Some international students are looking forward to going to their home countries during winter break, but others are not able to make the trip because of economical, political and educational factors.

“I don’t want to go back to Indonesia for 10 days since it takes me total of two and a half days to travel, and then there is the adjusting period,” said Deasy Nata, junior in management information systems.

Nata, said another factor in her decision is that she has to be back at ISU early for the transfer student orientation.

Some Malaysian and Indonesian students said they are having difficulties getting home over the break.

Weehan Tan, junior in mechanical engineering from Malaysia, and Bam Hermawan, junior in industrial engineering from Indonesia, said they won’t be going home because of the political crises in their native countries.

Just because they aren’t leaving the country doesn’t mean they can’t have fun over break, however.

Marivic Bascunana, graduate student in chemical engineering from the Philippines, said he will be spending Christmas Day in San Francisco and New Year’s Eve in Times Square in New York City, which he said should be quite exciting.

“This is the only year I won’t be going back to [the Philippines] for Christmas,” Bascunana said.

Selcuk Arslan, graduate student in agricultural engineering from Turkey, said he has no plans for travel.

“I just want to finish my program and go back home afterwards,” Selcuk said.

Bard Hustveit, graduate student in computer engineering from Norway, said the prices of round trip tickets go up during the Christmas season.

“For this reason I go home only in summer and celebrate holidays with my friends [in the United States],” Hustveit said.

On the other hand, some international students said nothing can stop them from going home.

“I am from Malaysia, and I want to go home as soon as possible even though we have crisis back there,” said Jason Yuen, junior in management information systems.

Several international students said they try to get back to their families at least once a year.

“I am going home for the New Year’s because I won’t be able to go home for the summer since I will be attending the summer school,” said Ozlem Ilk, graduate student in statistics from Turkey.

Ilk said it is hard to be here for a year without seeing her family, friends and her country.

Kaya Tolon, sophomore in industrial engineering from Turkey, also is going home to celebrate the New Year.

“For New Year’s this year, I can’t wait to be with my parents and my friends,” Tolon said.