Foreign Students Spend Holiday In Amish Country

Lugging a suitcase stuffed with clothing and books, Homa Sorouri, a student at the New School from Herat, Afghanistan, boarded a bus in Midtown Manhattan yesterday at dawn and headed to Lancaster, Pa.

As American students trekked home for Thanksgiving, leaving behind desolate college campuses, a group of 55 international students who attend Columbia, New York, and Rutgers universities, Barnard, the New School, and CUNY and SUNY schools this year decided to abandon their dorm rooms and celebrate the holiday in Amish Country.

With a record number of international students studying in New York, programs founded by universities in the city to expose students from abroad to different segments of American life, such as Metro International, are booming during the holidays.

The group of students from 20 countries, including Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and China, were paired with families in Lancaster, Pa., by Metro International.

Over the weekend, they plan to visit an Amish farm and attend church with their host families. The weekend will not be all Amish: They also planned a trip to Hershey Park.

"I've seen farms in my homeland, and I've read about American farms that are supposed to be so improved," Ms. Sorouri said. "I want to see it for myself." She said she was surprised by how secular the holiday is. "I expected in my imagination something different," Ms. Sourori said. "Some kind of religious ceremony, with prayers."

Ms. Sorouri, who is studying international politics on a Fulbright scholarship and hopes to return to Herat and to work for the United Nations, said one of the biggest culture shocks was seeing how families are often dispersed across the country right after children graduate from high school.

"In Afghanistan, we have to stay with our family until we are married," she said. In pursuing a graduate degree in America, Ms. Sorouri said she is a rare exception to the rule.

Some American families said hosting international students created an incentive to cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. "Its a tough holiday because you're expected to have this Norman Rockwell setting," a lawyer in Westchester County who said she and her husband were basting an 18-pound turkey to feed 15 international college students studying in New York City, Susan Freedman, said. "A lot of people don't have that. This way, we really don't have any expectations."

A graduate student in South Asian studies at Columbia who is from Lahore, Pakistan, Sidra Aunaid, said spending the holidays with a family, even if it isn't her own, is comfort. "It's a lonely time, which is one of the reasons I opted for this," Ms. Aunaid said. "I wanted to experience as much of the culture here as possible."