Gratitude and Admiration

This past Saturday, I attended an event for the women on campus. We ate a bunch of yummy muffins and listened to faculty give talks about the importance of gratitude. One of the speakers gave some excellent suggestions and even started a facebook group to help us begin practicing the discipline of gratitude in our every day lives. There are several suggested activities, including writing what she called "gratigraphs", letters of thanks to people who have impacted us in some way. Since tonight was our last group dinner for this semester's study abroads, I'm feeling a bit emotional about the reality that I will be leaving here in a week. So I decided to write my first "gratigraph" to the students of LCC.

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To my fellow students at LCC,
    Some of you may or may not know this, but the motto of the study abroad program is "I am a risk taker". I think it's meant in part to encourage us to be the kind of person who takes risks, who goes outside their comfort zone, travels to a part of the world many Americans know little about and learns to live in another culture. When I came here in August I thought I knew what that meant. After all, I was leaving behind everything and everyone I knew to come to this country that I'd only recently located on a map. I was pretty brave.
       Then I arrived in Lithuania and was hit head on with what it meant to be completely helpless in a foreign place. I couldn't say anything that wasn't English or Ačiu. During the first days of classes, Radvyda asked everyone in our Lithuanian class to say what languages they spoke. All of the Americans quickly listed English and maybe French or Spanish. It took everyone else in class a bit longer though, as some listed up to five different languages. FIVE?! My brain couldn't comprehend that. How do you speak five languages? It was one of many clues that helped me realize I was studying alongside some pretty remarkable people. As the weeks passed and I saw how hard my friends were working at their schoolwork, my admiration for you grew. I still had trouble remembering basic words in Lithuanian. You were writing and expressing complex ideas in English, which for many of you is your second, third or fourth language. I saw your tears and heard your sighs of frustration. The one thing I never saw you do was give up. Even when it was extremely difficult, you never treated the chance to be here at LCC as anything other than a gift. I have learned so much about determination and perseverance from watching you. You leave your families and countries to study in a foreign country for four years, in another language. You're the real risk takers and you're going to do amazing things.
        Not only that, but you showed me an entirely new perspective of relationships. I am shy person by nature and I sometimes struggle with reaching out, especially in new situations. I'm sure some of you felt equally uncertain when you first came here. Yet, what I saw at LCC was a community of students who were willing and open to embracing others. Even the weird American who didn't wear shoes and was only going to be here for four months. You loved me as if I was going to stay longer and made me stop and rethink the value of a few short months.
        You have the remarkable ability to come together as people from many different countries and create a singe, unified student body. When people in town made hurtful comments about our fellow students from Russia I watched people literally running to put up flags and stand with them. And I saw what it means to love people over politics.
        I could probably keep listing things for a long time, but there aren't really enough words to express the gratitude I feel for this semester. Thank you, LCC. Thank you for the privilege and the joy of living here as one of you. Next week, I'll go back to America, but I will never forget the people I've met here or the lessons I've learned.

Cathedrals, Soviets and the Glory of God

       For the past week LCC has been on fall break. All of us study abroads, our interns and some of the SA staff spent the week traveling around in Moscow and Saint Petersburg Russia. The entire trip was amazing. We saw so many beautiful things and really fell in love with the small slice of Russian culture we were able to experience. Several of us (myself included) mentioned at the of the week how sad we were to leave. 

Saint Basil's Cathedral

Moscow

        One of my favorite parts of our trip was getting to explore a lot of Orthodox cathedrals. Words fail to describe how stunningly gorgeous they are and unfortunately I was only able to get pictures inside one of them. Their outsides are covered with ornate decorations and murals of Christ, his Mother and the saints. The roofs are onion-shaped, topped with crosses and often covered with gold (the symbol of heaven and eternity) or a mix of blue paint and gold accents (blue being the color of piety and humility). But it was the inside of the churches that truly took my breath away. From the moment I stepped in the door, my eyes were overwhelmed by the beauty and color. Chandeliers and gold accents threw light on walls covered from ceiling to floor in brightly colored murals. Every inch of the building was a theological statement, meant to convey some truth about God or teach lessons through the lives of holy men and women. One can only imagine the enormous financial and physical effort put into making these buildings. In Saint Basil's alone, the murals took 350 years to complete. 

Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Moscow

The Soviets blew it up and turned the resulting low ground into a public swimming pool. It was recently rebuilt.

        In contrast to all this heavenly beauty was the knowledge we gained about the Soviet occupation of Russia. We learned how the atheistic Soviet regime oppressed religion in Russia. Churches were blown up, the great bells were stolen and melted down, stained glass windows were taken from Moscow churches and used to decorate the metro stations. In Saint Petersburg, our guide told us how the cathedral of St. Isaac was turned into a museum of atheism which the government used to show people in an attempt to turn them against the church. Tour groups were brought into the church and Soviet officials spoke derisively about the great waste of resources used to make these churches that honor a God who the regime insisted didn't exist. Our guide explained that monasteries were also treated as tourist sites and the monks there were openly mocked by visitors for living lives devoted to a non-existent Deity.  The more I thought about all this, the more one question became a recurring theme in my head. What do Orthodox cathedrals have to teach me about the nature and worship of God?              
         While I was in Russia, an American friend posted this article to facebook that helped me articulate what I had been feeling all week. In it, Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware explains the reason why the Church makes their buildings so ornate. They are trying to emulate the beauty of heaven, to help the congregation worship with another, realer, more beautiful realm in mind. Legend says that when the Russian prince Vladimir l sent out emissaries to explore and report on the main religions of the time he decided upon Eastern Orthodoxy in part because of their description of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. "We knew not," they said, "whether we were in heaven or on earth. For surely there is no such beauty anywhere on the earth. Only this we know: that God dwells there among humankind and that their worship surpasses the worship of all other places; for we cannot forget that beauty." I can honestly say I know the feeling. It is a humbling thing to stand in the presence of such beauty and realize that this is what the Orthodox church thinks of God.  He is great and glorious enough to be worthy of magnificent cathedrals that sparkle with gold and jewels, of painstaking artwork and staggering amounts of money and labor. The Soviets would say all that time and money would be better spent making life better for the common people. Perhaps they were half right. God certainly wants us to give our time and resources to help those in need. He would never want His people to spend all their time building pretty buildings and ignore the needs of His greatest creation, humankind. However, I've come to the conclusion that extravagant displays of devotion are not always a waste. Like the Tabernacle of the Old Testament, they serve to remind us just how truly wonderful God is. I found myself wondering if I honestly believe that about God. I give lip service to His greatness, but I would ever be willing to devote my money and talents to making something as exquisite as these churches? 

Saint Isaac's Cathedral, Saint Petersburg

      I was speechless in Russia's cathedrals more times than I can count. Over and over again I found myself in awe of the faith they revealed and the majesty they proclaimed. I also began to wonder what effect they had on visitors during Soviet times. The regime may have used them for anti-religious propaganda, but surely some of the people who entered felt the same sense of wonder I did. In the same article, Bishop Ware quotes Russian author Theodore Dostoyevsky, "Beauty will save the world". The cathedrals of Moscow and Saint Petersburg have stood for centuries, with a golden-domed glory that outlived Stalin. The elderly people I saw in prayer services, old enough to remember the Soviet Union yet participating in the service with the familiar air of lifelong devotion,  are proof that they continued to point people's hearts towards God and Heaven, even in the darkest of times. They continue to serve their purpose well. They pulled my heart heavenwards too.

Cathedral of the Savior of Spilled Blood, Saint Petersburg

It's been turned into a museum so I was able to take pictures of the inside.

"You are worthy, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they were created

and have their being."

