As an international student from Sweden, I’ve never celebrated Thanksgiving before. For some international students, the holiday does not make much sense.

Some of us celebrated it the traditional American way, and others — like my friends and I — decided to wing it. The way the pilgrims originally did.

We started by coming together and deciding to have dinner to celebrate the holiday, because we are in America. We began to think of different ideas and realized that we had a gas powered grill in the back yard that we never used. Why not finally put it to good use? Our landlord was generous enough to lend us his propane tank, but with no gas. Therefore, we set off on a mission to find gas.

We drove around looking for gas stations where we could refill the propane tank. After many failed attempts, we finally found a place where we could buy gas. Hallelujah!

Then we continued our mission by going to Ralphs to find some food. But we were clueless.

We wondered through the aisles aimlessly, undecided, frustrated and hungry. Luckily, there was a very kind man working there. He gave us some advice about what to cook.

We ended up with mashed potatoes, a good tri-tip meat, garlic marinade, tomato and cucumber salad, with brownies for dessert. It’s not the traditional Thanksgiving fixings, but it was all we could get.

We all pitched in. My roommates did the most of the cooking, and I set the table. It’s best if I keep my hands as far away from the kitchen as possible, so that nobody gets hurt.

For some international students, it was a double holiday. Even though we did not have a turkey to eat, we had three Turkish international students who where also celebrating their own Muslim holiday. They explained that during this time, they sacrificed a goat to god and share the meat with friends and family.

I feel sorry for the goat, but I’m sure some people feel sorry for the turkey also.

One of the Turks started to say a prayer to be traditional, but we all just decided to cheers instead and dug in to the food.

After we ate, we had nothing to do. We usually party, but since it was a holiday there was not much open.

Someone came up with the idea to go to the big outlet in Camarillo, because the Black Friday shopping had started. We all piled into the car, put on some loud music and hit the road.
After consuming food, we felt that consuming merchandise was fitting.

After a few hours of chaotic shopping through hellish crowds, we came out victorious. It was almost three in the morning, but we felt the money we saved was worth the battle.

It may have been an unconventional Thanksgiving by American standards, but we international students came together with the help of the locals and celebrated the holiday the best way we knew how.

Just like the pilgrims did so many years ago.