By Beverly Wakiaga
Thanksgiving is right around the corner. People across the country will either be traveling or opening their doors to spend time with family. Some of Quinnipiac’s international students will have that same opportunity to visit family, while others will have to choose between staying on campus or accepting invitations from their friends or roommates to their house for a turkey dinner.
Gregory Hardman
For those who choose not to spend their break on campus, they either spend the break with family members or with friends. Gregory Hardman, a film and English double major, was born in America and spent his early years here. Hardman also grew up and went to high school in South Africa. When he was accepted into Quinnipiac, his parents decided to move to Vermont. Hardman will be spending his Thanksgiving break in Vermont.
Similarly, Miriam Monteiro, a graduate student from Cape Verde, an island off the coast of West Africa, will be spending her Thanksgiving break with her family in New Haven.
Miriam Monteiro
“Dinner. A lot of turkey. Cousins. Just pretty much spending time with family,” Monteiro said of how she plans on spending Thanksgiving.
Alessandro Woodbridge, a 21-year-old management major from the United Kingdom had originally planned on staying on campus to focus on his work but he will be having Thanksgiving dinner with a friend and his family.
Alessandro Woodbridge
“(My friend) is a very sweet lad,” Woodbridge said. “He lives in New York but he has family an hour away from here. So I’ll be eating and dining with them.”
According to Abbie O’Neill, the specialist for student engagement, around 21 students will be staying on campus during this year’s Thanksgiving break. One of them is junior Konstantin Khvan. The finance major from Kazakhstan says the break is too short to fly more than 20 hours to go home.
“Quinnipiac provides you with housing for the whole week for free. Which is really nice, they don’t kick me out,” Khvan said. “It’s really expensive to go home for just one week plus just because of the trip you will lose three days. Two days when you go there, and one day when you come back.”
During his freshman year, Khvan stayed with a distant cousin that lived in New York, however, he didn’t want to be an imposition on them and has been staying on campus during the week off.
Konstantin Khvan
“Pretty empty,” said Khvan of the campus during Thanksgiving break. “It’s pretty empty, but it’s liveable.”
The Department of Cultural and Global Engagement often plans shopping trips and excursions for students who choose to stay on campus or put students in contact with a host family so that students can get to experience the Thanksgiving holiday. Members of the department are usually still in their office and offer students the chance to stop by and talk to them if they get bored.
This year, the department is not offering any programs or trips for those left on campus. Students who choose to stay on campus will also have to face the shorter hours of certain facilities and resources on campus being limited due to the holiday.
“I’m planning to buy a lot of groceries for the week and stay on campus, not really many plans, ” Khvan said. “I might be visiting New York on a day trip but that’s still under consideration.”