Some were on subways. Some were in class. Some were brushing their teeth and putting on make-up'simply getting ready for the day in a place far from home.
No one was prepared for what this day brought.
\I was getting ready to leave for school when my host mother asked me if I heard about what happened in the United States. All I understood was something about twins in New York,"" said UW-Madison junior Sarah Pease.
Confused but unconcerned, Pease casually flipped on the television in her comfortable new home in Quito, Ecuador.
With a flip of the switch, her emotions erupted. With a flip of the switch her semester abroad drastically changed course.
""I was completely frozen with shock,"" Pease said.
Shock turned to anger, anger to frustration.
""My host family doesn't have cable, so it was U.S. news dubbed over into Spanish, making it all the more difficult to understand,"" Pease said. ""The TV sets showed the planes crashing over and over. It was almost sickening and tears came to my eyes.""
Pease was not the only student sorting through unfamiliar feelings in an unfamiliar land. An emotional emigrant, she is just one of hundreds of UW-Madison students studying overseas this semester. She, like many classmates, decided to study abroad to learn new languages and cultural nuances, to gain tolerance and understanding, to forge friendships in foreign lands. Now she watched anxiously from afar as America's actions divide opinions, divide the world. Pease and her peers from Ecuador to Egypt are re-examining their decisions to leave home, their own safety in the wake of terrorist attacks and their roles as Americans abroad during a time of war.
Sept. 11 evoked a kind of terror and anxiety never experienced by many Americans, but students studying abroad must deal with added apprehension: Oceans apart from loved ones and all things familiar, many are coping with the chaos alone. They amble abroad, muddled in new fear, puzzled by renewed patriotism.
Colleen Higgins, a UW-Madison junior spending the semester in Seville, Spain, desperately sought out other Americans to share her feelings of helplessness and homesickness.
""I found myself really reaching out to other Americans here,"" she said. ""I wanted to be in contact with the things that reminded me of home. For the first week after the attacks, about 100 American students here gathered every night in a small Irish pub that played CNN on a big-screen television. We needed that connection with the U.S.""
Bethany Kutz, a UW-Madison junior studying in Freiburg, Germany, also sought to fasten tightly to American friends.
""We definitely connected more with America and Americans within our group, supporting each other ... and some were perhaps less willing to discard positive things about America,"" she said.
Connected by telephone, e-mail and bits of foreign news, students tried to piece together what was happening at home.
""I would have given anything to be surrounded by Americans who felt the same as I did, to see the American flag flying at half staff, going to candlelight vigils and participating as an American with my fellow Americans,"" Pease said. ""A friend told me about the atmosphere in Madison, flags flying everywhere, candles out on every porch at dark. I felt as though I was missing my generation's Vietnam.""
She knows she will remember exactly what she was doing when the news struck, just as her parents remember the day President Kennedy was shot.
UW-Madison boasts a strong study abroad tradition, offering degree programs in more than 60 different countries on six continents. In 1999, a record-number 1,297 students studied abroad through programs ranging from three weeks in Brazil to a year in Japan. Enrollment this fall is consistent with recent years and university officials are not expecting the numbers to decline, even in light of war. Though only 5.2 percent of UW-Madison students studying abroad do so in the Middle East, the university sends proportionately more students there, as well as to Asia and Africa, than the national average. Almost 70 percent of UW-Madison students studying abroad are in Europe, with 12 percent in Latin America and 10 percent in Asia.
""There is no evidence to suggest that study abroad will not continue in the coming years,"" said Joan Raducha, assistant dean of academic affairs at UW-Madison.
Some students agree and hope their peers remain optimistic.
Mike Grandkoski, a UW-Madison senior, departed from O'Hare International Airport for Dakar, Senegal Oct. 13. Senegal, a country on the coast of western Africa, is slightly smaller than South Dakota and more than 90 percent Muslim. Some friends said he was senseless to venture to a predominantly Muslim country during a time of international and religious tumult fueled by extreme Islamic fundamentalists. But Grandkoski had been planning his trip for months, long before commercial airliners crashed into colossal American landmarks and threats of bioterrorism reigned constant. He couldn't justify postponing his adventure.
""I didn't really consider it,"" he said.
To remain at home would give into fear'something he believes would make the terrorists seem victorious.
""That's the whole point of terrorism'to make you afraid,"" Grandkoski said.
Torin Kexel, also a UW-Madison senior and one of Grandkoski's closest friends, took him to the airport to bid him farewell. He spent a year in Senegal himself and knows exactly what awaits his friend.
""There is no place that I'd feel safer right now than in Senegal,"" Kexel said. ""Their concepts of Islam are entirely different than the extremist beliefs that led to Sept. 11 and they are very peace loving.""
Understandably, Grandkoski admitted to certain unease.
""I'm pretty good at hiding my emotions so I try not to let it get to me, but when President Bush warned [in early October] that more attacks could be coming, that was a little unsettling for me,"" he said.
