From Russia with love

cool building
McDonalds in russian.
outside the cool mansion thingy.
me and tanner


me and jenna (from messiah) on our boat cruise on the moscow river.
me and kaylin. yeah, she's that short
part of an outdoor memorial on the spot where russia stopped the german advance in ww2.

no trumpets in this park (actually means no honking)
tanner, myself, kaylin (mt. vernon nazarene), and sam (eastern mennonite university) at a circus in russia. way good times. saw a poodle do a backflip. who would've thought? unfortunately, no bears were part of the acts.
outside a sweet huge cathedral. my attempt at being creativee.
no matter where i go in this world, i never fit.
me and nick (from florida and attends eastern mennonite in virgina) in front of the sweetest cathedral ever.
one of stalin's creations in honor of himself. i think this is now moscow university.
tanner and john (biola) and john (messiah) in front of some sweet russian architecture
john crowell from biola. i love this photo.
out in red square. so cool.

me and denny. two small town boys livin it up in moscow.
on the bus ride from lithuania to latvia
russia!
me with yomi and wairimu (both from messiah)
bekah (messiah) and zach (mt. vernon nazarene)
more gold tops in russia
hill of crosses

me and john crowell (biola)
one of my favorites from the hill of crosses

one of our corporate visits. this is a company in klaipeda, lithuania who make these plastic polymer thingys that are eventually made into bottles, plastic wrap, etc.
me and ben at a pier overlooking the baltic sea (lithuania)
it seems like every restuarant we go to gets crazier and crazier. this one had a huge playground complex on it. this little ride was tons of fun. we even got our program director and my academic advisor, dr. webb, out on it
more hill of crosses
another favorite from the hill of crosses. i apologize for the disorder of my photos. still haven't figured out how to load them chronologically. if i had more time i could figure it out.

well, due to my lack of internet access in russia, i haven't had the opportunity to update this, but i've got like 10 minutes left on my tab in this internet cafe in my hotel so i'll do what i can.

monday and tuesday involved a lot of classes and few corporate visits (one was to Jazaki wiring where they made electrical harnesses for cars and another where they made plastic stuff) wednesday was a test (still haven't figured out what i scored). thursday we hoped on a bus for a 6hr drive to riga latvia where we had lunch then jumped on a sleeper train for a 17hr overnight ride to moscow russia. on the way to Riga we stopped at a place in Lithuania called the Hill of Crosses. An amazing history and also a beautiful location (check it out in wikipedia). the train ride wasn't to bad and the beds weren't too short but overall a good time. since being in russia we have been to the kremlin, toured around the moscow metro, gone to a circus, been to a couple different outdoor markets, seen lenin's tomb in red square (creepy), gone on a boat trip down the moscow river, gone on a bus tour around moscow, taken a ton of naps on the bus cause we hardly sleep, gone to a russian baptist church (2hr service), and walked around this huge mansion complex (oh yeah, also ate a ton of hot dogs). alright got to fly will update later.

Klaipeda and sanddunes

me with kaylin. she is 5ft. I am 6ft8. such a good combo.

a racetrack for bikes right next to the Lithuania Christian College in Klaipeda
some sanddunes on the baltic sea we hiked around for awhile
more sanddunes with part of our group in the foreground.
typical trash and recycle cans
we hiked through on a trail that had a ton of wood statues and this was paft of one.

so we are staying at the LCC International University in Klaipeda and on sundays, there is a church service held at the school. it was pretty cool being able to sing worship songs next to Lithuanians (although some of the songs were in lithuanian). luckily an american professor preached today so we were able to understand. after church and lunch we took after for a little resort island thingy, where we hung out at a beach which bordered the baltic sea, we hiked around some sand dunes, then took this trail through the woods where we saw a ton of crazy wood sculptures. we must have come at the right time because you would not believe how many bugs were flying around. clouds upon clouds. luckily they weren't biting otherwise we would've been toast (and i would've been sucked dry). we got back around 7:30ish, and we where on our own for dinner (we got a money allowance here for about 3 dinners), so some of us went to a local grocery store and I loaded up on sandwich stuff. it is close to 11, although it feels much earlier. I'm off to study soon, so that is it for tonight. g'night.

