreciate having had the opportunity to attend such a beautifully organized event at which I met a lovely group of fellow international students.