NEWBERRY — Thanksgiving is a holiday that’s all about family. But what do you do if you’re thousands of miles from home, and you can’t make it home and back within the five-day Thanksgiving holiday?
For Newberry College’s international students, who represent more than 16 countries, it means you have to adapt. Most of them use the five days of Thanksgiving break to travel or see friends, and wait until winter break to go back home and be with their families.
For instance, tennis players Richard Zeh of Germany, Marko Seculic of Serbia, and Fernando Tous of Spain are planning a road trip to Los Angeles, where they will stay with some of Zeh’s friends. “We’re not from here, so we don’t celebrate the holiday,” said Tous. “We just us it as a break from studying to hang out.”
Soccer players Lucas Ferreria and Johnny Leite plan to travel to Rome, Ga., to visit with friends from their native Brazil. Golfer Harry Bolton, an Australian, will visit North Carolina to see another Australian he befriended during a tournament earlier in the year.
Brad Dixon of England and Mario Stojkoski of Macedonia will head to Charleston; Dixon will visit his friend Juan Villa Bailey of the soccer team, while Stojkoski will see his girlfriend, Newberry graduate Chelsea Taylor.
Christmas break, which lasts Dec. 11 through Jan. 13, will give international students time to head home to be with their families.
According to Ferreria, Christmas in Brazil is similar to Christmas in the United States. He plans to spend a lot of time with his family, whom he hasn’t seen in more than a year. He also plans to spend New Year’s on a beach near his house.
Seculic described his holidays in Serbia as “a different celebration every day.” He and his family are Greek Orthodox, so they have holidays for all of the saints as well as Christmas Day. They also observe a Serbian New Year, meant to recognize the positives and give thanks for the previous year instead of celebrating the upcoming year.
Spain is only a brief stop for Tous, who said he will visit a friend in Dubai before heading to France for New Year’s.
Bolton said Christmas doesn’t change much between the United States and Australia. The biggest difference to him is that it will be summer at home and warm. Bolton said Christmas doesn’t remind him of snow or a sleigh, but the beach and a good tan.
In England, Christmas is much the same as in the United States, but another holiday, Boxing Day, is observed Dec. 26. Dixon described Boxing Day as a day to have fun and have a few drinks with your family while enjoying some English Football.