I experienced the same situation. My ISO didn't allow me to take off one year
either. But I did take one quater off (3 months) as a vacation term without
registration and didn't affect the F-1 status. Plus we graduate student have
up to 6 weeks matelity leave, so I did relax for 5 months.
I remember that immigration regulation states one can have a vacation term if
has been in full-time student status for 9-months. Check with your ISO to see
how do they interprete that.
