Thanksgiving break always rolls around a couple weeks before finals. While a lot of people choose to go home for the four-day weekend, a lot of students choose to stay on campus–whether that be due to long flights or wanting to spend time with friends in their house. In my three years at Caltech, I haven’t been home for Thanksgiving break, but I’ve always spent the time in really fun ways on campus. Here’s what my Thanksgiving looked like at Caltech this year!
Wednesday: Homework and Netflix
Though the Wednesday before Thanksgiving isn’t officially a holiday at Caltech, a lot of professors choose to cancel class or post a lecture recording for students who are traveling home. This year, my Wednesday class was optional, so I decided to start the day off by sleeping in (which I hadn’t done in a long time). I spent the rest of the morning at Trader Joe’s (just a 10 minute walk from campus!) and bought some groceries for the weekend, since Caltech’s meal plan would be closed on Thursday and Friday. In the afternoon, I spent some time catching up on work with friends in Gates-Thomas Laboratory, aka GTL, Caltech’s mechanical engineering building.
The only reason I had the motivation to start my homework was because later that night, I had plans to binge-watch the new season of Stranger Things on Netflix. I’ve been watching the show since middle school when it was released, and I was really looking forward to catching up with the first released part of season 5. Sitting on my beanbag with my frozen Trader Joe’s meal for dinner and a bowl of fruit as my midnight snack, I finished the show in one night–unfortunately with a cliffhanger!
Thursday: Thanksgiving!
After watching Netflix until 2 am, I woke up very late on Thanksgiving. I tried to do some work during the day, but it was really a combination of scrolling through my phone, working on my laptop, and calling my family back at home.
I’m from Florida, so traveling home for a four-day break is a bit challenging (one whole day usually gets spent on the flight anyways). However, every house at Caltech has their own Thanksgiving tradition–in Avery (my house), everyone pitches in to cook an elaborate meal for the whole house to enjoy. I went to Avery Thanksgiving dinner my freshman year, but this year I had plans for dinner with one of my friends. We decided to go to Buca di Beppo, an Italian restaurant in Old Pasadena. It’s a family-style restaurant with large portions and it’s one of our favorite places–we even ate there on Thanksgiving last year. We ordered lemonades, a huge plate of garlic bread, and penne alla vodka. Even after all this food, we still had leftovers!
I ended the night on my beanbag, watching The Hangover on Netflix (it’s a really great movie) and eating some apple pie–the perfect way to spend Thanksgiving.
Friday: Black Friday shopping and Wicked
Friday was once again spent sleeping in, catching up on sleep from the previous weeks. In the afternoon, my friend and I decided to go off-campus and get lunch (or breakfast?) at Chronic Tacos on Lake Avenue–another one of our Thanksgiving break traditions. We both had tacos before heading to Ross and TJ Maxx for some Black Friday shopping! After buying some cute sweaters (for the upcoming winter term) and getting boba at Twinkle Tea, we returned to campus. To end the night, we decided to watch Wicked, since we had never seen it before, in preparation for the sequel that was recently released.
Saturday: Pancakes and dinner
For Thanksgiving tradition #3, my friend and I made pancakes for breakfast in Bechtel kitchen. This year, we leveled up and made banana pancakes topped with raspberries, blueberries, and syrup. I think these were some of the best pancakes I’ve ever made (or maybe I was just really hungry).
In the afternoon, I studied for a final for a couple hours before heading to the gym. The sunset was really pretty so I decided to run on the track. After the gym, I quickly headed back to my room to get ready to meet another friend for dinner. We went to Dan’s Modern Chinese on Lake Avenue, where we had spicy noodles and vegetable dumplings with soy sauce. We spent the rest of the night yapping and walking around campus–a great end to a very relaxed and eventful day.
Sunday: Being lazy + productive at the same time
Exactly what the subtitle says. I spent the morning and early afternoon cleaning my room, doing laundry, and catching up on a few hours of work before the week started. I had all my final exams the next week, so I wanted to study as much as I could before I got extra busy. As the day was ending, I decided I wanted to relax instead, so I watched a Christmas movie while painting in my room.
The break was a great time to relax after many busy weeks and before finals. Even though I couldn’t go home for Thanksgiving, I’ve made a lot of my own traditions here at Caltech that I’ve come to love.
