May 23-24, 2016 (by Keagan Kinsella, Kelsey Kowitz and Laney Lovell)
May 25, 2016 (by Mackenzee Pierog, Mady Pashibin, and Emily Miller)
Read their entry HERE
May 26, 2016 (by Kasey Schumacher, Madi Suprise and Heather Sawchuk)
Read their entry HERE
May 27, 2016 (by Amber Karn, Katrina Raskie, and Talia Jaskulske)
May 28, 2016 (by Keagan Kinsella and Mackenzee Pierog)
Read their entry HERE
Read their entry HERE
May 30, 2016 (by Kelsey Kowitz, Madi Suprise and Emily Miller)
Read their entry HERE
May 31, 2016
Read their entry HERE
June 1, 2016 (by Heather Sawchuk, Jessica Coyne, Mady Pashibin and Kasey Schumacher)
Read their entry HERE
June 2, 2016 (by Lyndsey Bassler, Amber Karn, Talia Jaskulske, and Laney Lovell)
Read their entry HERE
June 3, 2016 (by Coach Kim Wudi)
Ten days. Sixteen volleyball players. Countless memories. One amazing experience. When you wake up in the City of Lights and go to sleep in your own bed over 4,000 miles away, you can’t help but marvel at just how easy it is to travel the world in 2016. But for our team, our trip to Europe was anything but certain.
We have been planning our trip for three years – from seemingly endless fundraisers to selecting our destination to organizing all of the finite details. Over the past eighteen months, we seriously questioned whether it was appropriate to take our trip in light of the budget cuts at our university. Then in November 2015, we were at NCAA regionals when we learned of the terrorist attacks in Paris. Over spring break, Brussels was attacked, and anxious discussions ensued regarding the decision to travel with our student-athletes abroad. Needless to say, our student-athletes’ safety was our main concern, so we paid special attention to U.S. State Department travel alerts as well as advice from UW-Eau Claire’s Center for International Education.
In her blog shortly after the Brussels attacks, Paige Smith wrote: “We cannot allow fear to dictate our travels. If we took into account every moment of violence that’s ever taken place in any given destination, we’d never leave our bedrooms. The world is unsafe, this we know… But for all the danger and senseless violence that occurs around the globe, there is ten times as much love and generosity present. There are kind strangers in every corner of the world ready to share their homes and cities with us, ready to dispense advice about the best breakfast joints in town or the prettiest viewpoints, ready to offer directions to a lost tourist, ready to lend a hand in a crisis, ready to prove — with their thoughtful gestures and their encouraging words and their kind hearts — that humanity is inherently good.” (Visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paige-smith/why-its-more-important-than-ever-to-travel_b_9527082.html for the full post.)
I would be remiss not to mention a few people who were instrumental in planning and administering the tour. Thanks to Chad Wilkinson of AIST for putting up with dozens of phone calls and emails as we sorted through trip details and payments. Throughout the trip, we were in good hands with our AIST tour guide, Jenny Hess (who incidentally played softball at UW-Eau Claire), as well as our multilingual guide Francesca and our fearless driver, Norman. From start to finish, these three worked tirelessly to ensure that our needs were met throughout the trip. We are so grateful to them for taking such good care of our group!
We now turn our attention to summer camps and getting ready for our fall 2016 season! Thanks for following our team's adventures and we hope to see you (whether in person or online) at our matches this fall! GO BLUGOLDS!!!