Winter Break gives students a chance to go home and spend time with their families. For some international students, however, going home isn’t an option.

“It’s not that easy to go home,” said Bishnu Karki, graduate student in civil, construction and environmental engineering from Nepal.

Time and money is always an issue, she said.

International students without family in the United States look for alternative ways to spend Winter Break and the holidays. Many gather with other international students from their home country.

Since Karki can’t go to Nepal this holiday season, she and her other Nepali friends at Iowa State are taking a roadtrip to Kansas.

Oscar Perez-Hernandez, graduate student in plant pathology from Mexico, spent the holidays last year with about 30 other latino students. This year Perez-Hernandez may be spending the holidays with his girlfriend’s family.

“Now I have to buy gifts and stuff,” he said. “For us [Mexicans], Christmas is not a season of gifts.”

Although Mexicans do give gifts on el D¡a de los Reyes in January, Christmas celebrations focus on the birth of Jesus, Perez-Hernandez said.

“[Giving many gifts] is just not something that we do,” he said.

Spending the holidays without family members can be lonely for some international students.

“I get sad when I’m around friends and they talk about family. You have to make compromises sometimes,” said Khushboo Shakya, freshman in pre-computer science from Nepal. “Since I can’t go home, I’m trying to make good use of it and spend my break the best way I can.”

The International Students and Scholars Office offers services for students who are unable to go home during break. However, there have not been as many students worried about the holidays this year, said Creighton Gaynor, program coodinator for international students and scholars.

“We have a fair amount of support from the community,” he said.

The office tries to pair international students with Americans to help them adapt to the culture, he said.