Students and faculty at SIS are preparing for the upcoming winter break which will last from Dec 17th, to Jan 10th. With the break around the corner, students are busy building plans and goals to achieve during the three-week holiday. While some students are planning to prepare for future exams and AP courses, other students are looking forward to traveling while still carefully taking COVID precautions.

“I plan to travel to Yongpyong ski resort to ski-train for the entirety of winter vacation,” Sean Lee (11), a competitive alpine ski player, said. “I don’t think COVID-19 will impact any plans for me to ski-train since the ski resort is as open of a place as you can find in Korea. It might cause some complications in my competitions though, because international races such as the Far East Cups might be canceled.”

Teachers have also been actively planning their breaks. While some teachers will be preparing course materials and academic plans, other teachers are excited to spend more time with their relatives for the holiday season. Teachers with unvaccinated children can not travel abroad, but some teachers with no children or children under age six can travel internationally. 

“Over the holidays, I will go to Madrid, Spain,” Jared Rock, Communications 9 and English 9 teacher, said. “Part of my wife’s family lives in Madrid, so my wife and I have not seen them since 2017. And I have not been anywhere abroad since 2019 before COVID, so it feels nice to visit families and visit outside of Korea for the first time in two years.”