With midterm season officially upon us, deadlines for final projects coming up, and other extracurricular activities in the mix, students and staff are definitely deserving of a break. Luckily, Thanksgiving break is just around the corner! With that in mind, I spoke with some fellow QUEST students and staff to hear about their upcoming plans.
First, I spoke with Pranav Katakam (Cohort 42) to hear the rundown for his plans this year. “So, our family doesn’t do too much but we try to all get together each year and watch a movie.” Katakam also mentioned his family cooks up some delicious meals, but they’re not the typical American Thanksgiving meals like stuffing or turkey. Instead, Katakam’s family chooses to make traditional food that they grew up with. “My family’s vegetarian and we usually just eat a bunch of Indian food.” These include dishes like Puri with Channa masala, palak paneer, and rice with cumin seeds. Katakam mentions he still likes to buy a couple of American dishes as well. “You can’t go wrong with some mac and cheese and Costco pumpkin pie!” Yum, those all sound delicious! I’m definitely hungry now.
After hearing from Katakam, I reached out to a couple of amazing QUEST faculty members. Emily Marks, the QUEST program coordinator, spoke about traveling to Philadelphia. “Usually, I just see my family for Thanksgiving, but this year we are switching things up! I’m meeting up with some friends and going to the parade in Philly.” On top of that, Marks mentioned they are planning to cook a meal together consisting of turkey, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce and apple pie for dessert! She is also joining a book club with her friends which will be a new tradition for her. “Overall I’m just really excited! I’m gonna have two Thanksgivings this year: one with my family in New Jersey and one with friends in Philly. I’ve never done that before, nor have I gone to Philly so this should be really fun!”
Lastly, I spoke with a fellow QUEST professor, Dr. Bardossy, who teaches QUEST course Applied Quantitative Analysis, (BMGT/ENES 438A.) Bardossy mentioned she originally is from Argentina, so Thanksgiving was not a holiday she grew up with. However, ever since she moved to the US, she’s tried to make the most of the break and have fun with family friends. These friends are originally from Chile and Uruguay. “I met them back in university and we all got along since we were all from South America and had that in common. It’s really great to be able to have this community.” In the past, she and her friends used to rent a house in the mountains down in West Virginia to celebrate together. Now that the friends are older and have kids of their own, the new tradition is to go to their friend’s house in Milwaukee. “It’s a really fun time. All of our kids are around the same age, so they have a chance to hangout and bond together while my friends and I can catch up too.” Although they didn’t grow up with American culture, Bardossy emphasizes the effort they still put into adopting some typical American traditions. These include preparing dinner with turkey and participating in a turkey trot fundraiser race each year!
Wow! I’m ready to meet up with family and friends now, and I’m even more excited to eat some delicious food. Until then, I have some fellow QUEST friends and faculty to hangout with; join QUEST Social next Thursday, 11/21 for a fun QUESTgiving! In the spirit of Thanksgiving, that’s something I’m definitely thankful for!