Penrod travels to Jamaica for annual Thanksgiving trip
Penrod stands knee deep in the ocean at her resort. She spent most of her days relaxing by the beach.
Traditionally, Thanksgiving is spent at home with family, as a large feast is served and gratitude fulfills the family mentality, whereas only 14.5% of the American population travel over 50 miles from home (CNN). However, for junior Anne Penrod, Thanksgiving is spent 1,377 miles from home. After experiencing Thanksgiving both in Harrisonburg and away on vacation, Penrod and her family prefer traveling during their time off and have continued to do so for th
e past consecutive years. This year, Penrod ventured to a new destination: Jamaica.
“We’ve [gone out of the country for Thanksgiving] a couple of times, which is something nice and fun to do. We usually go somewhere warm for Thanksgiving just to relax,” Penrod said. “Last year we went to Aruba [for Thanksgiving]. We’ve been to Mexico and Costa Rica as well. We try to [travel] as much as possible for Thanksgiving.”
Compared to previous years, this Thanksgiving trip was more nonchalant and not as venturesome. In Penrod’s opinion, relaxing at the beach was the best part, along with being able to spend time with her sister. With a m
ore calm sense this trip, Penrod visited a tourist attraction nearby to get a feel for Jamaica.
“[The trip] was pretty lowkey. A lot of times we’ll go downtown or do a bunch of cool adventures, but this year we mostly just relaxed,” Penrod said. “We went kayaking, played tennis, but most of the time we just relaxed on the beach. We went to a fruit plantation [and] had a tour of that. [The fruit plantation] was pretty interesting.”
After interacting with some of the locals, Penrod learned about the language of Jamaica, Patois. The language consists of a majority Twi (an Akan language spoken in Ghana), and also incorporates English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Arawak, African languages and Scottish and Irish dialects.
“The language that they speak, Patois, is really cool because they explained it as a broken English language, so basically everything is just English slang,” Penrod said. “A guide was telling us that “cum yah” means “come here”. If you listen closely you can understand what they were saying because it was just English slang.”
Even though her Thanksgivings are spent away from home, Penrod’s holiday traditions are brought along on her trip. A week before she leaves for her Thanksgiving vacation, Penrod and her family have a Thanksgiving meal at her house. In Jamaica, Penrod was also able to have a feast.
Penrod visited a local fruit plantation outside of her resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
“[Going on vacation] is my typical Thanksgiving. I think going out of the country itself is a tradition. I would usually go with my aunt, uncle and my cousins too, so that’s a tradition for the family to go together. They did not come this year, but they have most years,” Penrod said. “A lot of places we go, they know they’re getting a lot of tourists during Thank
sgiving week, so Thursday they’ll have turkey, green beans and mashed potatoes for dinner because a lot of their tourists are American; they know that they want to celebrate Thanksgiving there too.”
During her time in Jamaica, the weather was overcast and homework piled up, however the drawbacks didn’t affect Penrod’s experience. Even though there were disadvantages, the chance to relax on her Thanksgiving break outweighed all of it.
“[The weather] was overcast and rainy half of the time we were there, which was a bummer, but we still had a good time and laid out on the beach,” Penrod said. “I did have to make up homework that I missed because I wasn’t here on Monday and Tuesday [before break], so that was a pain, but it was just homework.”
Traveling out of the country for Thanksgiving has become a tradition Penrod and her family have continued to do because it has been a convenient time for her family to reunite. Penrod feels as if no matter where she happens to be on her Thanksgiving holiday, as long as she is with her family, that’s all that matters.
“I have [had Thanksgiving in the United States] a couple of times. The food is the same, it’s good and there’s a lot of it, and I’m always with my family. The only difference is that I’m just in another country, but I have my family there, we say what we’re thankful for and always have a good time,” Penrod said. “[I prefer Thanksgiving] probably out of the country because it’s always nice to travel, but I have a good [Thanksgiving] every time, if I’m Harrisonburg or somewhere else.”
