The Barometer Online

Issue date: 5/11/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Cory Reed Performers dance on stage at Saudi Night Sunday evening in the MU Ballroom. The event showcased Saudi culture through food, fashion and dance.

With two weeks to prepare, the Saudi Students Club at OSU decided to hold its first annual Saudi Night, which took place Sunday night in the MU Ballroom and catered to a packed house of OSU students and staff as well as Corvallis community members.

Upon arrival, each female guest was given a rose to represent Mother's Day and the idea that every woman could some day, in some capacity, be a mother.

"I love to show my culture," said Fatimah Almousani, a sophomore in general science who volunteered at the event.

"It's very, very different from this culture, so it will be interesting."

Almousani came to the United States with her husband two years ago to attend school at OSU. Their arrival on American soil coincided with their second honeymoon.

Their daughter, 20-month-old Malak, was born soon after.

As Almousani floated around the MU Ballroom, chatting and laughing with other volunteers and attendees, preparing for the evening's main event, her husband carried their daughter in his arms from group to group, where Malak would make herself the center of attention by kissing each person on the cheek and grinning.

Another volunteer, Abdullah Almadani, a sophomore in industrial engineering, showed off his traditional dress, complete with the long white thobe and white sandals.

Almadani, like many Saudi students, came to the U.S. to study, and he plans on getting his master's degree, but he intends to take his education and return to Saudi Arabia and his family after he completes school.

Tickets to the event were free and included dinner, which consisted of various traditional dishes of lamb, chicken, rice, salad and sweet bread. The dinner also included a vegetable soup.

After dinner, men in traditional dress lined up, dancing through the middle of the crowd and up to the stage, chanting and singing in Arabic while clapping.

They danced in turn to Saudi music around a man who was to represent the groom at a traditional wedding ceremony.

Continued...

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