The University of Idaho Argonaut

International students make plans for Fall Break 

Fall and Winter Break is traditionally when students flock home to see family and eat home-cooked food, but that isn’t always an option for international students.
There are about 650 international students on campus. Of those, 30 percent travel outside the United States and 45 percent travel within the country but outside of Moscow.

There are a number of programs available for international students who request it. Denise “Glen” Kauffman, coordinator of the International Friendship Association, matches students up with a families who live in the Moscow area. There are about 30 families currently participating in the program.
“The way the families work is that they get together about four or five times throughout the semester and invite the students along on activities,” Kauffman said. “It gives students a look into American culture.”

Students who don’t make a request to be matched up with a family often match themselves up with a friend or roommate, Kauffman said.
The majority of international students plan some form of travel, and quite a few have extended family or are invited to join a friend in their country.
For the most part, international students make plans to travel within the United States or stay in town for Fall Break and travel back to their home country for the Winter Break.
Kirsty Pendlebury, an international student from the Isle of Man, which is located in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland, has made plans to travel to Sandpoint with her suitemate for Fall Break and will be flying home for Winter Break.

Pendlebury is attending the University of Idaho on a one-year scholarship for a female student from the Isle of Man. The scholarship covers the cost of travel to and from the Isle of Man at the beginning and end of the year. Her parents are covering the cost of the trip home for the break.
Like Pendlebury, Ewelina Betleja will be traveling home to Poland for Winter Break and spending Fall Break with friends in Moscow. Betleja is a graduate student in Biochemistry.
“I’m a grad student, and if I take time off now to go home, it’s considered vacation and I’d rather take that time for Christmas,” Betleja said.
In her second year at UI, Betleja spent Thanksgiving with a host family, but plans to meet friends for Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Unlike Pendlebury and Betleja, Ravi Das isn’t able to go home once a year, so he, like many of the Nepali community in Moscow, will spend Fall and Winter Break in Moscow. Das is an undergraduate studying biological systems engineering.
“Usually I’d hang around town when I don’t spend the break with my girlfriend’s family in Lewiston,” Das said.
Many of the international students also get calls and invites from friends or relatives who live in the U.S. to spend the break with them.

“Generally, we like to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas because it reminds us of the festivals that we have back home and the turkey is my favorite American food,” Das said.
For those international students who are not planning on traveling for the Winter Break, University Housing has opened up the LLC’s for non-residents over the break.
“The only problem with opening up the LLC’s to non-residents over the break is that it’s very expensive for the students, about $400 for 21 days,” Kauffman said.