Photo Illustration by Lilly Chapa

As students drive home to visit their families and friends for Thanksgiving, many international and exchange students are finding ways to celebrate Thanksgiving break in a different way.

Mayra Arauco, a second-semester exchange student from Bolivia studying economics, will be staying in Norman over Thanksgiving break.

“I might be having dinner with an American family,” Arauco said. “It’s someone I know from the international office who asked me to have dinner with her and her family and experience the American way.”

Arauco said this is the first time she has been in the U.S. while it was Thanksgiving.

“Some people in Bolivia also celebrate Thanksgiving, even though it’s an American tradition. But it’s very well-known worldwide,” she said.

Arauco said she has never celebrated this tradition.

“I know it’s a great opportunity to be with family and those that you love,” Arauco said. “I’m excited to see how it goes that night.”

International student Youssef Maher said he has been here since the beginning of the semester and has also decided to stay in Norman over Thanksgiving break.

“It’s a pretty cool occasion,” Maher said. “I’m from Egypt, and I’m Christian. We have the date on our Christian calendar, but we don’t really celebrate it back home. We pay more attention to Christmas and other holidays.”

Maher said he will probably have dinner with some of his international friends on Thanksgiving, but he said they aren’t planning on doing anything special for it.

Other OU exchange students plan to take advantage of their Thanksgiving break to travel in the United States.

“I’ll be going on a trip with my friends,” said Ha Eun Kim, a first-semester exchange student from South Korea. “We’re going to Houston; there are five of us going.”

Kim said they will be shopping and seeing the city and the beach there.

“We won’t be celebrating Thanksgiving,” she said. “We’re all international students, and we don’t really think Thanksgiving has that much importance in our own country. It’s just a trip for us.”

Kim said they do have Thanksgiving back in her country, but they don’t really celebrate it.

Esther Eggink, a first-semester exchange student from Holland, said she and a friend are in California for the break visiting another friend.

“We will spend some time in San Francisco and then drive to Los Angeles and back,” she said.

Eggink said they will be going to a friend’s house to have dinner there for Thanksgiving.

“I think it [Thanksgiving] is really special and really American,” she said. “It’s an overload, and I think it’s really cool to experience it because it’s so American and cultural.”

Eggink said there is nothing like Thanksgiving in her own culture, and she said she thinks it’s cool to experience a completely American tradition.