“Over the river and through the woods, to the Heritage Center we go!” may be the theme for some students who are staying at the U on Thanksgiving.
Many U students choose to eat with friends, extended family or at the RHA dinner instead of flying home so soon before the Christmas holidays.
“I can’t afford to fly home,” said Genevieve Smith, a freshman in music and psychology.
Smith lives in Maryland and will fly home for Winter Break, but not both holiday breaks.
For Thanksgiving dinner, Smith will go to her grandparents’ house. After that, she plans to go camping with friends in Moab.
For students who don’t have a place to go on Thanksgiving, the Residence Halls Association is serving a meal at 2 p.m. in the Heritage Center. This is the only meal the Residence Halls will be serving during the weekend, as the Chartwells cafeteria is closed from Thursday to Saturday.
They will serve yams, turkey, ham and “everything,” RHA President Dylan McDonald said. He estimates that around 50 people will come.
“A lot of international students come even though they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving,” McDonald said.
Angelina Joines, an exchange student from England, will spend Thanksgiving at a friend’s house instead.
“I’m excited; you see (Thanksgiving) in all the films, but I’ve never celebrated it before,” she said.
Joines’ friends joked that before she can eat dinner, she will have to reach inside the turkey and clean it out for the stuffing.
Many students who live in the Residence Halls are choosing to go stay with friends over the break instead of living in their dorm room, an activity that Whitney Seymour, a freshman in pre-nursing, described as depressing.
“When people know you’re not going anywhere, they ask you to come with them,” Seymour said.
She said she has had “too many invitations.”
For Greg Judd, a junior in political science, this is his first Thanksgiving away from family, so he will be eating dinner with friends.
“I have to bring the pumpkin pie,” Judd said. He said he won’t be baking it, but buying it from the grocery store.