Thanksgiving Recap

 Hi everyone! 

Happy first week of December! This semester just flew by, didn't it? 

Maddie and I on Thanksgiving 

First week of December means that thanksgiving just ended, and finals are approaching really quickly. As a little break from thinking about finals, I wanted to give you guys a little recap of my thanksgiving break. 

This year, I was fortunate enough to be invited to my friend Maddie's home in Colorado, and celebrate thanksgiving with her and her family. I have known Maddie for about 4 years now, and seeing her family again is always a good time. We flew from Seattle to Denver, Colorado on Wednesday and the festivities began bright and early on Thursday! 

Our charcuterie board appetizer

We started the day by getting desserts, dinner and appetizers made. As most of you probably know already, thanksgiving is famous for turkey dinner with all the best side dishes; mashed potatoes, green-bean casserole, deviled eggs, gravy, bread rolls, corn, fruit salad and more! And we can of course not forget about the desserts; the famous pumpkin pie, apple pie, cherry pie, all kinds of pie really. For appetizers, me and Maddie put together a charcuterie board with all different kinds of cheese and meats, paired with crackers, veggies, fruits and dips. Yum! 

When Thanksgiving was over, we had another very important holiday coming up the following day; Black Friday! We all went shopping together at a couple different malls, and snatched a couple good deals. During the black-Friday craziness, we stopped for lunch to celebrate Maddie's grandma's 80th birthday before the shopping continued. On our last full day in Colorado I stopped by my host-family's house (I was an exchange student in high school in Colorado and lived with a host family) to say hi and catch up, before we celebrated Maddie's mom's birthday. The festivities ended on Saturday night, as we had to get up at 3AM on Sunday morning to catch our flight back to Seattle. 

Flying over Seattle with Mt. Rainier in the Distance

All in all, I had a great time celebrating thanksgiving and birthdays in Colorado (thanks for bringing me, Maddie!) and I appreciated getting a little breather from classes and assignments. It was a much needed energy-boost before finals week. And speaking of finals week; remember to sleep, hydrate, eat and take breaks between study sessions. No-one works efficiently when they are sleep-deprived, dehydrated and hungry. 

Good luck everyone!

    -Silje 

Guest blog series: Paphawee and her Thanksgiving in Alaska🤩🤩

Hello everyone 🤗 ~ I hope you all did well on your finals and are ready for the break now more than ever 😎😏. It has been a really busy semester but we now come back to our guest blog series with Paphawee Chungtrakool 🥰. Even though Thanksgiving has been passed for a while, it's still really excited to read about Paphawee's experience in Alaska during this family time 😍. Not gonna make anyone wait any longer, this is her blog!

"This year thanksgiving I decided to take on an adventure with my cousin to visit his family in Alaska. I was way over packed because I was afraid that it was going to be so cold that I would shivered till my bones. Luckily, it wasn’t that bad. The trip lasted five days so a short but very fulfilling one nevertheless.

My cousin and I flew from Seattle Airport to Anchorage, Alaska which took us about three hours to get there. Once we got there, his mom and sister picked us up and we head to get supper at a restaurant called Firetap Alehouse. This is where I got my first legal drink!

The second day of break we decided to just sit back and relax at the house. My amazing aunt and uncle decided to cook a homemade formal thanksgiving dinner for me. It was definitely an awesome experience. The food was so delicious that I overate. The whole family, including me, wasn’t a huge fan of pumpkin pie so we had tiramisu instead.

The third day was a combination of shopping in  downtown Anchorage. The mall was called 5th Avenue Mall and my cousin stopped at a park where you used to play and hangout with his friends in the old days. I do have to be honest that coming from a very hot country, Thailand, and to see people ice skating on a frozen pond is very unreal and exciting as well.

This is the picture I took when we were driving around the neighborhood! The view is unimaginably gorgeous that my iphone definitely didn’t do justice.

This was a picture of me sitting by the world’s largest chocolate fountain at Alaska Wild Berry Products. The shop was very cute and cozy with many souvenirs. I bought back mugs and chocolate. The chocolate was very tastely! Especially the dark chocolate mint.  

