Santa Claus won't be the only one taking a trip around the world on Christmas Eve.

Caleb Cook, an eighth grader at Wareham Middle School, will be flying to Southeast Asia December 24. His destination? Pekanbaru, the capital city of Riau, a province in Indonesia on the island of Sumatra.

While most students have to wait until college for an opportunity to study abroad, Caleb is getting the chance to do it at only 13 years of age. He will be spending the spring semester studying and living with his aunt, uncle, and older cousins who live in Pekanbaru.

Caleb's mother, Winda Cook, is from the Southeast Asian country, where she met John Cook, Caleb's father, while he was working in Indonesia on a paper mill project. Currently John works as a field engineer for a machinery company in Middleborough, while Winda works at the deli in Stop and Shop while attending Cape Cod Community College.

"He's been back and forth his whole life," said John, adding that Caleb lived in there until he was about four months old.

Pekanbaru is a city, but John describes it as "definitely third-world" and much different from here. John said his brother- and sister-in-law live quite comfortably and are "somewhat insulated" from the third-world conditions. Caleb's uncle works with the Indonesian government as some sort of investigator.

"I just know he has a badge and we don't get traffic tickets," John joked.

During a trip to visit his extended family last summer, Caleb decided that he liked Indonesia so much wanted to live there for a few months and go to school. He ran the idea by his father on the phone while he was still vacationing.

"I thought it was great," John said of his son's idea, adding that he's a "big proponent" of traveling and wants his son to be just as comfortable doing it.

The Cook family, who reside in Parkwood Beach, had to take care of a number of things to help Caleb's idea come to fruition, including speeding up his admissions process at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School, where Caleb wants to attend high school.

John said Caleb's teachers at Wareham Middle School have been very supportive of Caleb's upcoming travel plans, as has Upper Cape Tech. The high school agreed to look at Caleb's grades from this semester and interview him a few months early, though he'll be finding out if he's accepted at the same time as other incoming freshmen.

In Indonesia, Caleb will attend a private school which will tailor lessons to him.

Though his teachers at Wareham Middle School were supportive of Caleb's trip, the same can't really be said for his friends.

"Most of them don't believe that I'm actually going," he said.

When asked what he likes most about Indonesia, Caleb didn't hesitate.

"The weather," he answered.

Indonesia is located right on the equator, so Caleb will be trading the harsh New England winter weather for far more favorable, balmy Pacific weather.

Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia, but Caleb is not intimidated by the language barrier.

"When I was there [before] I started to speak it," he said. Indonesian is not spoken in the family's Wareham home.

Only one of Caleb's cousins speaks English, but John said a lot of people in the country like to speak English.

Among things that Caleb will miss about the U.S. are football (he currently plays for the Tigers and will be keeping in shape while abroad so he's ready for the high school team) and speaking English to people who are native English speakers.

But he said he'll be glad to be taking some time away from his two younger brothers: Cyrus, 12, and Alex, 11.

Caleb and John will spend roughly 20 hours in the air to get to Asia on Christmas Eve. They will have a 14-hour layover in China and stop at least one night in Singapore. From Singapore they will take an international ferry to Sumatra and then another ferry up a river to Pekanbaru. Caleb will return to Wareham around the beginning of summer.