Akash Barve’s only image of Thanksgiving was from scenes of the holiday dinner in “Fast & Furious 6” and the TV sitcom “Friends,” which he’d watch back home in Mumbai, India.
But Saturday, after moving to the U.S. in August to start his master’s in computer science at UF, Barve was finally able to dive face-first into the Thanksgiving feast he longed for as a child.
“Watching the movies and the TV shows, all the families are together, it’s the kind of thing that at least once I’d always want to try,” the 22-year-old said. “It’s like a dream come true.”
About 450 international students and residents packed underneath the dome-roofed, skylit sanctuary room at the Creekside Community Church, located at 2640 NW 39th Ave, on Saturday night for a Thanksgiving dinner.
For the past 34 years, Creekside Church and nonprofit International Friendship’s UF chapter have hosted the Thanksgiving Banquet for Internationals event to make students and residents feel at home in Gainesville, said International Friendship organizer and Creekside Church member Linda Sorrels.
“Thanksgiving is when a lot of people on campus go home, so there’s a lot of internationals left kind of alone,” Sorrels said. “It’s kind of a lonely time, especially those (students) that just start here.”
The church bought about 400 pounds of turkey from the Eastside High School Institute of the Culinary Arts for $800. The event cost about $2,500 overall, Sorrels said. Tickets for the dinner were free for the guests.
About an hour into the event, a bright trumpet melody blared through the speakers, signaling the time for seconds.
Held in her mother’s lap, 13-month-old Kelly Liu grabbed her father, Yuan, at the sound of the alarm and tried to raise his right arm to show she was ready for more food.
Yuan, 29, ate alongside his parents-in-law, Jingqiu Feng and Jingxuan Dhai, who came to Gainesville from China on Nov. 1 to help him and his wife, Mandy, watch after their daughter.
For Yuan, who’s lived in the U.S. for more than seven years, the dinner was a chance to bridge cultures.
“Since they’re here helping us, I really want them to know more about the U.S.,” the UF alumnus, who graduated in May with a doctorate in chemistry, said.
At the dinner’s close, a pre-recorded video message from UF President Kent Fuchs played. Fuchs recounted his time in Beijing, China, at Tsinghua University in 1990. He also explained why Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday.
“If you’re like me, you’re sleep- deprived and you need a break,” Fuchs joked. “I need a break.”
Strangers sit together and wait for their food before the banquet begins. Typically, UF President Kent Fuchs would have attended and spoken but instead had to attend the football game.
The sanctuary at Creekside Community Church, located at 2640 SW 39th Ave., is packed to the brim for the Thanksgiving Banquet for Internationals on Saturday. International students and scholars from UF were invited to share a Thanksgiving meal.