Skapto 3 construction begins
AUBGers play kindergarten gamesPhotos by Radina Efremova
AUBGers jump, pull, sing and run for fun
By Marius Nicolescu
February 13, 2007
Nine teams amuse the audience at Traditional Games night
Nine countries presented traditions and interactive games at the first Traditional Games and Customs event in the history of the International Week at AUBG on Tuesday, Feb. 6.
The Albanians played a game where the players from the first team jump on the backs of the players from the other team to test their strength.
"The Albanians didn't surprise me, they play that game all the time, especially during orientation week, because it's really popular, so I've seen it," said student Antoniya Angelova.
Mongolia presented a game played with a dice made from the anklebones of sheep. Each of the six sides of the dice represented one animal popular in Mongolian culture. The animal the draw determines supposedly brings a specific fortune to the player.
Bulgaria presented a variety of games, most of them originally played by kindergarten children. Angelova, who presented the games, said it was not difficult to find them.
"I was trying to remember games from my childhood. The other two presenters were my roommates and they helped me." She said she got ideas for some of the games from a book she found in the library.
?Puskam, puskam karpichka? reminded the Bulgarian participants how they ran in a circle as children holding a handkerchief to get a vacant seat.
The Americans invited everybody to play a couple of games, including the famous "musical chairs." The real kicker was a game involving croissants. In four elimination rounds people took turns to taste apparently similar croissants, but one of them was filled with goose pate, grinded coffee and cheese. The player who ate it got eliminated.
"It was real fun, especially with the Americans, because I was convinced till the very end that nobody would eat that stuff. The people that did were really brave," said student Bela Geneva, one of the organizers of the event.
Professors Markus and Sabina Wien talked about some pre-marriage traditions in Germany, and presented an interactive game where everyone had to repeat everyone else's name and a random object picked out by people. Some had trouble remembering all the names and the objects because more than 40 people participated.
"We are more united than we think; we are just united by games," Sabina Wien said, noting that most of the games that night were similar in many countries.
The organizers tried to find people from many nationalities. ?We tried to find more [participants], but some people just told us that they cannot think of or find any traditional games from their countries," said Geneva.
The computer and projector did not work throughout the night. Markus Wien noted, "I think that these games will survive, actually.? His wife added, ?We found here that technology failed, so all we have left are games."
