International students experience Thanksgiving
While most of students went back home to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with their families, many international students were unable to make a return journey. Instead, they experienced Thanksgiving in the American tradition with their friends and friends’ families.
Lucila Carminatti, a freshman majoring in political science from Argentina, said she was very excited to experience Thanksgiving traditions with her friend and her family. Carminatti left for Nashville on the Tuesday before the holiday with her friend, Katherine Grace, who is currently attending University of Tennessee in Knoxville. As soon as she arrived to her friend’s house, her big family warmly greeted her with hugs and smiles.
The first thing she did with the family was eat an American Thanksgiving dinner. Her friend’s dad jokingly warned her beforehand that there was going to be a lot of food on the table, and she might gain some weight. Carminatti tried roasted turkey, mac and cheese, pumpkin pie and other various Thanksgiving foods.
After finishing the enjoyed homemade dinner, she participated in the dessert competition that the family decided to have this year. She baked a bacon pie with caramel crème cheese icing. After helping other family members and getting help from them, she successfully baked the pie, which helped her win the competition with a $10 iTunes gift card.
During the stay at her friend’s in Nashville, she said she enjoyed every single moment of the holiday, and felt home thanks to the warm-hearted family. Now, Nashville has become her favorite city to visit in the United States.
“I enjoyed every single moment during my stay in Nashville,” Carminatti said. “I was really grateful to have this opportunity to experience real American Thanksgiving.”
There were several international students who had to stay on campus for the holiday. After the campus became calm and quiet, the international students who stayed on campus got together and caught up with each other talking about their lives in the United States.
On Thanksgiving, Solenne Dolley, an exchange student from France, went to her roommate’s family’s house in Knoxville to have Thanksgiving dinner.
“The food was very different from what I normally eat, so it was a little bit hard to enjoy the food for me,” Dolley said.
Instead of letting an opportunity pass them by, International students on MC decided to experience American traditional Thanksgiving. Since they did not have the holiday in their home countries or the version they did have back home was quite different from the American, they had a valuable experience and learned another new American tradition.