Feb 23, 2012 | 02:54
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Nov 22, 2011
International Bruins band together to celebrate their first Thanksgiving
Jan Haraslin, a visiting scholar from the University of Hamburg, has plenty in his life to be thankful for — "a great family, wonderful friends and all the nice people I’ve met around here," he said thoughtfully. "I’m really satisfied with my life."
There is one thing, though, that the political scientist from Bratislava, Slovakia, has sorely missed out on: He has never experienced "one of the most important festivals of American life," he noted.
That will be rectified today when Haraslin joins more than 200 other international students gathering en masse at Bradley Hall for a sumptuous Thanksgiving feast and potluck, thanks to the UCLA Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars.
Tasting a pumpkin pie will be a "first" for a lot of international students.
As the quintessential American holiday tradition, Thanksgiving is something UCLA’s large contingent of international students and scholars is eager to experience —especially the roasted turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, a dessert that Haraslin said he has never tried. "Is it pumpkin cake?" he asked tentatively.
"A lot of them have never tasted stuffing before or even seen a whole cooked turkey," said Kelley Cobb, a Dashew Center program associate and chief organizer of today’s potluck dinner. "We get a lot of questions about where the holiday comes from and why we eat certain foods on this day. So we’ll give them a little introduction to Thanksgiving. … What we like to emphasize is that this is a day to give thanks for what we have."
Drawing the largest crowd of celebrants since the Dashew Thanksgiving tradition began three years ago, this year’s feast will feature turkey with all the trimmings from UCLA Catering. Table decorations will include, for each diner, a kindergarten-style hand cut-out resembling a turkey on which, Cobb said, "we’ll ask them to write down everything they are thankful for. We’re trying to give them a feel of what the holiday is really like."
Helping to create this warm ambiance will be scores of volunteers, including other international students and many returning UCLA students who had a great experience themselves while studying abroad. "They want to reciprocate for the way they were treated in their host countries," Cobb said.
The first Thanksgiving dinner (above) hosted by the Dashew Center in 2009 drew about 50 international students and scholars to the Los Angeles Tennis Center. Today's event will be attended by more than 200.
The Dashew Center staff was not at all surprised by the large number of international students who signed up for the dinner. Nearly 2,000 new students and scholars from around the world participated in orientation last September. "All of our programs are growing," Cobb said. "We offer at least one program a week — field trips, outings, social events. And every single one of them is sold out within a day. There’s a huge demand. These students very much want to get out and try new things and experience our culture" — including the center’s popular Super Bowl Party.
Awhile back, the center used to find host families each year to take students into their homes for a Thanksgiving meal. But the practice was halted because of potential liability, Cobb explained. The center lacked the staff to properly screen all the host families that were needed.
To give today’s meal the feeling of "family" with an international flavor, diners will each bring along a potluck dish that represents their national cuisine. That’s a Slovak apple streudel for Haraslin, who is finishing his master’s thesis on the international relationship between the United States and the European Union.
The food will be great, he said, "But it’s more about sharing the moment with people who create ‘my family’ far away from my home. It’s just a great opportunity for all of us to realize what’s important in our life and be thankful for that."
