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From the kitchen of his off-campus apartment, finance graduate student Peter Tamaska will be preparing his first-ever Thanksgiving dinner this year. The meal for two will be complete with carbonara (his speciality) and an old friend, reminders of his home in Budapest, Hungary and undergraduate time in the Netherlands.

“My whole idea of Thanksgiving comes from the series, ‘Friends,’” Tamaska said. “It seems like a cool holiday people spend with their family and close friends. There’s a big meal and gratitude, a good feeling.”

For most Syracuse University students, Thanksgiving break is a time to return home, spend time with family and friends and catch up on sleep. But that’s not the reality for all SU students, given airport delays, expensive flights and other factors keeping them on campus for the week.

Sophomore Ilya Melamed said last Thanksgiving break was a very difficult 10 days, but this year he’ll have other friends who are staying on campus for the break.

“It comforts my mind that none of my family members really celebrate Thanksgiving,” Melamad said. “It gives me peace of mind to know that I’m not actually missing out on much.”

With flights costing over $2,000 to go home to London for the holidays, Melamed said that it wasn’t “financially suitable” to leave for break.

Though he was disappointed to spend another break in his dorm room, he said this time will be different. This year, his mindset for enduring the break is that he’ll use the time off to study for exams and will be home in early December.

“I’m thinking of going to a market and buying a big ass turkey,” Melamed said. “A couple of friends and I who are staying will be having dinner with a big bird on the table.”

Melamed will be attending the International Thanksgiving Celebration at the JMA Wireless Dome on Thursday and sharing a meal on Thanksgiving in Milton Hall, where he and other international students will use the oven to cook a turkey. Last year, he didn’t do those kinds of activities.

This year, Melamad plans to start his own Thanksgiving traditions: watching American and European football.

Other SU students who spent last year’s Thanksgiving break on campus also learned from experience and are making some changes to their itinerary this year.

Gauri Sachan, a graduate student studying engineering management, hasn’t seen her family back home in India since beginning her degree at SU in August 2024.

Last year, she experienced her first Thanksgiving celebration in Goldstein Auditorium.

For Sachan, the dinner at Goldstein Auditorium was a subtle reminder of Diwali, which she said is one of her favorite holidays at home. To make this year’s Thanksgiving dinner feel more like Diwali, Sachan said that she’ll be making ras malai, her favorite Indian dessert.

“I was actually drawing parallels between the Thanksgiving dinner and Diwali,” Sachan said. “I was looking at families being together, how they are enjoying their kids and I was just missing my home and family.”

After her visit to the International Thanksgiving Celebration last year, Sachan learned what Thanksgiving is all about: turkey carving and bringing people together, she said.

Sachan spent most of the days off for Thanksgiving break last year in her apartment while her friends and roommates were away, but this year she’ll be spending the holiday in New York City with a friend and will “actually leave her house,” she said.

Other than the dinner on Thursday, Sachan spent last Thanksgiving break ordering food to her apartment, visiting Letchworth State Park and missing home.

“I was still trying to adjust to that whole cultural shift that I was experiencing,” Sachan said. “I’ll be much more comfortable with the break now, especially now that my friend is also coming, so we’ll get to see a lot of new places together.”

For the first half of the break, a friend who lives in NYC is going to visit Sachan in Syracuse. On Wednesday, Sachan and her friend are heading downstate to Brooklyn, where her friend will act as her personal tour guide of NYC for Sachan’s first visit to the Big Apple.

Sachan’s NYC bucket list includes watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, visiting the Empire State Building and seeing Vincent van Gogh paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This year, Sachan plans to take advantage of discounted items during Black Friday sales; something she regrets not spending more money on last year.

Similar to Sachan, Tamaska’s also going to visit NYC to see a friend for the first half of the break, and then will create his own Thanksgiving back in Syracuse. He plans on showing his friend from undergraduate school in the Netherlands around Syracuse after visiting the city.

“I don’t have that many expectations, to be honest,” Tamaska said. “I know that I’m just going to hang out with my friend and eat good food.”

In addition to making his own meal for the holiday, Tamaska plans to attend the International Thanksgiving Celebration on Thursday, like other students.

“I don’t really know what to expect,” Tamaska said. “ I hope that I’ll eat good food and meet some new people in my program or other international students.”

Some students, like freshman Aurora Mansilla, feel better about staying on campus over Thanksgiving break since she knows other international students will be doing the same. Originally from Madrid, Spain, Mansilla lived in both Houston, Texas and New York where she experienced Thanksgiving from 7 to 11 years old.

She’s going to take advantage of empty buildings and no classes by spending time with other students.

“I’m also hoping to get closer to and meet other international students that are staying and to unify with them because we’re the only ones on campus,” Mansilla said. “I’m grateful for all the new and different people I’ve been able to meet. I wasn’t expecting to become a part of so many communities so quickly.”

Mansilla said staying on campus for Thanksgiving break is something she’s grateful for. Like Tamaska, Mansilla hopes the International Thanksgiving Celebration introduces her to other international students and has the foods that she remembers eating, like pumpkin pie and turkey.

“One of the things that I would do when I lived in Texas was hang out with my family and friends for Thanksgiving,” Mansilla said. “But since I can’t do that here, I’m hoping to use this as an opportunity to get closer to other students and for a little community that way.”

Published on November 19, 2025 at 10:49 pm
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