International students and friends of the Cross Culture Club gathered Saturday night over Fall Break for a potluck dinner to celebrate culture and learn how to play Bunko, an American dice game.
Students from Korea, Croatia and France were among the crowd eager to learn this game of pure chance and to win one of the many prizes offered.
Keith Phinney, the director of the Cross Culture Club at the U, has been helping organize and execute activities like Bunko night for International students for the past year and a half.
These monthly gatherings are centered around giving foreign students an opportunity to see and participate in American cultural activities, some of which include Pioneer Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Christmas and-the most well attended activity-the celebration of Thanksgiving.
Phinney said that Bunko is a somewhat popular American game and it’s fun because it gives players a chance to enjoy themselves and get to know new people.
“It’s a taste of America, and it’s relational,” Phinney said.
The game is played in teams, which Phinney had rotating throughout the evening, so that all of the students met one another as they went around the room introducing themselves and sharing a fact about their lives.
When asked about their opinion of the game, most international students were distracted but enjoying themselves.
Bunko is a fast-paced dice game involving many people. It requires participants to keep track of the number of “chosen” numbers to get points, the main goal being to get the highest score.
“This is a good game because you don’t have to think much, you just have to concentrate on keeping track of points,” said Pierre Colyn, a post-doctorate physics student from France.
Everyone was a winner at the Bunko night and went away with prizes, which varied from beauty products to beanie babies to pens.
The Cross Culture Club is open to all students and has a variety of activities for international students and local ones who want to work with them.
For more information, visit the Web site at: http://www.utah.edu/crosscultureclub/ or go to the office, located at 232 S. University Street to sign up.
Kim PetersonAdam Keenan and Pierre Colyn try their luck at Bunko, a traditional American Game with a group of international and American students at the Cross Culture Club house Saturday night.