Any experience with Russia?

cheburashka
Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:59:56 +0000

Even for someone who has lived in a russian-speaking country for half of her life, it can be a little scary visiting Russia as a foreigner. The best tip I can give for getting along on a day-to-day basis is to try your very best to look and behave like a Russian. (That’s a little vague, I know.) The main thing is that the people in Russia are usually able to tell very quickly (before you even open your mouth) whether you belong there or not. If you want to appear like you fit in and thus pass through public places without drawing unwanted attention to yourself, try to mimic the style choices of Russians. Russian people are generally more fashion conscious than their American counterparts, and won’t see as many people out in public dressed in an overly casual manner (i.e. sweatpants, plain shirts, ridiculous footwear like crocs or flip flops, or ill-fitting clothes). If you’re a girl, it’ll take even more effort not to stand out, as many Russian girls tend to color/dye their hair (mostly blonde) & wear heels everywhere possible. That’s just the culture there, and it’s accepted and expected. But, of course, most people aren’t well off enough for it to look really fashionable and classy, so a lot of it comes across as clearly fake & a bit like they’re “trying too hard.”

So, anyway, even after you manage to visually fit in (which, admittedly, is much easier for white people to do than for asians, blacks, hispanics, etc), you might run into some problems once you start speaking and people realize you’re a foreigner. Unless you’re in Moscow or St. Petersburg, foreigners are not all too common in Russia, so people will most likely either be so fascinated with you that it might make you feel a bit like a zoo animal or they’ll try to evaluate how easy it is to scam you and/or leech off of your American/English money & naivete (& proceed to do so).

Also, you’re probably aware that most of Russia in the winter is no pleasant place to be. It’s beyond freezing, the days are über short, everything looks bleak and depressing, and most areas are pretty sketchy and to some degree scary. Oh, and poverty. Other than the urban centers, most residential places are full of it, so that adds to the depressingness of it.

I’ve just re-read what I wrote and I’m aware that it sounds rather cynical. Meh. Anyway. The point is that your life would be much easier if you studied abroad at, say, a nation in the EU, rather than in Russia.