Revelation 4:11

Reflections on Freedom

        Freedom, democracy, brave. As an American, I always liked to think I had a pretty good grasp of what these words meant. That all changed when I came here. Spending the last month living and traveling in a part of the world where the people have recently had to fight and struggle for liberty has changed my viewpoint a lot.
       Last weekend our study abroad group spent the weekend in Tallinn, Estonia and Riga, Latvia. Together with Lithuania these two countries comprise the Baltic States. As we toured and walked around the historical picture that was painted began to fall into a similar pattern as Lithuania: medieval kingdoms and conflicts, brief periods of independence, occupations by Nazis and the Soviet Union, recently declared independence in the early 1990's after social movements like The Singing Revolution and The Baltic Way. It's been interesting to try and wrap my head around the fact that all three of these nations are simultaneously older than the US and younger than me. Lithuania was the first of them to declare independence, three days after I was born. 
       What has impressed me most in everything I have learned so far is the enormous amount of courage it took for the people here to stand up and resist in the face of so much oppression. At the Genocide Museum in Vilnius, which was once the KGB headquarters, I stood outside of the "Listening Room". This was where the government kept tabs on things like phone calls and radios. We joke about things like that in America, "Big Brother is watching", but here it was true. (I know many Americans are upset about some of our government's current surveillance methods, but we can publicly complain about it without fear of being deported to Siberia.) In other exhibits we saw how Soviet spies disguised themselves on the streets, posing as workers, pedestrians and even as parents with small children, in order to gather information on the surrounding population. The bodies of executed political prisoners were often tossed into the city square to serve as examples and the slightest hint of negative emotion on the faces of passersby could lead to their arrest and deportation for sympathizing with enemies of the state. You couldn't trust anyone. Pretty much everyone about 30 and older remembers living in this atmosphere of fear. However, that didn't stop them from fighting back.
      This past Wednesday, I was able to attend an event on campus highlighting a series of photos taken by an LCC professor to commemorate the Baltic Way. One of the special guests was the vice-mayor of Klaipeda, who spoke about his role in directing a portion of the human chain which stretched across 600 kilometers and 3 capitals. About 2 million people (approximately 25% of the population of the Baltic States) participated and according to the vice-mayor, they were not afraid, because they knew they were standing up for freedom. After 50 years of suffering they told the Soviet Union no. And they won.
        Hearing the words "freedom" and "democracy" in this context has greatly increased my appreciation for them. They mean something special to people here and they mean more to me now too. America may be the "home of the brave" but she's not alone. There are millions of brave people in this part of the world. I hope learning about their stories will always inspire me to never take my own freedom for granted.

The KGB Listening Room

Plaque in Tallinn commemorating the Baltic Way 

Finally, An Update

             Since it’s been almost two weeks since I left for Lithuania, I guess it’s about time for me to update this blog.  It’s a bit difficult for me to wrap my mind around everything I’ve seen and done in the past two weeks. So much has happened that it feels like I must have been here a lot longer.

            I arrived in Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius on the 26^th of August. All of us study abroad students were taken to our hostels and then we spent the next couple of days touring the city with our awesome interns Roberta, Mira, Roman, Dasha and Hedi. The interns are fellow LCC students who have volunteered to spend the semester helping us by accompanying us on all of our trips, making sure we know about the history and significance of the places we visit, showing us the basics of getting around Klaipeda and generally being cool people to hang out with. We love them.

            During our time in Vilnius, we got see such places as the castle of Gediminas, the great warrior who founded the city and the building which used to house the headquarters/prison of the KGB, as well as the Gestapo during WWII. This last tour was particularly moving, as we learned about what people in this part of the world suffered during the Nazi and Soviet occupations. We saw photos, documents, artifacts and prison cells, including the room where many people were executed for opposing those in power. It definitely increased my respect for all the brave dissidents who participated in resistance movements such as the Baltic Way. 

Gediminas' Castle

Statue of Gediminas

At the museum

Exhibit showing some of the beautiful needlework done by people who were exiled for being political dissidents or being related to dissidents.

