A Day with International Women in an International City

zulekha

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• Media and Communications
• Arts and Culture
• IWD2012

Picnic Brunch

This year on International Women's Day I am in London, the most international city in the world. So I planned to celebrate this day with all my classmates from the Media and Communications Group, University of Westminster by organizing a picnic. I was actually inspired by a friend of mine from Pakistan, who did this every year in Islamabad where the women got together with their kids to celebrate IWD. So I thought the time and the venue is just right to organize a truly international event.
I got down to work gathering names, email ids, mobile numbers and then circulating the invitation. All the girls voiced their excitement when they were invited and St. James Park, London was chosen as the venue. Keeping an eye on the unpredictable London weather I posted daily weather updates, sending bulk emails to everyone reminding them about the picnic. We decided as 8th was a weekday, the coming weekend would be perfect for a picnic. 10th of March was chosen because the weather was supposed to be sunny that day. Me and three of my flatmates set out early morning with our picnic stuff. I was carrying a large IKEA bag with food, sheets , token gifts etc. expecting at least that 20 girls would be attending out of the 35 that had been invited. I had planned a treasure hunt and some other games as well.
The sun was supposed to come out at 9 o' clock but sadly that did not happen. Arriving at the park we waited for a long time but sadly only three more girls came so we had our picnic and then decided to look for the eggs that were hidden in the park as part of the Big Easter Egg Hunt (link at the end) and then took some photos of all of us with one egg. The most interesting aspect was that three girls were from China and two from Taiwan.
Even if there were only seven of us we had a wonderful time. Next year in March all of us would be back in their own countries but this one day will be etched in their minds for decades to come.
Even if all the girls did not come it was a day worth remembering and cherishing. I get to celebrate each day here in London with a truly international, vibrant and diverse group of women who are from different countries, cultures and background but we as women share the same trails and tribulations as women.
http://www.thebigegghunt.co.uk/