Thanksgiving for international students

Thanksgiving in Canada is an important holiday for all the citizens of the country, they get to share with their family and friends together over the dinning table various amounts of food. But the overall intention of the holiday is to share a moment with your loved ones.

As thanksgiving represent being thankful for having family and friends with who to share the moment. But what happens when you are new to a country? A new place, new lifestyle, new people, and traditions that at first you only saw in TV.

This is the case of many international students, that when they arrive in Canada besides getting the cultural shock that things are different than what they were back home

Now that they must confront the loneliness of a new country and even more so a holiday, they must take different decisions on what or howe to spend their time as migrants. One of the first things that these international students do, is find other common international students that would later become friends.

When they find other common people that are going, or went through, the same situations as them. Helps them to create a common ground that supports them to organize activities to celebrate thanksgiving, and other holidays, when needing the company of friends.

In the case of international student from Honduras, Sebastian Rubi, he had some ideas on how to celebrate his thanksgiving.

“Having dinner with my friends celebrating being thankful having like a small reunion or get together so each one of us brings something,” said Rubi.

The idea of sharing good moments with people that you hold close to yourself, as an international student moving from country to country and having to start all over again. trying to find new friends, places to have a good time or a house where to share the holiday.

In this case the idea of having a dinner with friends, it’s the idea of being thankful with the people that you considered that you’ve shared a better bond with. So that they could become part of your tradition, and later part of the yearly traditions that are meant to be shared with friends and family over a dining table.

But what happens when you haven’t had the chance to establish shared bonds with people in the same situation as yourself, you must come up with plans that will help you to be entertained through the long weekend.

Thanks to university organizations, not all international students had to spend the thanksgiving weekend at their residences or apartments. As international students from Honduras Andrea Escober puts it.

“Well, most of them assisted to an event today, it was posted by immigration Fredericton, and it had a bunch of school stuff to give the people a good opportunity to bond over since we are all away from home but what I heard it was a really nice experience and very welcoming like environment,” said Escober.

Along with this, other events like a neon party that included the involvement of DJs and traditional Mexican food was present this past Saturday in downtown Fredericton. This attracted the involvement of many international students from all over the world that reside in Fredericton.

At the end of the day, thanksgiving is about giving and being thankful for the friends and family that you get to have near you the whole year and you get to celebrate the holidays with them.

Or in the case of assisting to university events, you get the opportunity to meet new people and create new relationships with others that might understand your current situation.