Nijhoom Roy
Contributor
As a sister organization to the International Student Cultural Organization (ISCO), Tea for Troy is a University organization that introduces students to tea cultures in different countries, not only through weekly events, but also through an annual formal.
Tea for Troy held its third annual British Tea Formal on Thursday, April 7, at Bush Memorial Baptist Church.
“Every other week, Tea for Troy spotlights a country with strong tea culture,” Morgan Jackson, staff adviser for Tea for Troy from Greenville, said.
“The event is basically for all the students to get together and have fun in a slightly different fashion,” Jackson said. “I think a tea formal is closely related to British culture so we do the British Tea for Troy more ceremoniously.”
Jackson said that they had American finger foods with British tea and cookies to “entertain everyone’s taste buds.”
“The students put great effort to arrange this event,” Jackson said. “They did everything starting from decorating the place to selling tickets to picking up the food.”
Jackson said she hopes that the event was a success and that all the attendees had a great time.
Anna Kathryn Carter, a senior elementary education major from Decatur, serves as the president of Tea for Troy.
“We chose the British Tea for Troy to be eventful because British is fancy,” Carter said. “Lots of people know about the British culture, and it has a good tradition with tea. The theme wasn’t completely British, but we tried to have a few British-looking props, British flag, tea with sugar and cookies and a photo booth.”
According to Carter, the event had British snacks and desserts the first year.
“They were slightly more expensive, and we had Sodexo provide us with the food,” Carter said. “So we moved to more traditional snack foods because they were easier to make and people could eat more for less.”
According to Carter, they moved the British Tea Formal away from campus so they could have a larger location, make the food themselves and lower the ticket prices so more people could come. The tickets were priced at $5 instead of $15, which was the original price.
“While people ate, we played music by U.K. artists, namely The Beatles, Queen and Elton John,” Carter said.
Carter also said that the event is more about dancing and having fun rather than learning specifically about the British culture.
“We had swing dancing, and I loved it,” said Carter. “The interesting thing about this was that we pair boys and girls during the dance so a lot of people meet new people.”
“Swing dance and British tea brought me here,” Mona Keasara, a sophomore computer science major from India, said.
Keasara said that she enjoyed the setting, lighting and dancing at the event. She also said that she got to meet many new people and that the event gave her an opportunity to socialize.
“I loved the food, biscuits which go perfectly with the tea, and of course, the dance,” Keasara said. “I have learned new moves and swing dance isn’t certainly as easy as it looks.”
“This is my last semester at Troy, and I would like to take a lot of memories with me,” Seema Dhital, a graduate computer science student from Nepal, said. “This event is surely going to be one of them.”
According to Dhital, “the food was great, and the event was quite remarkable.”
“I loved the atmosphere,” Dhital said. “Everyone is so well-dressed, and I also enjoyed dressing up for this event.”
Dhital said that she got to meet a lot of new people that she had not met before and that it was an excellent opportunity to learn a new form of dance.
“I couldn’t keep up with the steps properly, but I still kept on moving and dancing,” Dhital said. “I wish I could dance as well as the others.”
According to Dhital, the event became more interesting when they brought in some African and other forms of dance.
“I got to learn a lot about different cultures and their dance through this event,” Dhital said.
Tea for Troy holds formal
