Celebrating Thanksgiving as a Non-American
The beloved country we are living in has many traditions. For most Americans, there’s nothing more normal than kissing someone at New Year’s Eve, celebrating July 4 or trick-or-treating on Halloween.
Coming from France, American traditions were just myths in all the shows I watched. Among all the popular shows I watched–which usually tell stories of American life, or trying to find love like in “Friends,” “How I Met Your Mother” and “Malcolm in the Middle”—I couldn’t miss the special Thanksgiving episodes.
Most of the time, those special episodes are all alike: who is going to host Thanksgiving, who is going to cook? And then the moral of the story which reminds us to be thankful for what we have.
Because of Hurricane Matthew, SCAD had to prolong our quarter. Due to Thanksgiving week, SCAD also chose to stretch our usual three days weekend into five, so students can have the possibility to go home for this important American holiday. Even if the quarter extension caused inconveniences—especially those who travel back to their home—we all had to answer to this question:
What am I going to do for Thanksgiving?
Many were invited to Thanksgiving by their American friends to celebrate the day with them. Such is the case of Tabitha Hanst, a second-year writing student, from Curaçao, who was invited by her friend, to Thanksgiving.
“I think it is pretty nice,” said Hanst. “It is nice to bring people together, to eat and bond.”
Estefania Alvarez, a third-year fashion and fibers double-major from Colombia will spend Thanksgiving at a restaurant, with her roommate.
“I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Colombia, so it is actually my first time celebrating it in America,” said Alvarez, “I went to an American high school in Colombia, so we learned about American history.”
However, not all international students are complete strangers to thanksgiving. Sabrina Hong, a third-year graphic design major from South Korea, grew up in Canada where she celebrated a Canadian Thanksgiving.
“In Canada, Thanksgiving is earlier,” said Hong, “but it is the same food.”
SCAD also invited students to eat a Thanksgiving dinner at dining facilities such as the Hive and JO’s.
Soon we’ll all know if the legends are true: is Thanksgiving turkey really going to be that good? Is the gravy really essential topping? And finally, does pumpkin really taste all that great in a pie?
Written by Scarlett Ruggiero.
Scarlett is a writing major, wine lover and cheese enthusiast from Paris, France. When she isn’t busy writing, she likes to wander around District’s quarter in search of new articles to write.