Vilnius and castles

inside the president's palace
inside one of the church's we visited

kaylin from Mt. Vernon, Peter from Wheaton, Zach from Mt. Zernon, and myself outside the castle.
the castle
inside a church
denny and I outside of the president's palace
old woman on the street.
Today was pretty sweet. After another breakfast of cheese, meat, and bread, and a devotion lead by Dr. LaFrance (talked about integrity and mentioned various examples in the Bible), we headed off the President's Palace (he doesn't work there, but lives there). We had a guided tour and learned about some of the ways the current president has impacted Lithuania's foreign policy. After that we took a brief tour through two cathedrals then went to Trakai castle, which was pretty sweet. After lunch (chicken and rice) we had a 3+hr drive to Klaipeda, where we currently are. it is almost 10pm but it literally looks like it could be 7pm out (it isn't really dark at all). Unfortunately the weather has been pretty cold and raining the last few days but it makes sense because we just found out that Lithuania means "rain".

We are going to be here in Klaipeda for the next few days and I am in a quad rooming with a guy from Mt. Vernon Nazarene in Ohio, another guy from Biola, and a guy from Eastern Mennonite University in Virgina. All pretty cool dudes.

Since this is a university campus, they do have a bball court and a weight room, and although they are closed tonight, looking forward to being active the next few days. alright, i'm off, got to go read some economics, oh so exciting. later.

Long days and long nights

a ketchup bottle. The language here is totally different than anything I've heard before
some of the cells where the KGB held prisoners (up till the 1980's i believe)
some blacks swams out on a lake right outside where we had dinner. can't say I had ever seen black swans before tonight.
ceiling of the overhang of a cathedral.

My first blog post in Europe. How cool is this. My 10 week trip began on Wednesday, May 21st. I left LAX around noon, got into Detroit, flew the whole night to London, spent 7 hours in the airport, and arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania around 10pm on the 22nd. Lots and lots of traveling and hardly any sleep. Luckily I had aisle seats on the 3 flights but still, no sleep. One thing I can say is that London is way too expensive (1 pound is about 2 dollars). For lunch I went to burger king and got a meal and it was a little over 12 bucks for a super small burger, a large fry and a soda (no free refills). if london is in your future travel plans, bring lots of extra cash.

There is 42 of us in this group and it is a pretty good representation of schools and states across the country. There is about 10 of us from California which is awesome. I am finally not the odd man out. And while I am still the tallest, there is about 5-6 other guys ranging from 6ft to six four, so that is cool (although one girl is 5ft so she evens us out). we will have different roommates everywhere we stay, but right now I am with John Crowell, pretty cool dude who is from phoenix, but goes to Biola in Southern California.

Our schedule has been pretty full since we got here. Today we had breakfast at 7:30am, had devotions and orientation after until 10am, we toured a museum that was an old KGB office/prison/execution chamber/etc, from there we had lunch (had pizza!), after that we went to the U.S. embassy here in Vilnius (really enjoyed this part. even though I almost feel asleep a couple of times, the lady was super interesting. she is a foreign service officer and definitely got me thinking out that line of work). after that we had class for 2 hours on comparative economic systems and our first test in that class is wednesday (told ya it wasn't all fun and games). from there we had dinner at a restaurant that reminded me of a hunting lodge. we got back to the hotel around 9:30pm and some of us decided to walk around town and I just got back from that (its about 10:30pm).

Tomorrow we visit the President's Palace, take a tour of Trakai castle, and take a bus to Klaipeda where will we stay at a Christian college there until thursday. Sunday is chruch, monday is a lot of classes and a corporate visit to Jazaki Wiring, tuesday is classes and a visit to a Free Economic Zone, Wed = classes, thursday we depart for Riga, Latvia to catch our 14+hr overnight train to Moscow.

Not sure on the availability of internet access, but will update this as much as possible.

So far, this has been awesome. Cool country, my group is pretty sweet, and the food has been good. Besides not much sleep, no complaints.