The last place I went was a ski town called Girdwood. My cousin and I decided to take a Picture of a random snowmen. Girdwood is a beautiful small town where people from all over the world or people from Anchorage comes to have a mini escape from the real world. It is very peaceful and with beautiful mountains.

Thank you for reading my mini trip to Alaska!

Happy Holidays and be safe!!"

Merry X-Mas🎄and Happy New Year🎇🎆!!

My First American Thanksgiving

Hey everyone – Megan here!

Campus is winding down in spirit of the holiday season, and my fellow Lutes are saying their goodbyes before they head home for the week. Thanksgiving is only two days away, and it’s the holiday we usually look forward to the most during fall semester. Not only do most students get to reunite with their families, but Thanksgiving also means a lot of good food and shopping opportunities during the days after. Our International readers might not be too familiar with the concept of Thanksgiving or what exactly Americans are celebrating, so some explanation might be helpful.  

Thanksgiving is a holiday in the United States and Canada that is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of November. It’s in remembrance of when Pilgrims came to the United States in the 1621, and the Native Americans living there helped the Pilgrims plant crops by offering seeds and plants to help them survive. The fall harvest was a good one, so the Pilgrims hosted a feast to thank the Native Americans. This feast is known as the “First Thanksgiving”, and today Americans usually celebrate the holiday in family gatherings to express thankfulness.

The distance from Seattle to Pittsburgh - quite a long way!

Last year, Thanksgiving break ended up being my favorite memory of my first semester at PLU. Because my family lives in Norway, I couldn’t travel all that way just for a few days. Luckily, I was familiar with Thanksgiving prior to moving here, so I planned a trip to visit a good friend of mine, Gianna, in Pittsburgh  for the holiday. We met at a summer camp in Virginia a couple years ago and have kept in touch since then, but my trip to see her was the first time we’d seen each other in a year and a half! Pittsburg is on the other side of the country, so the trip ended up being a whole day’s worth of traveling. I left on Wednesday afternoon, and didn’t actually arrive in Pittsburgh until early Thursday morning!! (Which included long layovers and a 3-hour time difference, but still.) My philosophy professor had also assigned a 400-page book to be finished by the first day back, so I spent the majority of my travel drowning in literary analysis.

Me (left) and Gianna on our way to Thanksgiving dinner!

Once I landed, I met up with Gianna and it was such a nice reunion. She’s the kind of friend I’m not able to talk to all the time, but when we meet up it’s like nothing has changed. Her family took me in and made me feel at home right away, and I knew that I was in for a good weekend. The actual Thanksgiving dinner was held at Gianna’s aunts house, so we got to enjoy a lovely meal with her (super fun Italian) family and their dog. It was a blast! Thanksgiving food is also my favorite meal in the whole world, so the food alone was worth the trip. 

<3 Gianna's family dog <3

The Pittsburgh Skyline - beautiful both during the day and at night.

The rest of the weekend Gianna and I spent doing some shopping, touring Pittsburgh and going ice-skating. Overall, it just felt really nice to be welcomed into someone’s home and to take part in their traditions. Especially as an international student that was really special to me. I couldn’t have asked for a better holiday season last year, and I was even able to finish my long and not-so-exciting philosophy reading on the trip home!

Ice-skating around the Christmas tree!

From one of our walks around Pittsburgh - the weather was beautiful the whole time, which is usually not the case, apparently. 

For incoming international Lutes, and even for our current international students, I know that a lot of us are nervous about Thanksgiving break. Campus facilities close down for the majority of the weekend, so a lot of times we feel pressured to find someone to spend the holiday with. Although I would highly recommend finding a friend you can go home with over break, it is also important to keep in mind that it’s not realistic for everyone. PLU understands this as well, so they host Thanksgiving dinner on campus for students who don’t want to or can’t travel home. Friends of mine stayed on campus last year and had a blast – so don’t feel like you have to visit someone in order to have an “American Thanksgiving”. All in all, this holiday is all about showing love and gratitude to the people around you, which is possible to achieve no matter where you spend it.