“In our back door, we have the United Nations of communities,” Marazita said. “We find the Michigan State community so international, so we thought, ‘Let’s bring wellness back to a community we love.’”

Recently, the couple decided to expand on their love of cultural internationality. Since June, Wanderer’s Teahouse has hosted several themed afternoon teas, each one with a different foreign flair.

“Let’s teach people that they can wander without ever taking a plane, without ever making a carbon footprint,” Marazita said. “What we do with our afternoon tea is we honor the British tradition of afternoon tea but with a twist, a wandering twist. We’ve done Irish afternoon teas, Russian afternoon teas, and now today we’re doing a Mid Eastern afternoon tea.”

In order to attend an afternoon tea, you must buy a ticket. Priced at $16 for adults and $8 for children, a ticket will grant you access to endless amounts of tea, a wide variety of scones and other pastries, and dessert and sandwiches to go along with the theme that day.

Because Sunday’s afternoon tea had an Arabian Nights theme, baklava, lamb sandwiches and other Middle Eastern appetizers were served.

For entertainment, there were performing story tellers and a belly dancer.

Miranda Sue Hartmann, artistic director of the All-of-us Express Children’s Theatre, supplied three actors from the theater’s production of “Scheherazade.”

Dressed in brightly colored Middle-Eastern style clothing and makeup, actors Breckan Erdman, an Okemos resident, Josh Golden, a Holt, Mich., resident, and Lillian Nash, a Lansing resident, performed a story reading from “One Thousand and One Arabian Nights” for the tea attendees.

“We thought (Belly dancing) is an ancient, beautiful art,” Marazita said. “Why don’t we bring it to the community? They may not have the means or the time at this time in their lives to go to the Middle East and appreciate it.”

Sally Backhaus is a member of the Habibi Dancers, a Middle Eastern dance troop from Lansing. Backhaus gave a unique belly dance performance during the afternoon tea.

“What people think of as belly dancing is usually more Lebanese or Egyptian or Turkish,” she said. “Because of the theme of this, we’re going to be doing more Persian today. It’s a completely different style.”

The eyes of the tea attendees lit up as they watched the performances while eating their desserts and sipping tea.

Veterinary medicine student Kristina Miller came to the tea with the owner’s family and is planning on coming to the next, which will have a Latin American theme.

“I thought it was really awesome. The belly dancing was really beautiful,” she said. “It was really amazing. I enjoyed it. The food was really delicious, and the tea was delicious.”