Many Iowa State students are traveling across Iowa to go home for the upcoming holiday break. Some Iowa State students, however, are traveling thousands of miles to go home for the holidays.

Aguimar de Souza, president of the Brazilian-Portuguese Association, said he and his wife are planning to travel back to Brazil during winter break.

“Usually we try to enjoy our summer and go to the beach,” he said.

Nelson Yong, senior in finance, said he plans to go home to Singapore over the three-week winter break.

“I come from a Christian family and we usually have Christmas dinner together on [Christmas] Eve and then we go to church for the evening service,” Nelson said.

He said other people in Singapore enjoy looking at lights and Christmas decorations in malls and office buildings. There is an annual competition to find the building which is decorated the best for the holiday season.

While some international students will be flying across seas, other international students are staying in Ames for the holidays.

Ibrahim Turkmen, sophomore in food science and president of the Turkish Student Association, said Christmas is not a part of Turkey’s national celebrations because it is primarily a Christian holiday and 98 percent of the Turkish population is Muslim.

“We Muslims have two major religious festivals. They are Ramazan Bayrami and Kurban Bayrami,” Turkmen said.

Classes interfere with him returning home for these festivals, he said.

Turkman said there is a holiday in Turkey on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 to show respect for people who have different religious affiliations than Islam.

“We celebrate the New Year’s Day as a day that we call relatives and friends to wish good health, happiness, and success for the New Year,” Turkmen said.

He also said the holiday is a time to forget the bad things which happened the year before and look forward to the good things which will happen in the coming year.

Qiang Chen, Vice President of Chinese Students and Scholars Friendship Association and graduate student in chemistry, also plans to stay in Ames for winter break.

“I may go out for a while to visit my friends here in Ames, shop, or watch a film, but most of the time, I think I will be working since I am a research assistant,” Chen said.

Sule Karaman, a graduate student in agronomy from Turkey, has been in Ames for 14 months. She will not be going home this holiday season, but hopes to go home for the holidays in the coming years.

Shana Bredensteiner, manager of STA Travel, 2526 Lincoln Way, said many international students are not going home for the winter break, but rather traveling around the country.

Bo Zhang, a graduate in chemistry, will be doing just that.

He said for part of the winter break he will be traveling down to Texas. In China there are no Christmas traditions, but rather the Chinese lunar New Year is celebrated, Zhang said.

The festival, which is Feb. 1 of the upcoming year, did not originate from religious reasons.