International Student Experience Blog: Thanksgiving in California
David Hall, an international exchange student from the University of Leeds, shares his experience of spending a traditional American holiday with a new friend and his family.
I’m David, an international student from the United Kingdom and one of the Global Ambassadors, as well as Vice President of the International Education Exchange Council (IEEC), the international club on campus. I am spending this year studying at SSU away from my home university, Leeds, and as of November, I had been in the U.S. for about four months.
I was lucky enough to spend my Thanksgiving break in LA with my dorm mate, Anthony, and his family, the Orsatti’s, who very kindly invited me to stay. I stayed in a relatively small city called ‘Simi Valley’ just outside LA, which roughly translates to “windy” valley in Chumash, a Native American language. Let’s just say it was a very windy place! But nonetheless, a very beautiful and stereotypical Californian city, with palm trees in abundance and all year round hot summer weather. After landing in Burbank airport Anthony’s parents greeted me with open arms and were very friendly. Anthony and I stayed at his grandparents’ house, home to the infamous grandma Orstatti’s toast and a large stock of Jimmy Dean sandwiches.
Like most grandparents, she loves to cater to her grandchildren with endless amounts of food. Grandma Orstatti was keen to provide us with scrumptious food from the very moment we arrived. At this point on my first day staying there, I could not wait to see what was in store for the Thanksgiving dinner in two days, as Grandma Orsatti was already making lengthy preparations. I had never experienced a Thanksgiving dinner before, and Anthony was very keen to show me a “true American thanksgiving”. Grandad Orsatti was also a very lovely character that deserves a great mention, with his wine bar always keen to serve us alcohol. Both of them were really excited to have an Englishman in their house, telling me all about their trips to the United Kingdom and stories of many-er time ago.
After really hyping up British food and the iconic Yorkshire Pudding of my home county, Yorkshire, I was set the task of cooking some for all 28 guests of the extended Orsatti family and friends. In a panic, I rang home at 2am my parent’s local time (Greenwich mean time (GMT) -7), to ask my mum how to actually make them! I really didn’t want to mess up in front of such a large group of people on a very special American celebration. I was feeling the pressure. In the end, they were a real success and my adopted American family couldn’t get enough of Yorkshire’s essential piece of weekly Sunday dinner!
Overall, it was an absolute pleasure to be part of a huge nationwide tradition and share such a unique experience that I’ve never had before, with such a wonderful and welcoming family. I will forever be in debt and the memories will last a lifetime.