Most years, Fabiano Leal spends New Year’s Eve watching fireworks by the lake in Brasilia, Brazil, his hometown. This year the Medill freshman’s winter break plans are uncertain.
“I’m almost sure that I’m not going home, because it would be too expensive,” he said.Leal is not the only international student whose financial situation is disrupting holiday traditions.
Colleen Seaton, coordinator of operations for Northwestern’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, said the students she deals with usually return to their countries for the holidays.
Because of the recession, Seaton said she predicts some may make cheaper plans this year.
“Maybe we’ll see more of them staying here in the U.S. and making arrangements with family, friends, other people,” she said. “So it’s at least not traveling so far, so expensively.”Leal is working on such arrangements now, he said. If he doesn’t go back to Brazil, he said he might visit friends in New York and Boston.
Though he said he misses his family, the costs of flying home aren’t worth the brief stay, he said.
“Three weeks is not enough for one to really go abroad, go overseas and get used to the jetlag,” he said. “There’s also the environmental issues. I don’t think it’s worth the pollution.”
Communication junior Grace Lee, whose family lives in Nigeria, went home for winter break when she was a freshman and a sophomore. This year, she said she’ll probably stay in the United States and attend a conference on missionary work.
“It’s a pretty expensive plane ticket,” she said.
Other students are willing to pay.
McCormick sophomore SungHwan Park, the social chair of the International Student Association, said he plans to return to his home in Japan.
“If you live here, which is not your home, you kind of get sick of it,” he said. “The food especially.”
Park said he also feels the financial strain.
“I’m paying 50,000 bucks each year, and that’s already a lot,” he said. “If the plane tickets go on top of that, I can’t travel so many times.”
Because most international students usually go home over winter break, ISA has no events planned for those who might be staying, Park said.
For similar reasons, the International Office offers no programs over winter break, Seaton said, though it does organize dinners with local families for international students who stay for Thanksgiving.
Leal said he wishes the University would provide more support for students like him.
“If Northwestern could just a find a way to organize winter housing for international students, mainly, and those American students who are willing to commit to environmental concerns, it would be a much better idea that people actually stay on campus,” he said.Still, Leal said he’s excited to catch up with his friends on the East Coast, whom he knows from boarding school in Costa Rica.
“We haven’t seen each other for the whole summer, and all this time ever since college has started,” he said.
