Thanksgiving for international students

This week, students from across the U.S. will return home to their families and enjoy Thanksgiving dinners, football and the Macy's Day Parade. For international students, Thanksgiving is a foreign holiday. Still, while these students might not actually have a turkey-and-cranberry-sauce dinner, many will take the break as a chance to relax and catch up with their families, wherever in the world those families may be.

For junior Yang Jung Lee, taking part in Thanksgiving traditions means a chance to reunite with family members-but in a surprisingly exotic locale. Lee's father works for the Korean Embassy, which requires frequent travel. Fortunately, a trip brings him to this side of the planet at a time when Lee will be on break and will also have the opportunity to travel. Lee will meet up with his family in Panama. For Lee, the chance to see his parents gives the American holiday a whole new meaning.

A number of international students have decided to stay relatively local to celebrate. Originally from Taiwan, junior Chuan-Wen Chen attends Waseda University in Japan and is spending a year abroad here. Her aunt's family lives in Indiana, so Chen will travel there for the holiday. When asked about what she was looking forward to most, Chen joked: "I'm looking forward to having turkey…I guess." She feels the holiday will be a good time to reflect on the things she is thankful for, as well as relax a bit.

"I'm looking forward to having some vacation," said Chen, "And getting to see my relatives will be pretty nice."

Indiana may be the hotspot for international students this Thanksgiving, because it is also the destination of senior Chris Suhartono. He is originally from Indonesia but attends college in the Netherlands. This Thanksgiving is Suhartono's first in the United States, and he was invited to go home with a Wash. U. friend for the holiday. He sees Thanksgiving as a nice time for families to get together and looks forward to observing the holiday firsthand.

"It's an experience where I can see how an American family is [and] how they live," said Suhartono.

His trip will certainly be educational, but it has other perks, too. "I'm looking forward to good food and [a good] atmosphere," said Suhartono.

Junior exchange student Baptiste Picard of France will also be staying stateside for the holiday. He does not plan on celebrating Thanksgiving, at least not in the strictest sense. He will, however, be meeting his family in Chicago to spend some quality time together. Surprisingly, he likens Thanksgiving to Halloween, which is also not observed in France.

"Some people have tried [to celebrate Halloween in France], but it's just not a big deal," said Picard.

After all, the meaning of Thanksgiving can be a little bit of a surprise to foreign students. Freshman Adrian Lee had never heard of Thanksgiving before he came to the U.S. to attend a boarding high school in Connecticut. Back in his native Hong Kong, the holiday wasn't very well known. Lee commented that some of his Chinese friends find it funny and strange that (in their words) Americans celebrate a holiday about white settlers coming together with the native people they would later suppress.

Though the specifics of Thanksgiving might be new to most international students, certain aspects of the holiday recall customs from all over the globe. Turkish freshman Canan Altindas never celebrated Thanksgiving in Istanbul, but she can relate it to the popular Islamic religious holiday Kurban Bayrami. For the festival, families often sacrifice a sheep and donate two-thirds of the meat to the poor. They then give the sheepskin to charity organizations that use it to make clothes and other goods. The practice is actually rooted in the biblical story of Abraham, who sacrifices a ram to God. Though the Altindas family has abandoned the practice of actually slaughtering a sheep, they still celebrate Kurban Bayrami by giving food to the poor and eating a special meal as a family. Altindas learned about Thanksgiving from movies and TV and thought that, like Kurban Bayrami, it was a religious celebration. Though she won't be celebrating Thanksgiving dinner with her family, she is planning a trip to New York to take part in another Thanksgiving tradition-Black Friday shopping.