{"id":18492,"date":"2013-10-16T15:52:04","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T19:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=18492"},"modified":"2013-10-16T15:52:04","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T19:52:04","slug":"in-which-we-give-thanks-at-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2013\/10\/16\/in-which-we-give-thanks-at-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"in which we give thanks at Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"This album has been my constant companion over the last few months, but also this past weekend in particular.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s a free, downloadable EP<\/a> of seven tracks by a friend of mine\u00a0called \u201cI AM\u201d, Nicholas Cheung, who is a music producer from Vancouver.\u00a0\u201cMandarin\u201d is my current go-to track: brisk and mellow, subtly layered the same way trees along Highway 404 are turning autumn shades of reds and browns.\r\n

[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WCgY_tzqPD8&list=PL1sGKfG6PhuV8SY0y3vTe-_3FYlwgEGIl]\r\n

It's free, and it's good.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Fall in Canada means Thanksgiving, which means a long weekend, which means turkey and family feasts, and the return of the pumpkin spiced latte.<\/p>\r\nHowever, being an International student during a Canadian national holiday means I face the problem of not having a family to celebrate with.\r\n\r\nI\u2019d heard about turkey dinners and Thanksgiving before, but 2009 was the first time I encountered it in full force, as the downtown Toronto core drained out into quieter cottages and lake houses for the weekend.\r\n\r\nPublic holidays are days set aside for family and friends to enjoy themselves together communally, however for a family like mine, separated by a 12-hour time zone, it can be hard to feel festive.\r\n\r\n\"IMG_8389\"<\/a>\r\n

Thanksgiving Skype hangouts with the family!<\/em><\/p>\r\nI\u2019m sure there are many of you out there who are just like me, who for whatever reason, are unable, even on publicly designated \u201cspend-time-with-your-family\u201d days, to be with them.\r\n\r\nIn my first year, it was a rather lonely ordeal, as residence would clear out over the weekend, and I\u2019d be left to figure out to do with the extra time \u2013 usually studying.\u00a0Over the years, I began participating in the extra-curricular communities on campus and started developing relationships with many different people. We studied together, worked together, and celebrated together.\r\n\r\nFour years later, Thanksgiving for me has become eating celebrations over the weekend with communities of people I\u2019ve come to call my family in this city.\u00a0These are the people who have changed my university life in drastic ways, and are a big reason why I call Toronto a home now.\r\n\r\n\"IMG_8390\"<\/a>\r\n

Celebrating with Baked Veggie Lasagna and a 20 pound honeyed ham. That's right.<\/em><\/p>\r\nPeople are key focal points around which our lives revolve because they have the capacity to give us immeasurable warmth and love\r\n\r\nWe all belong to our own communities, big or small.\r\n\r\nI know our university is a sprawling mass of buildings in the middle of a sprawling urban center.\r\n\r\nBut the campus can be more than just a series of lecture halls we move to and from.\r\n\r\nU of T is home to vibrant, and dynamic communities, full of people from all sorts of disciplines and from all over the world, connected together by skills, interests, faith, or values.\r\n\r\n\"IMG_8380\"<\/a>\r\n

Went somewhere 2.5 hours away this past weekend with my faith community.<\/em><\/p>\r\nUlife<\/a> offers a comprehensive directory of groups on campus, including their contact information. If you\u2019re looking for a place to get connected, and didn\u2019t get around to Clubs Fair during Frosh week, this is a good place to start.\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019re an International looking to get connected, there are many groups on campus that get together to celebrate with each other in place of family at all the events. The Cumberland House<\/a> just off St. George and College host different events regularly to celebrate different holidays and host conversation cafes.\r\n\r\nEvery Thanksgiving, I am particularly thankful for the people who have become my family in Toronto.\r\n\r\nWho did you spend your weekend with?\r\nWhat were you thankful for this Thanksgiving?\r\n\r\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\nThis album has been my constant companion over the last few months, but also this past weekend in particular. It\u2019s a free, downloadable EP of seven tracks by a friend of mine\u00a0called \u201cI AM\u201d, Nicholas Cheung, who is a music…\n<\/div>
Continue reading “in which we give thanks at Thanksgiving”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
Continue reading “in which we give thanks at Thanksgiving”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,70,69,66],"tags":[405,25500,152,163,25506,1063,1064],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18492"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18535,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492\/revisions\/18535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}