When students from across the University stepped off Walnut Street and into University President Judith Rodin's home, they hardly expected to walk into another world, much less six new worlds.
But that's exactly what they got. Rodin's third annual holiday party, held at her on-campus house, featured decorations, music and food and drinks from winter holidays around the world.
Event planners chose the six holidays to represent the diversity of backgrounds in the Penn community. The holidays and locations included the traditional five from years past -- Russian Chanukah, Christmas in Provence, Ramadan in Morocco, Diwali in India and Kwanzaa in Africa. Newly added to the list this year was Winter Solstice in Japan.
Rodin said she has carried on the tradition of holiday parties from previous University presidents. Past presidents have always had two separate parties -- one for University staff and one for faculty. Three years ago, however, Rodin decided to include students in the tradition.
"The house looks so wonderful decorated that we thought, 'Why not open it up to the students and the community, not just the faculty?'" she said. "It's a good study break for the students. It comes at such a high stress time, and it's nice to have an event like this."
Each room had an entirely different atmosphere due to the music and decorations. Students enjoyed barfi, laddoo and mint lemon-lime drinks amidst peacock feathers and red ribbons in the Diwali room, while others ate dried fruit and nuts in a room transformed with masks, dried grass and African ornaments in the Kwanzaa room.
Students also wandered into rooms with nutcrackers, various flowers and trees, colored glass and candles while eating foods ranging from green tea cake to havalah to crescent moon cookies.
Though most students said they were hard-pressed to pick a top choice room, some of the less adventurous stuck with familiar favorites.
"I like the Japanese room with the lilies," Wharton freshman Jennifer Jia said. "It has orange slices -- I always go by food."
But in addition to the delectable treats, Jia said the sneak peak at Rodin's house was equally enticing.
"I wanted to use this party as an opportunity to see the house," she said.
Other students, however, simply wanted to escape the cold.
"A fire alarm went off in Gregory [College House] and we came to get inside somewhere warm," College freshmen Laura Myers and Kaelsie Saravia said. "It looks great, and we're hoping Judy will let us stay here if our rooms burn down."
During the two-hour event, Rodin walked around the house and greeted students from every school and class with a festive smile, wishing them luck on their upcoming exams.