The lovely castle at Trakai

            On Friday, we set off for Klaipeda and LCC. On our way we stopped in the city of Trakai to visit the island castle of Vytautas, Lithuania’s greatest duke. We had a great time exploring the castle and the surrounding town. We arrived at LCC later that day and got settled into our dorms. I met my roommates. All three of them are freshmen from Ukraine. They’re a lot of fun and I’m enjoying getting to know them.

            Some of my favorite things from the rest of orientation weekend were the scavenger hunt we had looking for different places around Klaipeda and last Saturday’s trip to the Baltic Sea.

            Monday was the start of school. I think all of my classes are going to be interesting, especially my Christian Classics class. I’m looking forward to learning more about theologians I was introduced to during classes at JBU last year and discovering new ones. The last half of Monday classes were cancelled so that we could attend the opening convocation and then join all the other universities in Klaipeda on a march downtown to celebrate the start of the school year. I'm pretty convinced we need to start doing this in America. 

I love the pond on campus.

The Baltic Sea is so pretty.

Oh hey, there's some moose on the beach!

  The parade. LCC students carried the flags of their 

countries and many wore traditional clothing.

Of course being at a new school hasn’t stopped me from experiencing my usual first of the year brain freeze. So I got lost in the academic building, lost in my dorm, lost on the bus and discovered that crossing the Atlantic has not diminished my ability to trip on flat surfaces. Despite my inability to use a map (or gravity), I’m glad I’m here. Lithuania is a beautiful country, LCC is a great school and I’ve met a lot of great people that I look forward to living and studying alongside this semester.

            For anyone who’s interested in writing me while I'm here my address is:

LCC International University

C/O Hannah Nester

Kretingos 36,

LT - 92307 Klaipėda, Lithuania

"I'm Going on an Adventure!"

        "We wanted something thoroughly and uncompromisingly foreign--foreign from top to bottom--foreign from center to circumference--foreign inside and outside and all around--nothing anywhere about it to dilute its foreignness--nothing to remind us of any other people or any other land under the sun."  -From Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad  

               In six days, I get on a plane and the wish expressed in this quote will become a reality. I always knew I wanted to study abroad, but by last year, I concluded that it just wouldn’t be possible during undergrad. I needed certain classes to graduate that weren’t offered by any program I had looked at. Then I walked by a table in the student center of my school that was advertising a study abroad program in a place called Lithuania, which I vaguely recalled hearing exists somewhere in Eastern Europe. I had no intentions of applying. I just wanted to see pretty pictures of Europe. On a whim, I picked up a brochure of classes and opened it (rather cynically) thinking, “Why bother? They won’t have what I need. No one does.” They had everything I needed. In shock, I began to seriously talk to the recruiter, then left to look over the course listings on the college’s website. Maybe I had read it wrong? The website confirmed I hadn’t and the more I looked at what the program had to offer the more interested I became. It sounded too good to be true. An informational meeting, a meeting with my advisor (who was greatly impressed that the potential of studying abroad had prompted me to make an academic plan that went beyond two semesters) and a call home later and I made the decision to apply. I got the acceptance email in March, two days before my birthday and I’ve been pinching myself in disbelief ever since.

            I’m going to Europe. I’M GOING TO EUROPE! Specifically the city of Klaipeda, Lithuania to spend four months studying at Lithuania Christian College. I can’t wait to see what I’ll learn, get to know new people and experience seeing life through the eyes of another culture. Eleven months ago, I couldn’t have found Lithuania on a map. Now I not only know where it is (on the east coast of the Baltic Sea, east of Russia, north of Poland), I’m going to be living there. This blog will be my way of keeping people at home up to date on what I’m doing and learning.

            I’ve got my snow boots and Reese’s Pieces packed and I’m ready to go. (Apparently, handing out Reese’s Pieces is a great way to make friends over there. They don’t have them.)  Labas, Lithuania! See you soon!

Some pictures of Klaipeda, where I will be living and studying.  Photo credit Google Images