Spring Break is a time for college students to leave their familiar surroundings and see different sights, whether that’s with a destination vacation or a trip home.

For international students, however, their options are a little more limited. International flights can be expensive and troublesome, so most don’t typically choose to venture all the way back to their home country.

Many choose to travel and sightsee around the United States, seeing new places they wouldn’t otherwise get to explore. 

For example, Sun Hee Park, junior in journalism and mass communication from South Korea, is going to Minnesota with her friends. The International Students and Scholars Office organized a trip to Minneapolis for some of the international students to take a break from studying and have some fun with a shopping trip to Mall of America.

She said some of her friends are traveling even farther, with some going sightseeing in Los Angeles and on a beach vacation to Cancun.

Chao Chen, graduate student in civil, construction and environmental engineering from China, is taking a trip to the Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando, Fla. He said he wishes he could go home, but spending time with his friends in sunny Florida will still be a good time.

Some of his other friends are traveling to Seattle or other destination vacations. But most of them, he said, stay in Ames, working, reporting or doing homework.

Schools in China only have a summer and winter break. Chinese and Lunar New year take place during the winter break, and students use it as an opportunity to go home and spend time with friends and family. They typically don’t travel around as much as students do in American schools.

Lewis Moar is an exchange student from Scotland studying chemical engineering. Exchange students are here for only two semesters before resuming their studies in their home country.

Moar takes as much advantage of school breaks as he can, and has traveled to Chicago, New Orleans and New York City. This Spring Break, he and four other friends are venturing to San Francisco to see some new sights.

Moar said he wants to see as much of the U.S. as he can before he goes back to Scotland. He said his international friends all have different groups of American friends but they typically come together during breaks to travel.

“We all have the same amount of money to spend and the same incentive to see the country we wouldn’t normally get to see,” he said.

As with the Asian countries, European schools don’t give their students a Spring Break. Easter holidays mimic our Spring Break, but it’s a time usually reserved for family.