Students at Masters come from all over the world, but when Thanksgiving break comes around, some choose to stay. As an exclusively American holiday, international students do not experience Thanksgiving unless they remain in America.

Senior Nurilya Sattybayeva boards from Kazakhstan and last year was her first Thanksgiving. Sattybayeva stayed with her Aunt’s friends, some of who are Russian and others American. This year she celebrated Thanksgiving again with her Aunt and her Aunt’s friends.

“It wasn’t very American because we have different nationalities, and actually most of them were Russian so we had Russian food and American food, so we tried to combine it and make it like an international table,” Sattybayeva said.

The idea of Thanksgiving as being with friends and family and giving thanks for everything one has is universal.

Junior Gabby Bavarro hosted senior and international boarder Patrick Lee for eight days of the Thanksgiving break. Although Lee, like other international students, had learned about the holiday from movies or textbooks, and had spent one Thanksgiving previously in America, Bavarro found herself introducing him to traditions not often taught in history books.

“He didn’t know what the Thanksgiving Day parade was,” Bavarro said. “My family watches the Thanksgiving day parade every single year, so we watched it with him and he felt like it was a new, interesting thing.”

Lee said, “I learned about family gathering, because, at least in my family, we didn’t see this as very important, but coming here I see that family gathering for thanksgiving is especially important.”

The concept of giving back allows the holiday to be celebrated easily by any nationality, however the idea of having a classic “American Thanksgiving dinner” makes being in the U.S. during this time of year something unique.

“I always saw in the movies how Thanksgiving is such a really big deal in America,” Sattybayeva said, “So I always thought ‘I want to experience that’.”