A series of unfortunate events led me to the J-Term trip that went on to change my life forever. Last spring I signed up and committed to go on the J-Term trip to St. Maarten with the Education Department. Being an education major made me extremely excited for the prospects of spending a J-Term on an island teaching. All was well for the summer and … Continue reading Tales from Abroad – Ella Napton

This past J-term, I joined 39 Gustavus students and three professors from the Physics department on the trip of a lifetime to New Zealand and Australia for five weeks. I learned so much about myself, traveling, and the way of life for people in these countries. We started our trip in Christchurch, New Zealand and studied astronomy there for one week. The next week was … Continue reading Tales from Abroad – Liz Geerdes

It is every college student’s dream to go abroad, but very rarely does it come to be that our deepest hopes ever come to fruition. As us eleven Gustie girls sat on our third rumbly bus of the day, weaving through the streets of Chimbote, Peru, we sat in awe as the weightiness of these final moments before our official arrival at our host parish, … Continue reading Tales from Abroad – Lily Winter

In January 2018, the Gustavus Wind Orchestra embarked on a sixteen-day life-changing tour to Sweden and Norway. Six concerts were performed on this tour, allowing the ensemble to share its music throughout the Swedish cities of Stockholm, Uppsala, Falun and Karlstad, as well as the Norwegian cities of Oslo and Bergen. The Gustavus Wind Orchestra has toured every year since 1881, standing as the oldest … Continue reading Tales from Abroad – Sydney Hedberg

Last spring, instead of the flat prairie farmland of St. Peter, I was surrounded by mountains and a chilly ocean with swarms of penguins zooming by. I studied abroad in South Africa as part of a program called, “Multiculturalism and Human Rights.” There were twenty-two students in all, and we journeyed all across South Africa. We were based in Cape Town, but took excursions to … Continue reading Tales from Abroad – Laura Isdahl

I studied abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia in the Fall of 2015. One highlight? Babies in jars. If you cross the Dvortsoviy Bridge on Nevsky Prospekt and hang a left you’ll come across the Kuntskamera, Russia’s first anthropological museum. You begin on the first floor and pretend like you’re interested in all the old clothes from cultures across the world, but as you ascend the … Continue reading Tales from Abroad – Jenna Hooper

Hej alla från Sverige! Life is good. I have now lived in Sweden for over two months and I don’t even want to think about having to leave in June. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I fell hard for this place. When I first drove from the airport to my cousin’s, it almost felt like I had never left Minnesota. The trees … Continue reading Tales from Abroad – Caroline Probst

When I went to Japan, I wanted to have various experiences and go to a new place every day. I also wanted to eat a variety of Japanese cuisine. I assumed that I would make friends, but I didn’t think about it too much before I went. I mainly wanted to make friends to go with trips on. Since my host family turned out to … Continue reading Tales from Abroad – Anna Lund