It was all foreign for Yan Bo Diao. None of it - not the green beans and turkey piled on her plate, the bouncy bluegrass music or even the church where she ate - reminded her of her home in northeast China.
"Everything is new," she said of her experience in the United States. "Everything is different here."
The UF graduate student was one of 450 international students who came to Creekside Community Church on Saturday for a Thanksgiving dinner.
The event featured a traditional Thanksgiving meal, music and a lecture about the origin and meaning of Thanksgiving. Twenty countries were represented at the free event.
The dinner was sponsored by International Friendship, a nonprofit organization.
American hosts sat with the students to chat and answer questions about Thanksgiving and American culture.
For Levy Odera, a 29-year-old graduate student from Kenya, the event was a larger version of the Thanksgiving dinners he has enjoyed with American families in the four years he's lived in the United States.
Although there's no comparable holiday to Thanksgiving in Kenyan culture, Odera said he could easily sense the warmth of family and friendship during the event.
"The feeling surpasses the food," he said.
