Students find new traditions

By Lauren Radomski (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Growing up in Norway, Siril Daavoy, 17, and her classmates at the Danielsen School in Bergen heard only rumors of the American Thanksgiving.

“I just knew one thing about it,” Daavoy said, “and that was that (participants) ate turkey.”

But this year, Daavoy and other international students at Hillcrest Lutheran Academy are preparing to experience Thanksgiving firsthand, spending the next few days with families in Fergus Falls and beyond.

Armin Jahr, a Hillcrest teacher, will be hosting four students this week, including two from the Danielsen School, one from Korea and one from Washington state.

“I think they’re excited to experience an American Thanksgiving,” he said, “especially the students from Norway, who have never tasted these things.”

Some of Hillcrest’s international students have already sampled what’s to come, courtesy of the school’s food service.

“They gave us a Thanksgiving meal at Hillcrest and most of the food we’d never eaten before,” said Kamilla Vedvik, another student from the Danielsen School. In Norway, she said, people don’t even see pumpkins, much less eat them.

Pumpkin pie isn’t a staple in Korea either but Sophie Kim loves it. In her third year at Hillcrest, Kim has experienced Thanksgiving a few times already but has yet to acquire a taste for the essentials.

“I don’t like turkey or gravy,” she said, “but I like playing with the wishbone.”

---

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THIS STORY?

---