Making the Most of a Good Thing

The majority of the students at UWEC consider themselves to be citizens of the United States of America. For those farther away from home, they’re considered citizens of their prospective countries. Junior Andrea Albers does not see herself in either one of these categories. She considers herself and citizen (and student) of the world.

In the second semester of her sophomore year, Albers was restless. She wasn't sure if Eau Claire was the school or the city for her and she was ready for a change of pace and a change of scenery. Albers was considering transferring to the University of Madison before it dawned on her that two hours of highway might not even be enough of a distance for her to overcome her extreme case of cabin fever.

It was then that she thought of studying abroad. It was more than just a change of zip code; it was a change of continents. It wasn't hard to sell her parents on the idea of her going. Her mother, knowing that she wasn't happy with her current situation only had one concern; that she would be traveling on her own. Mrs. Albers was more likely to have her nerves calmed knowing that her daughter had with her someone that she knew and trusted. Little did she know, her daughter already had had that same idea and found it very easy to talk both her younger sister and her best friend into applying for the program as well.

In the fall of 2007 Albers, her younger sister Emily, sophomore, and her best friend Christy Carlson, junior, set off for Harlaxton College.

“I think my parents were really happy about the fact that the three of us were traveling together.” Albers said, “I think they would have been a lot more hesitant to support our decisions to study abroad if we would have been going somewhere alone.”

Albers tried not to overload herself taking the minimum 12 credits while at Harlaxton. Neither the classes nor the curriculum had any huge differences when compared with her classes at UWEC. Where she received her real education was outside of the classroom.

“The school we attended was about an hour and a half outside of London, England. We lived and took classes in a huge old castle. It was beautiful.”
But it wasn’t enough to satisfy the threesomes taste for adventure. Albers, along with her two companions had a keen interest to travel while they were in Europe. They weren't content with the tourist sights of the city that they were staying in; they wanted to see all of the other countries as well.

"We didn't know when the next time that we would travel abroad would be and we wanted to take advantage of the situation. We sat down with the calendar and made it our goal to travel to a different country every weekend."

Call it mother’s intuition because Mrs. Albers had a distinct insight as to the antics of her daughters and their friend while they were abroad. Not having the knowledge of how expensive traveling is in any country, the girls made it their goal to save as much not only throughout the week but on the weekends as well.

That meant sleeping in lots of airports, bus stations and a lot of less than reputable hostels. Sometimes that even meant no sleep at all. Including a trip to Italy where the airport, their intended place of residence for the night, had closed down.

“We met some really nice people. We spent the entire night roaming. They say when in Rome!”

This was the same cycle for four months trekking across the European continent; Spain, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Iceland, France and the Czech Republic.  Being each other’s support system for four months only assisted in making the girls’ already tight bond even stronger.

“I feel a bigger sense of independence and confidence after returning from the semester abroad, there were tons of dilemmas and problems along the way but we were always able to figure it out safely and quickly. I feel like I learned so much about myself and could handle any situation I found myself in from here on out. I would definitely go back again. I'd really love to go to Australia before I graduate.”

Albers is not naïve. No trip will ever be perfect but if there was anything that she would do differently it would be to take twice the amount of money.

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