FROM THE ARCHIVES: SPEAKING OF GORGES, DAMN:

Turkey is antidote for the loneliness of Chinese students (Katherine Kersten, 11/23/06, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

What's the loneliest day of the year? Thanksgiving, if you're a foreign student at the University of Minnesota. While everyone else celebrates with family members, turkey and pumpkin pie, you're stuck in an empty apartment.

But for Yang Lin, Jing Jing Zheng and his wife, Yi Hui Lei, things are different. They are spending Thanksgiving by the warm hearth of Ross and Karin Olson in Minneapolis.

China Outreach Ministries (COM) has been connecting Chinese students at the U with people like the Olsons since 1994. The organization works with volunteers, many from churches, to help visiting students meet the challenges of daily life. It also sponsors monthly dinners and outings to places such as Taylors Falls and Orchestra Hall.

Each November the group hosts a "Chinese-American Afternoon" to introduce Chinese to the Thanksgiving holiday.

(ORIGINALLY POSTED: 11/23/06)