Letters from Abroad

Links to articles featuring study abroad at Bethel

Seeing God in Amsterdam (Bethel Parent, Spring 2003)
In the Footsteps of the Apostles (Bethel Parent, Spring 2003)
Study Abroad in Spain (Bethel Parent, Spring 2004)
Off-Campus Study Opportunities Shape Lives (Bethel Parent, Winter 2005)
Rainforest Adventures Typical of Study Abroad (Bethel Parent, Spring 2005)
NYCAMS: Bethel Art Education with a New York Touch (Bethel Parent, Fall 2005)
Training Bethel's "Global Ambassadors" (Bethel Parent, Winter 2006)
From Up North to Down Under (Bethel Parent, Winter 2008)

Letter from Mike Nordin - Studying at Lithuania Christian College in Klaipeda, Lithuania

Wow. I don’t even know where to start. The last week has been nothing short of amazing! Last Saturday morning (October 30th) all of the SA students piled on a bus outside the dorm and set out for Riga, Latvia where we would catch a train to Moscow, the capital of Russia! After the bus dropped us off at the train station we filed inside and stacked our bags up, left some people behind, and went out to get some snacks.

I would say that the first real experience of the trip (for me) happened when I got back to the train station. As I walked in, I saw Renalda (one of the SA Interns) and a few other SA students talking to this older homeless lady. So I walked over to see what was going on and couldn’t have been standing there for more than a minuet before my heart just broke and I had to walk away. Just to see this lady interact with us (carrying everything she owned in a plastic grocery bag) and all the other homeless people sitting around made me think about so many things. As I sat there and watched Renalda and other SA students interact with this lady I pondered so many things. Some of which surprised me and others stirred up feelings of disgust towards myself.

The overnight train to Moscow was such a blast. I shared a room with Matt, Andrew and Ben. We were up talking about things like theology, politics, economics, science, philosophy and a whole mess of other things till about 1 or 2 in the morning. Even though we all didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things we all had a great time sharing our views and definitely grew closer together in that process.

My favorite “sights” in Moscow were definitely Red Square (below on right), the Kremlin, Lenin’s tomb, and St. Basil’s Cathedral (below on left). St. Basil’s was especially cool. We got to go inside and walk around. It was both amazing and sobering to walk though and think that Napoleon himself had passed though the same corridors & staircases and that the church had survived the rise and fall of the USSR. Just to be in Red Square, it was impossible not to think about so many things.

I think that my two favorite activities in Moscow were definitely going to see the Russian Circus and the Snow Maiden (a ballet). The circus was so funny! We got to see a bunch of clowns riding a bike with huge inflatable tires about 6 feet tall and 2 feet wide. They would run the bike over each other, bounce off the tires and on to the seat or handle bars all while the bike was moving! Later on there was a bear riding a bike and that was definitely a sight to see.

One night I got to brush up on the bargaining skills in one of the street markets. I set out to find some Soviet coins as souvenirs and decided that I did not want to spend more than 100 rubles before I even went looking (this proved to be an unknowingly wise decision on my part later on). When I finally found a cart that had some, the vendor let me look though them all and told me that if I picked a few out, he would give me a better deal. So I found two that I liked and asked him how much he wanted for both of them. He tried to get me to pick more out but with my budget in mind I thought it best to stop at two. So I got him to tell me how much he wanted for just the two – 3,000 rubles! Keep in mind that the exchange rate is about 29.1 rubles to the dollar so this was just over $100. Definitely the “stupid tourist” price! My heart sank. I was certain that I would never be able to talk him down from 3,000 to 100 for both coins – let alone just one. I told him that I didn’t have nearly that much money (ok, so maybe I was lying) and that I would not be able to buy them. He tried for several minuets to get me to buy them anyway. He said he would take dollars and that he could tell me where a cash machine was. This whole time he kept bringing his price down. Finally I told him that all I had was 100 rubles and that I could not get any more money. After another 5 minuets or so of him trying to “help” me get more money and me saying that all I had was 100 rubles he finally said that he would sell the smaller of the two for 100 rubles. I couldn’t believe my ears! After I had paid him and I had received the coin, I had all I could do to keep from running back to my fellow SA students and telling them what had just happened. As I relayed the story to them, they were in awe and I myself had a difficult time believing what had just happened.

Our time in Moscow ended on Tuesday night (November 2) when we boarded yet another overnight train to St. Petersburg. Upon arriving the following morning it was interesting to note the contrasts between the two cities. Petersburg seemed cleaner, had rivers & canals running though it and presented the history of the Tsars while Moscow had a more urban feel and presented the Soviet history. The highlights of St. Petersburg were the Church of the Savior on the Spilt Blood (below on left), St. Isaac’s Cathedral (below on right), the Hermitage, and the Russian Artillery Museum.

We were really lucky to see St. Isaac’s without scaffolding on it. Apparently something happens every time the scaffolding is taken off so everyone is kind of wondering what will happen next. The Hermitage and Russian Artillery Museum were probably to two things that I liked the most.

Before it was turned into an art museum, the Hermitage was the Tsars’ palace. The art was pretty cool but the architecture, size and grandness of the palace was far more impressive to me. It’s really one of those things that you can’t even begin to comprehend how big it is until you’ve been there. I thought that if I was ever to come up with my own original design for a palace that it would never be nearly that big. I would just never be able to comprehend a palace so large on my own.

The Artillery Museum on the other hand, was interesting not so much because of the stuff that was there but because it was thought provoking. It was just really interesting to see all of the military might that once existed in this part of the world for protection from external powers; when it was powers from within that wound up binging about the end of the Soviet Union.

I spent my last day in St. Petersburg with Matt and Andrew. We did some shopping in the market. Once we were finished, we still had about five hours before we had to meet everyone at the hostel to go catch our train. So we walked though the streets talking, taking pictures, and having a great time! We finally found a little pizza restaurant where we decided to have a late lunch. We wound up spending about three hours in there just eating, talking and having “guy time.” It was so much fun to just hang out together and talk about anything and everything ranging from sports to religion to girls and much more. Over the past semester and especially this past week I have gotten to know Matt and Andrew so well and am really going to miss them after the semester is over.

As we were riding the train out of Russia Saturday night gave way to Sunday morning and my 22nd birthday. By 4:00 that afternoon when we arrived back at the dorm. I had been in Russia, Latvia and Lithuania – all on my birthday! After unpacking, settling back in, and catching up with my room mates and what they did over break, some SA students came to my room (at about 6:20ish) with homemade Selga, Nutella, and ice cream sandwiches! Shortly after that I went out to eat with some more SA students. It took about an hour and a half for all of us to get our food but that was ok because it gave us all a chance to hang out and talk. After I got back to the dorm and into my room, my room mates pulled out a cake and we sat around eating it and talking for a couple of hours. Three parties all in one night – wow! The last six hours of the day were so amazing and wonderful. I felt so blessed to have and be around so many people that cared about me. It’s so interesting to think that we all met each other just over two months ago.

This semester has been more than worth it even if only for the people that I have met and the relationships that I have been able to build. I miss you all and am looking forward to seeing you again soon! Keep in touch – it makes my day when I get e-mail from you all.

-Mike