An International Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving can be a lonely time for international students all around the country. It’s the time of year where we eat takeout while scrolling through our social media accounts looking at the enticing home-cooked meals our American friends are sharing with their families. Fortunately, thanks to my Faculty Head of House Dr. Cone, and his wife Mrs. Cone, I avoided a Thanksgiving spent in solitude.
My day started early. REALLY early. Waaay too early for any college student to be awake during a school holiday. I woke up at 6 am to get ready for the Boulevard Bolt, a 5-mile race with 9000 participants that raises money for the homeless community in Nashville. I had signed up to run with the Cones and after zero hours of training and a night of preparation that consisted of art film at the Belcourt theatre and Chinese take-out, I successfully completed my first ever 5 mile run!
Later in the afternoon, after taking a well deserved nap, I had the opportunity to have a real Nashville family Thanksgiving meal. Kim, one of the chef’s that I work with in Campus Dining at Kissam, invited me to her place for a delicious meal. I knew the food would be good since I’ve tasted her cooking before, but this meal was even better than I expected.
Finally, I went to the Cones’ place for a divine Thanksgiving dinner. I had a great time with my Murray House family, including past Murray students who loved the house enough to come back for Thanksgiving during their senior year. This dinner reminded me of the diverse campus we have, as students from six countries on four continents sat down to share a meal together! To end off the night, I watched a movie with my roommate in the Murray Seminar Room.
I had an amazing introduction to Thanksgiving – and while I admit that having two massive meals that included several helpings of turkey, stuffing and assorted pies won’t help much in my effort to avoid the freshman 15 – it was definitely all worth it.
If you have any questions regarding life at Vanderbilt please hit me up! I’d love to help wherever I can, and if I can’t, it would still be great to get to know you.