Students who stayed on-campus over the holiday break enjoy a HUDS Thanksgiving dinner in Quincy House dining hall.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Darius P. Felton ’08 sat in his room and stared at his lunch—leftover turkey, stuffing and ham—and pondered his Math 21a test coming up next week. The Canaday quad was absolutely still.
“It was kind of isolated because you don’t even hear anyone walking by,” Felton said.
Most of campus shut down for Thanksgiving break, as students left town to visit family and friends. But those whose homes are too far away joined athletes and others on a quiet campus.
Of the 1,643 members of the Class of 2008, those who chose to attend a Thanksgiving study break Friday night fit into the Canaday common room. Felton said that he and a girl from Zimbabwe were the only ones in Canaday G who had stayed behind for Thanksgiving break.
Like many students who chose to spend Thanksgiving in Cambridge, Felton—who ate the festive meal with a local relative—did so because the four day break was not worth the long travel and expensive plane tickets home.
Jeffrey W. Lin ’08, who was playing foosball in the Quincy dining hall Friday with a friend visiting from West Point, said he didn’t think the travel time back home to Bakersfield, California was worth it. He and his friend spent the weekend ice skating on Frog Pond and watching a movie.
Mihaela Pacurar ’06 didn’t really have a choice—the flight from Boston to her home in Cluj, Romania is 13 hours long. On Thursday, she got her share of turkey in the Quincy dining hall, at a “festive lunch that was called Thanksgiving dinner, but was really just a late lunch,” she said.
Because there is no equivalent Romanian holiday, Pacurar said she didn’t mind spending Thanksgiving away from her family. “I will celebrate when I get home to my family for winter break,” she said.
Instead of a traditional turkey dinner, Gregory D. Bybee ’07 opted to split a pepperoni pizza and mozzarella sticks with five friends at Pizzeria Uno.
He said he spent most of Thanksgiving doing “putzy things” that you usually don’t get around to, like cleaning out a crowded e-mail inbox and naming digital photos.
“I even vacuumed. My roommates will be really happy to see the room when they get back,” Bybee said.
Bybee, who is from Wisconsin, said this Thanksgiving was a lot more relaxing. Last year, he said, he rushed to pack and catch a plane, and spent his time at home racing between obligations to family and friends.
“Distance translates into money and time,” he said.
Sheria D. Smith ’05 said Harvard should make the break longer—“at least a week,” like a certain institution of higher learning in Connecticut.
“It’s not worth it for people to buy plane tickets to be where they want to be,” she said. She has never gone home to Indiana for Thanksgiving, but has spent several with roommates who live closer to Cambridge.
