Italian Night in Bochum

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I previously wrote about the time we baked biscuits with the ESN Bochum guys in the Europa Haus. Well, this Italian evening we took part in was host in Europa Haus too. It was a chance for Italian students in Bochum to show other students - both German and international - the Italian culture and especially their typical dishes.

Every Italian who joined the event was supposed to bring something to eat or drink so that everyone could have a chance to taste something. So I, as an Italian, felt like I wanted to cook something. Since by the time this event took place I had met an Italian guy, we decided to cook something together.

Of course, we had plenty of options, so at first we were not sure what to prepare. It took us some days to make up our minds, but in the end we chose what we thought was the most Italian food ever: the Lasagna. There are many variants of this typical dish, but we thought that the classical one - with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and béchamel - was the best. So we bought all the ingredients and the day of the event - it was a Thursday - we cooked for hours until everything was ready. Our international friends helped us to cook and bring the food in the Europa Haus, they were really nice.

We got there before they even opened the building. It was actually a good thing because we had the time to set the tables and heat up the food before the others arrived.

By the time the others started to come in, we had so much food in the kitchen that we had no idea how to put things in order. There was a lot of food, yet the people in there were so many that it wasn't enough for everyone. We thought about ordering pizza, but then it wouldn't have been Italian, so we decided to be content with what we had cooked.

Around 11 p. m. the place was so overcrowded that we couldn't move nor have a conversation with anybody, because we couldn't hear what the others were saying. That's why at a certain point me and my friends decided to leave.

I have to say, planning typical evenings was a wonderful idea. For example, they hosted a Syrian night and a German night some weeks later, and they went really well. The Italian night though, was a bit too chaotic, at least for me. Maybe a bigger venue would have been a good choice. I think the ESN guys were not expecting that many people to come that day. I'm glad we took part in it anyway, because I had fun cooking and organizing everything with the other students. I'm sure that next time they decide to host evenings like this they'll think it through perfectly.