Being abroad during the holidays can bring on definite feelings of homesickness. However, it is also an opportunity to see how other countries compare to the United States when it comes to things like Halloween and Thanksgiving. Of course, Thanksgiving is an American holiday, however my program (CIEE) is holding a big dinner for all of us kids on that Thursday night. We’ll be served traditional Thanksgiving turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, you name it! We’ll also be able to drink (I already throw up from all the food on Thanksgiving so here’s one more reason)! Rumor has it, it’s one of the most bittersweet nights of the entire trip. It begins the three week countdown to returning to the United States, which is both exciting and extremely depressing. My time abroad has gone by incredibly fast and preparing for this Thanksgiving dinner has made me realize that it is almost over. CIEE has asked three members of our program to make speeches or perform a song, I’m sure those will all be huge tear jerkers and help us to reminisce on our time here. Being abroad during the holidays can make you think about the things you are missing at home, however you’re not alone in that feeling, and the relationships and bonds you will form abroad will become so important on these days of homesickness. Still, social media doesn’t really help the homesickness. People posting statuses about which area code they’ll be making their triumphant return to, Instagrams of pumpkin spice lattes and girls throwing a sweet “lo-fi” filter on their leaf pictures to make the foliage look that much cooler, really grind my gears. Try to ignore it. My program also isn’t the only one hosting a Thanksgiving dinner. My friends in London and Rome are both getting one as well. On these special days your program leaders realize how important it is to feel at home. Although the food will be traditional, this Thanksgiving will be completely different then any other and I am sure will always be a good memory.
I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing one other “holiday” during my time abroad and that was Halloween. A holiday that is especially important at Fordham (anyone remember Halloweek during Sandy?) I was upset that I was going to miss this one (yeah it’s possible to miss the Bronx), but Spain and Alicante more than made up for it. Halloween is growing in popularity here in Spain with the help of abroad students like myself, but it is a bit different. Halloween at Fordham includes a lot of girls running around the Bronx freezing their butts off in “sexy kitten/tiger/cop/nurse/ram” costumes, or the ever popular I-forgot-it-was-Halloween “risky business” get up. It must be the most popular night to get robbed because these costumes usually don’t have pockets and it’s hard to hold tightly to your iPhone while sexily handcuffing someone in Howl. The guys go the humor route and I’ve seen a lot of playboy bunnies and Father McShanes (a costume with lots of layers that I wouldn’t mind trying). Spain takes an alternate direction. The bars and streets were decorated with fake blood, spider webs, and skulls. The bouncers at all the clubs took scary to a new level with the majority of them dressing up as the Joker. They weren’t the only ones who looked scary, everyone looked terrifying. Their face make up was impeccable, they had blood pouring out of faces and limbs, knives through people’s heads and bullet wounds on scalps. I felt like Regina George in a sea of Cady Herrings (I’m a mouse, duh). The difference between Halloween in Alicante and Halloween at Fordham was laughable (but also really, really frightening). It was really cool to experience something completely different than before and I’ll always remember it as one of my most fun Halloweens. Everything that you experience abroad will be slightly if not a whole lot different, but this makes for great and hilarious memories.
A classic iPhone picture capturing the essence of Halloween in Alicante. A pre game on the beach, something you will never experience at Fordham!