For the past three days, I have immersed myself in an entirely different culture. I had the privilege of participating in the 30th International Noho Marae weekend. I stood next to other international students as we were welcomed by the Maori people to share their space and culture, and to become a part of their family, or whānau.

Putting all the International Noho Marae taught me into words seems to be quite the challenge. Every time I begin to think of an activity, I laugh or want to sing a song that I still don’t quite know the words to. The very first activity that took place was to be officially welcomed into the marae by the Maori people. Speeches were made, each followed by a song, and we — the international students — were officially welcomed. Then the formalities were over and the festivities began in the best way possible: with a good, old-fashioned potluck dinner. But this wasn’t just an ordinary potluck; we had food from Germany, France, Norway and India (to name just a few). Talk about an amazing dinner. The food was incredible and the company was even better.

Day two had more singing and even more food. All of us gathered in the marae and were taught titiorea, a stick game. Now, just imagine 100 international students trying to hit sticks on the ground at the same time. If you’re imagining sticks hitting the ground at different times with lots of laughter, you are correct. It was quite embarrassing how bad we were. Then, on top of trying to keep a beat, we had to start throwing the sticks to the person sitting across from us. As far as I know, no international students were harmed in the playing of the titiorea. It wasn’t pretty, but that wasn’t the point of the game. The point was to follow the beat, not just of the sticks, but of your heart.

This seemed to be a common undertone with everything we learned this weekend: there is so much more than what is seen on the surface. Singing was also a common theme during the weekend, and after we learned the stick game we were taught another song. This song was to be performed later in the evening by all of the international students during the celebration dinner. Learning the song and the actions that accompany it in two hours wasn’t easy, especially when it was in a language you don’t know, but we gave it our best shot and, personally, had a blast doing it.

After stuffing my face with more delicious food for lunch, it was time to get back to work. We were separated into groups, and the guys were off to learn the haka and the women, we are learned the poi. The poi is a ball on a string. Quite literally. Each of us made our own poi following the directions of our fabulous teachers. Naturally, we learned a song and, yes, you guessed it, the dance to the poi song. A little history on the poi: legend says that it was originally done by men to help them develop wrist strength so they could use certain hand weapons. Only highly ranked women were taught how to use the poi, and some could use up to four at a time. Today, women are taught the art of the poi. I may have hit myself in the head a couple of times, and hit some of the people around me, but I sort of got the hang of it.

After our long day of learning songs and dances and eating a lot, we attended a celebration with more singing, dancing and yummy food. The 30th International Noho Marae is a big deal. The Maori people have been opening their doors to international students for 30 years, teaching us their traditions and customs. That’s something to celebrate, so we did. The international students performed our group song, the women performed the poi and the men performed the haka. Everyone cheered and everything I learned this weekend came into focus. As I say with my new found whānau, I realized there would be people there for me all around the world. This weekend will be one that I will cherish for a lifetime.