Meet this week’s Campus Celebrity, Olga Golubkova! She works for the UCSD Guardian, and loves everything about city life: the fast paced lifestyle, museums, concerts, and public transportation, so you can always catch her wandering the streets of San Diego in her best buisiness casual attire. Hailing from Moscow, Russia, Olga has only celebrated Thanksgiving for three years, so I decided to ask her some questions about what it’s like to celebrate this newfound American holiday.
Major: Sociology
College: Muir
Year: Junior
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish? Brussel sprouts with bacon is a solid thanksgiving side dish. It’s the perfect balance of something fatty and fresh.
What’s it like coming to the states and experiencing Thanksgiving? I do not think I ever experienced a truly American Thanksgiving, because for the past two years I was celebrating it with my Russian family friends. But overall, it does not seem to be different from any typical family holiday I would celebrate back home – a lot of people, voices and food.
Do you have a favorite part about the holiday? I’d say staying in, because normally I avoid spending my day at home, but Thanksgiving is an exception.
What do you do for thanksgiving usually?/what are you doing this year? As I have already mentioned, I would go to my family friends’ house in the Bay Area to celebrate it among fifty or so Russians in their fifties. I would wake up around 12 when food preparation is already in full swing, go downstairs and join everyone in making food. Then the house would gradually fill in with people all asking who I am or telling me how the last time they saw me I was mumbling in a cradle (I was born in San Francisco). I always enjoyed hanging around adults, so talking politics to old drunk Russians is practically one of my favorite pastimes.