Welcome party and barbecue party for students year CDC 2021

CDC 2021 students have gradually acclimatised to life in Germany and successfully vaccinated two doses of the Corona vaccine. As the situation in Germany continues to improve, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Bremser (Rector of the Sino-German Campus) and members of the CDC team (Dr. H. T. Tran-Thien, M. Sc. Minghui Tang, Wenjian Zhou) jointly planned a welcome party and barbecue for the CDC 2021 students. The event took place on 25.03.2022 in the Y-building of the University of Paderborn and was hosted by Prof. Dr. B. Riegraf (President of the University of Paderborn), Prof. Dr. T. Meier (Vice President for International Relations of the University of Paderborn), Prof. Dr. WG. Schmidt (Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences Paderborn) and staff of the various teaching and research groups.

Preparation

Every successful event requires thorough preparation. For this event we prepared a meeting room and an outdoor barbecue. For the evening barbecue, the CDC team ordered rolls, sausages, marinated barbecue meat (pork chops, chicken wings), vegetables such as peppers, cucumbers and carrots, fruit such as grapes and watermelon, and various snacks in advance to ensure a balance of meat and vegetables and a balanced diet. The CDC students were also very enthusiastic about the event and many of them took the initiative to help set up the venue, prepare the ingredients for the barbecue and transport the drinks. Ms Tang, a member of the CDC team, also brought flowers to decorate the venue. As expected, the preparations were successfully completed.

In progress

The event started promptly at 5:00pm. At the beginning, the guests and CDC 2021 students watched a film about Qingdao together, then followed by an opening speech by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Bremser, who welcomed all participants. Afterwards, the invited guest speakers made the welcome speech. The final speech was given by a representative of the CDC 2021 students who expressed his gratitude towards the College and his vision for the future. As the speeches came to an end, the exciting barbecue party began. To ensure that stomachs did not have to wait any longer, the grill masters had started grilling ahead of time. As the heat increased, the smell of grilled meat and sausages filled the entire barbecue area. The sausages were perfectly fried and the chicken wings and steaks were tantalisingly colourful and charred. Take a grilled sausage or a large pork steak and do it in a bun - a very classic German way to eat grilled meat. Besides the German classic, Dr. H. T. Tran-Thien, a member of the CDC team, also prepared small kebab sausages from China. Beer and mineral water were available, and fruit brought a different feel to the barbecue. Everyone lined up in an orderly fashion to get their grilled food. Then they gathered in groups around a table, eating, drinking and chatting, with laughter and joy. The laughter and conversations made us forget our worries, reduced our tiredness from studies. This strengthened the friendship between students, brought Chinese and German students together and promoted cultural exchange between China and Germany. The event lasted until about 9:00 pm, when the students first started to clean up, arrange the tables and chairs and pack the food.

The welcome party and barbecue were a great success. This event showed the warm welcome and concern of the CDC teams to the new CDC students. The new students got to know each other better. The event prayed the opportunity for the new students to meet new German friends as well as strengthen communication with teachers. Our CDC is looking forward to offering such welcome events for the next group of students as well. At the same time, we would also like to welcome more CDC students to Germany for further studies.