After a couple months away from family and friends, many students are more than ready to go home for the holidays. But sometimes what counts as “home” for out-of-state ambassadors and international students is different.
Thanksgiving is less than a weeklong break, which means students living a long distance from home might not be as inclined to leave campus as they might after Fall Semester. However, according to Jneanne Hacker, the associate director for contract management, only 57 students have currently indicated that they will be staying at Ohio University for the holidays.
Surprisingly, about 40 of the 57 students staying in dorms are from Ohio, Hacker said, because many of the international students use this break to travel the United States and stay with their host families off campus.
Allison Navlyt, a wildlife and conservation biology major, will make the home trek to Illinois, about eight to nine driving hours away.
“We found a really cheap flight,” Navlyt said. “If we wouldn’t have found that flight I would have been staying here.”
Lily Pattinson is an international student coming to OU from the U.K. to study American politics, literature and history. She will not be going home for Thanksgiving break because of the distance, time and money it would take for her to travel there. However, she is still planning on creating her own family holiday with one of the girls she lives with.
“I feel like it’s Christmas minus the presents,” she said regarding the American holiday.
Lily plans to stay in contact with her family via iMessage along with video call services such as FaceTime and Skype.
Many students do end up leaving their home away from home — Athens, Ohio — but “home” is not always where they grew up with their family. Sometimes home might not be the place where a person grew up, but a friend or close relative’s house.
Each student has his or her own set of differing circumstances, but one thing that everyone has in common is a desire to come together for the holidays.
If students remaining in the dorms seek out resident assistants, they can more effectively plan holiday gatherings for those on campus, Hacker said. She added that OU still has accommodations available at Cady Hall.
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