In fact, the FBI has warned all Americans at home and abroad to remain on the highest state of alert, alluding that further terrorist attacks are not only possible but likely. And although they can't be traced to Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, there has been an onslaught of anthrax-tainted letters infiltrating the offices of politicians, journalists and postal workers around the country. To date, five Americans have died from inhalation anthrax, spread by an unknown source. The idea is putting students everywhere on edge.
For their part, university officials say they are doing everything possible to ensure students are safe, secure and informed.
""We are in communication with students abroad through e-mail and our on-site staff,"" Raducha said. ""All the students were contacted after Sept. 11 and we closely monitor the [U.S.] State Department's Web site for travel announcements and advisories. This is standard operating procedure and all to enhance [the students'] safety.""
But this confidence does little to pacify fear.
""My biggest fear is the outbreak of biological or nuclear warfare,"" said UW-Madison junior Renee Turdot, who is studying in Perth, Australia. ""If either one of these were to occur, the whole human race would be in a heap of trouble, regardless of where anybody comes from or what religion anybody practices. Everybody will be affected then and it won't be pretty.""
Other students who live in smaller towns and cities said they feel somewhat safer, but would be more fearful in larger places like London, Paris or Madrid.
""They say London is next,"" said Lindsey Ascher, a UW-Madison senior studying there. ""I am fearful to be around the American Embassy, the Underground [subway] or the financial district with Britain standing shoulder to shoulder with America.""
Still, other UW-Madison students from South America to southeast Asia, said they feel safer abroad than they would at home. Though some said they'd come home early to be near loved ones if the situation worsened, most would not consider cutting their trips short. While students seek solace from family and friends at home, they acknowledge the security found abroad'a frightening sentiment from a generation of Americans unversed in war and domestic insecurity.
In some ways the tragic events united the globe, people of all nationalities sharing sympathies and sorrow.
Spaniards don ""I ?? NY"" T-shirts. A provincial French mayor set up free phone lines for Americans to call home. Foreign universities have sponsored candlelight vigils and prayer services.
Erin Womersley, a UW-Madison junior living in Aix-en-Provence, France, attended a local memorial service for the victims. It touched her deeply.
""French and American students joined together for this, and as I left the church, the tears just would not stop, partially because of the shock of the things that had happened and partially because of the obvious support of the French,"" she said. ""The church was packed full of citizens of Aix showing their support. Afterwards they gave us flowers and offered kind words and kisses on both cheeks, a French sign of friendship.""
There have been other signs of support as well. A professor in Aix-en-Provence broke down in tears during a lecture. To a student searching for an apartment, a landlord in Madrid offered words of encouragement for Americans and spite for those who attacked them. Strangers on subways, new friends and flatmates offered sympathies for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.
However, as American military offensives continue in Afghanistan some of that sympathy is turning sour. The United States may claim to be the most powerful country in the world'but it is certainly not the most popular. As some UW-Madison students tell it, the United States has a long way to go in establishing strong international friendship and respect.
Gwenyth Lee, a UW-Madison junior studying in Bristol, England, sees burgeoning patriotism within the United States having a negative affect abroad. She believes that as Americans rally to fight terrorism, they unwittingly risk isolating themselves further from the rest of the world.
American patriotism is often perceived as ""my country is always right,"" said Lee, who grows tired of anti-Osama bin Laden and anti-Islamic jokes sent to her over e-mail. ""I don't believe Americans are showing their best faces when they display this type of behavior.""
UW-Madison senior Ben Chevis, who is spending the year in Bonn, Germany, concurred. He said he is almost glad to be away from home because he disagrees with many U.S. foreign policies, doesn't consider himself to be very patriotic and believes bolstered American spirits would wear on his nerves.
""At first, the German people were extremely sympathetic, even more than myself and other Americans, but this sympathy has slowly changed,"" Chevis said. The bombing, he added, seems to have produced some anti-American attitudes.
Lee, Chevis and other students don't always see this renewed American spirit as productive patriotism, perhaps fear cloaked in self-righteousness.
Moreover, anti-American sentiments abroad are not limited to theoretical opinions. Students say they've encountered snide remarks, anti-American graffiti, banners and jokes.
Megan Hofacker, a UW-Madison junior in Perth, vacationed in Bali, Indonesia, after the attacks, despite initial qualms about traveling. She and fellow travelers were stunned to see bumper stickers with Osama bin Laden's face on a motorbike at their hotel, even more so when approached and verbally assaulted by a stranger simply for being American.
""We were in a bar and a guy came up to my friends and started asking where we were from,"" she said. ""We usually told people we were Australian or English or Canadian, but he called our bluff and started saying, 'You're fucking Americans'you lie, you die.'""
Hofacker is one of many students advised by fellow students and program advisers to hide her nationality. In the wake of Sept. 11, you shouldn't flaunt it, she said. It just isn't safe.
Pease wiped tears from her eyes as she stared quietly at her television set in Quito, Ecuador. She is not yet numb to the horror as the war against terrorism unfolds. Each day soldiers deploy, missiles strike and lives extinguish'the end may not be near. She and many other UW-Madison students will return home long before any national reconciliation occurs. Thus, they sojourn abroad, disallowing circumstance to dictate the fate of their semester. Even so, their hearts remain cemented at home.
