Fast Facts: 1948 Arcadia University European Field Trip

• Number of students: 23


• Cost per student: $750


• Budget for expenses per day: $2


• All travel arrangements were made via airmail, requiring a 2-week interval between request and response.


• Transportation: 25 spaces were booked on the S.S. Washington, of United States Lines, at $340 per berth; 25 Royal Air Force surplus bicycles were purchased through a friend of John Wallace’s in England.


• Time allotted for 6-week program: England, 21 days (Winchester, Oxford, London and Canterbury); Belgium, 4 days (Bruges, Brussels); France, 10 days (Paris and environs); Switzerland, 7 days (Bernese Oberland)


• No other college offered short-term summer overseas study abroad during the summer of 1948


• Number of flat tires changed: 60


• Most Challenging Moments:
• Covering 55 hilly miles from Oxford to London in 6 hours.
• Bicycling across Paris from Gard du Nord to Cite Universitaire during afternoon rush hour.
• Convincing a student not to run off and marry an Oxford student she’d met and fallen in love with 5 days earlier.