Thanksgiving Abroad

Although people choose to go abroad, sometimes it is hard to miss holidays at home while abroad. I know this can be especially hard for some students studying abroad in college. On the one hand, they wanted to broaden their horizons and learn more about other cultures, but on the other hand, by the time November rolls around, many students miss home and familiarity, including holidays like Thanksgiving.

So how do these people cope? Well, oftentimes students who go abroad meet other students from their own country and befriend them. Then, these students tend to get together for major holidays in their homeland. For example, I had one friend who studied abroad in Sweden during the fall semester. At Thanksgiving, her and eleven other Americans got together and had their own Thanksgiving feast. Each person brought their own traditional Thanksgiving side dish, such as sweet yams or cranberries, and the group worked together on cooking a turkey.

According to my friend, this meal took several weeks to prepare. Since they were in a foreign country, it was not easy to track down all the traditional Thanksgiving foods. They managed, but it did take some time, and it was a little costly. However, everyone chipped in to pay for the meal, and everyone had a good time.

But Thanksgiving is not the only holiday that seems to bring Americans together in foreign countries. When I studied abroad during the summer-also in Sweden-I met a lot of American students who wanted to celebrate the Fourth of July. We decided to have a BBQ (it seemed to fit), and we each bought a lot of beer and sausages to grill. There were no fireworks, and it did rain, but we all stayed outside and played a traditional Swedish game. So, in the midst of celebrating our native country, we also mixed in some traditions of the country we were studying in. And the best part was we mingled with other international students as well as Swedish students. So what was traditionally an American holiday became a full on international party for us.

A friend of mine who studied in Sweden the summer after me-I know, I know, I'm not exactly sure why Sweden was such a popular destination for me and my friends, but it is a great country-celebrated the Fourth of July at one of his Swedish friends' house. There was a mix of Swedes and Americans, and once it got dark (around 10 p.m.) there were even fireworks!

So I guess what I want to share is that it is ok to miss certain traditions from home while you are abroad. But the most important thing to remember is to make the most of your time abroad, and even if you do decide to celebrate your homeland's holidays, then try to incorporate other cultures-it's much more fun that way.