A Holiday Break

It was feeling so good after turning in all my homework and finishing all the exams before a long enough holidays arrive this week. There were countless times that I worked on essays and exams over nights in the last past weeks. Sometimes, I just wanted to give up, or I thought I could not insisted on writing and studying exams anymore. I did not know how to adjust myself. But I was not willing to give up in an easy way that I was not easily gone though this semester so far. I did not know what kind of power pushed me forward to write and study. I felt suffocative that school work gave me too much pressure. The feeling was like I had been holding my breath in water for a long time, and I came up all of a sudden. I can breathe again. Anyway, I am so glad Thanksgiving arrived in time. I can have a long enough rest in the holidays, and it is also a good time for me to make adjustment for the upcoming homework and exams. So Thanksgiving should be the most expected holiday for me this year.

I am expecting the holiday because it will be my second Thanksgiving here in the United States. Last year, I went to a Chinese church for a meal on Thanksgiving in Tucson, and it was also the first time to taste turkey. Chinese people do not have the holiday like Thanksgiving, so I had no idea about it last year. I did not know what the holiday means, and I did not know what and who to thank for. Probably, the traditional foods, like turkey, cranberries, and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving are the most attractive and mysterious for me.

After a year of study in the United States, I learned a lot about local traditions and customs, especially holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving is a holiday that tribute to Native Americans in early ages. It is a story about the very first immigrants from Great Britain to the North America. After a long trip from Europe to North America, about half British immigrants of that ship died because lack of water and food supply during that trip. Fortunate enough, there were still some British immigrants boarded America successfully. They were hungry and exhausted so much when they saw aboriginal Indian for the first time. Beyond their expectation, Indian people did not fight with them, but gave them warm reception after their boarding. That is why the government suggested November 26th is the dates of Thanksgiving in order to tribute the relationships between white people and Indian people.

As a foreigner in the United States, I feel lucky enough to learn so many things that I could not learn when I was living in my motherland. It is not simply a knowledge that I can gain from books or somewhere else. But it is so specific that I should experience physically by myself.