Students Find Home for the Holidays

But for some students, Thanksgiving will not include going home to visit family, but rather finding ways to celebrate the holiday in Chapel Hill.

"It's my time to veg out because I don't have a lot of responsibility and people can't get a hold of me," said senior Minni Nauhria, a health policy and administration major from Raleigh.

People who live too far away from home to go back for a long weekend are finding that many people in the Chapel Hill area have opened their homes to share Thanksgiving with them.

"I'm going to have my first kosher turkey," said Myra Struckmeyer, a graduate student in medieval history from Holland.

Struckmeyer and Elsa Filosa, a graduate student in medieval Italian literature from Italy, both will go to a friend's house in the Chapel Hill area for Thanksgiving dinner.

Hee-yong Jang and Kyung-Won Lee, both freshmen from South Korea, also will be headed to a friend's house in Chapel Hill for dinner Thursday.

"It was kind of nice to have some Americans invite us to their meal," Lee said.

Students who remain on campus over break often find campus roads empty, parties stopped and a relaxing atmosphere, said Nick Jordan, a senior business major from Indianapolis.

He said that because Chapel Hill is a college town, many places around campus close when students go home for breaks.

"It's dead," Jordan said. "Restaurants aren't even open."

He said he only goes home once a year, for Christmas. "I never went home for Thanksgiving," Jordan said. "It's terrible."

This year Jordan is spending Thanksgiving with Marcus Trotter, a senior political science major. Jordan and Trotter, along with Trotter's sister and nephew, all are going to make part of the meal.

"(Trotter and I are) doing the turkey," Jordan said. "It's the man's job."

Many people said their parents would like them to come home more often.

Nauhria said that her mother offers to take her shopping if she comes home. "You never want to turn down free clothes," she said.

Senior computer science major Sarah Khanani said that she actually moved back home to Durham this year. The move keeps her close to campus, but she said she has the added benefits of saving money when her parents buy her gas and she isn't paying for campus housing.

"If my mom's not cooking, there's leftovers in the fridge," she said.

Junior studio art major Annie Stoller said that when she can't go home, she brings home to her, motioning to her younger brother, who had come to visit her from New Bern. However, she said, she usually has to go home to see her family.

"It's easier for me to go home than him to come here," she said.

Whether students are staying on campus for Thanksgiving break or heading home, most said they are looking forward to having time to relax.

Jordan said he looks forward to his break from school.

"I lay on the couch, drink beer, watch sports on television and do last-minute Christmas shopping."

The Features Editor can be reached at features@unc.edu.