ISET takes pride in its diverse international community and uses every chance to celebrate it. The international tea party hosted in the cafeteria was an excellent illustration of this tradition. On February 6, ISET students from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Japan, and Iran took over ISET's cafeteria to host the community with tasty delights of their home countries.

The event organizers took the lead and did their best to surprise their guests with the limited resources available to them. One could try traditional Azeri tea made from herbs (mainly with cloves and cardamom), unexpectedly delicious Armenian tea with thyme and mint brought specially for the event from the Armenian mountains and, Japanese tea with a taste as mysterious as Japan itself (at least, from a Georgian perspective) all in one place!

The students completely outdid themselves and served traditional national delicacies to make the event even more remarkable. Shakarbura, Pakhlava, and Bamiya from Azerbaijan; Gata, dried fruits, whole green walnut jam, dogberry, and fig jam from Armenia; Matcha cake with Anko, Mitarashi-Dango (dumplings with sauce) and Konpeitos (candies) from Japan; Pistachios and Qottabs from Iran. Every contribution made an excellent addition to the large variety of tea.

The ISET community is privileged to enjoy such international cultural events quite often; the institute has a long tradition of special cuisine days when representatives of different countries present their national cuisine to the community. These events serve the bigger purpose of bringing students and faculty together, giving them the opportunity to learn more about different cultures and traditions. It is about building a firm and diverse community, a goal that ISET takes seriously.