As a student whose home is situated over 2,000 miles away from Pomona’s campus, I can’t go home for Thanksgiving without shelling out over $500 in a roundtrip ticket, so I’m staying in California for Thanksgiving. For those of you in a similar predicament, fear not, because you can still celebrate Thanksgiving albeit probably differently from how you used to. Here are some options for you:
1. Visiting nearby (or relatively nearby) relatives or friends for Thanksgiving: Some students are fortunate to have people they know (or even Pomona friends who happen to live in SoCal) who live in a somewhat accessible location from Pomona who are nice enough to host them for Thanksgiving. For some students, those people are nice extended family members whom they haven’t seen in a while and who would be glad to cook for them. For me, it’s my friend in Pasadena who would be glad to host me because neither she nor her apartment-mates know how to cook anything other than macaroni and cheese. Just make sure that you bring your hosts a little something, even if it’s not a whole turkey (and no, your winning smile does not count)! Pie (even store-bought–shh!–is fine) is usually a safe option, because you can never have too much pie. Really.
2. Dean Feldblum: You’ve probably heard about this from many e-mails and posts around campus, and that’s because this is a great option! I can’t speak from experience since this is my first Thanksgiving here in college, but according to the e-mails, she’s having a lot of good food that fit many dietary restrictions and she screens a movie that’s possibly still in theaters (Dean Feldblum, if you’re reading this, I think the student body would really appreciate Catching Fire!). RSVP by sending an e-mail to RSVPStudentAffairs@pomona.edu. Just remember to bring her pie, because deans like pies too. Really.
3. Dinner with a professor: If you don’t want as big of an event as Dean Feldblum’s but you’d still like to use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to bond with a faculty member, then this option would be perfect for you. If you’re interested, then sign up by e-mailing nweingarten10@gmail.com, claire.teitelbaum@gmail.com or mdw02010@mymail.pomona.edu.
4. Dinner by yourself: Hey, there’s no shame in alone time with yourself if that’s what you want! You don’t even have to cook for yourself if you don’t want to. You could try to find a restaurant that’s open on Thanksgiving. You just might have to have an early dinner though, because it’ll probably close early. You could try to cook for yourself, though. Our dorms do, after all, have kitchens that should be used sometime. Just make sure you get your ingredients before all the stores close though, or else you’ll be forced to go to the one dining hall that’s open for the entire consortium (and even that has limited holiday hours).
So those are my suggestions for how to spend your Thanksgiving if you’re not going home. Feel free to comment with more suggestions. Happy (Week Before) Thanksgiving!