Thanksgiving at St Giles San Francisco

Mika Someya (from Japan), who is currently studying at our English school in San Francisco, wrote the following article for us about her experience of the American Thanksgiving holiday.

My Thanksgiving holiday was like any other day. I spent it with my friends instead of eating turkey or spending time with my family. We watched a movie called HUGO.

I felt a little bit strange when I went out in the evening because there weren’t very many people in the downtown area. It looked like a ghost town.

However, when I left the movie theater at 1am, there were so many people downtown and a lot of shops had opened because of Black Friday. At that moment, I had no interest in going out the next day. We don’t have ‘Black Friday’ in Japan. But we have a big sale season at the beginning of January. It’s crazy! So many people wait in front of shops from midnight or the day before. Also, subways and trains run for 24 hours only from December 31^st to January 1^st. They usually run from 5am to 1am.

Anyway, I went downtown to go shopping on Friday. But I gave up. I went to some shops but there were too many customers and clothes had fallen down on the floor. It was a disaster!

In the end, I didn’t buy anything. I think Black Friday is not so cheap. I guess everybody just likes the words ‘sale’ or ‘discount’ or ‘off’.

Nevertheless, I’m happy to be here on this holiday because I had an experience and learned about the history of Thanksgiving Day. If my family were here, I would want to spend this time with them and eat mom’s turkey! Yummy! Yummy! Happy Thanksgiving Holiday!

If you would like to find out more about studying at our English school in San Francisco, and experience American life and culture first hand, please do not hesitate to contact us at email us or visit our website here.