Toreros Abroad: Feeling Thankful in England

Toreros Abroad: Feeling Thankful in England

Thanksgiving in England

Torero Life Abroad chronicles the life of a University of San Diego student as they participate in the study abroad experience. Follow Katie Moser's real adventures, anticipation, and experiences as she studies at St. Clare's in Oxford, England, for the fall semester. She is a third-year marketing and communication studies double major, involved in the Honors Program, Pi Beta Phi Fraternity for Women, and USDtv. This is the fourth installment of the series.

We’ve reached our eleventh week in Oxford and since it’s the middle of November, everyone is preparing for the next big holiday. That’s right: Christmas is already here. The streets are decorated with lights, stores have Christmas trees and decorations up, and everyone is prepping their Spotify playlists for the next month and a half.

It is  strange to be here during this time, in a place where Thanksgiving does not exist. As excited as most of us are for Christmas, there is a sense among the American students of “Whoa, hold on, we haven’t even gotten to Thanksgiving yet!” As we begin to realize that we will not be spending the holiday with our families as usual, a bit of homesickness has started to set in.

Since there are a significant amount of American students attending St. Clare’s, the school is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for us, complete with turkey, stuffing and pie. It will be nice to have everyone gathered that night, though I am sure I will be missing home (and my dad’s stuffing and my mom’s cranberry sauce). It will be interesting as well to see how St. Clare’s interprets our traditional feast (all I’m hoping is that the pie is good!).

We are all longing for a bit of home at this time, but being here enables us to partake in other cultures’ traditions during this time of year. England celebrated Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th, which led to a week’s worth of fireworks being set off around Oxford. The town put on a carnival that Saturday night, with rides, fireworks, and the biggest bonfire I have ever seen. It felt a bit like the 4th of July, with the fireworks, hot dogs, and people everywhere.

November 11th was Remembrance Day (we know it as Veterans’ Day), also known as Poppy Day. For weeks, people in Oxford were sporting red poppies on their lapels in remembrance of those who have died in war since World War I. St. Clare’s held a small observance for us that morning, where we learned a bit about the tradition of the poppy and held two minutes of silence.

The last holiday we will be recognizing comes from the Netherlands. There is a large group of Dutch students at our school, so St. Clare’s is celebrating Sinterklaas, which is their celebration of the birth of Saint Nicolaas. Typically their Santa Claus figure, Sinterklaas, arrives in the Netherlands on steamboat in November and spends December 5th giving presents to everyone. After learning so much about Dutch culture from my friends, I’m excited to share in a part of their celebrations with them.

I am definitely missing my friends and family around this time of year, but at the same time I am so incredibly thankful to be here. As I walk to school every day or drink tea with my friends on a Saturday afternoon or board a plane to a random city for the weekend, I think about how amazing it is that I get to have these experiences. I’m thankful to my parents for giving me this opportunity, to USD for helping me get here, for the incredible friendships and memories I have made, the knowledge I have gained about the world and myself, and even the sadness I feel about leaving here, because it means that this has been an amazing semester.

I cannot fully describe how thankful I am to be here, but I cannot wait to share all of my stories when I return home.


Explore this series:
Torero Life Abroad: Katie Moser and the Learning Curve of England
Torero Abroad: New Adventures and Exciting Trips
VIDEO: Adventures Abroad and Exploring Scotland
Toreros Abroad: Feeling Thankful in England
Toreros Abroad: The End of an Era
Toreros Abroad: A New Definition of ‘Home’