Kelly's Russian Observations

“Dobrea utra” (good morning in Russian) friends,
Although our stay in Russia was rather short I feel like I came across a lot of interesting things.
The culture seems to be shockingly different than the ones I've come
across so far. Here are some of my observations (perhaps completely
unrepresentative but this is what my [limited] experience has revealed to
me).

Hard to Communicate
When we first arrived, St. Petersburg was a busy place: crazy traffic,
lots of small scale construction (one or two men working with hand tools on the side of the road) that would continue until 9 or 10 at
night, and plenty of uniformed men (police and many different types of army
uniforms). Asking for directions or answers often proved unsuccessful for no
one that we asked spoke english, even the younger generation which was a
bit of a surprise for me. It seems that Russian people are less willing to communicate non-verbally. Once they heard that we didn’t speak Russian they would just not bother. The common response to our questions was a quick "no".
However, we did meet some extremely hospitable, kind and generous Russian people that showed us around and made large efforts to communicate with us in English and/or sign/body language. Namely, Sasha, Masha, Denis and his Mom. Thanks again you really made our travels through Russian fun and insightful.

Tough outer shell
People walking in the streets predominantly wore tough or grumpy faces and
I found myself commonly doing the same in order to blend in and to feel
less like a target. It was, surprisingly, fun. We called it our "Russian
night time faces and voices". But it was also hard to meet people because
I felt like I had to be tough and talking to people made me feel more
vulnerable or weak. Friendly people are so much easier to confront. And
often when people did smile I felt it was more like a sneer or smirk, like
they were laughing or making fun of us. That's just the feeling I got
though. People did laugh and make small talk with eachother at times too. A friend from Belgium made an interesting point that people in Russia haven't experienced democracy like we "the west" have. The USSR only broke up in 1991, not so long ago at all, and people are still very affected by that. Perhaps a
reason for the less showing of emotions in the streets. I also read in a
book called "Russia" which gathered, via personal interviews, that Russia is still not in a democracy, that the elections were fixed, and that people aren't really happier now than they were before.
We were also told that once you get to know someone in Russia they can be really kind but it is a steep curve to get over.

Social interaction:
The way Russian people talk to eachother or to foreigners seems to be very
attacking and also very honest and blunt. Listening to our hostel
receptionist in Moscow converse with the guests really showed me this. But
this also seems very normal for them and that they don't take offense. This is just the way the communicate.This was hard for me to understand. I kept taking offense.

Bribes and theft:
Bribes and mugging seems to be just a part of life.
A friend described mugging as such:
Perhaps I would get stopped by the police
They'll say I ran a red light or made a mistake.
They'll ask what shall we do about this?
She might say Well you know I'm a poor student and I don't have much money.
And they'll say maybe we'll have to take away your license?
And she'll say, well maybe I can pay something? (I'm not sure about the
last line there but it ends in paying off the police). This is because the
police don't get paid so much but the bribes don't stop there. That police
officer will then have to bribe her boss for something and that boss
bribes her boss all the way up to the government level and then to
corporations perhaps.

Theft also seems to be rather frequent. A friend told me that her mother
got her purse stolen so many times she lost count and that it is quite
common that a person has been robbed or pick pocketed at least once in St.
Pete. “Yeah it sucks but you live through it”, seemed to be the attitude.

Food:
Russians also drink a lot of tea. The trains would have hot water on demand and lent out free tea cups. They are not too big into vegetables though, which I think may have something to do with poor people growing a lot of there own vegetables. Hence, eating vegetables is seen as a lower class thing to do.

More differences:
The Suana or Banya seems to be common but it is apparantly not as hot
However you get hit with sticks during the process and wear a funny hat to
protect yourself from your hair.

When I mentioned that I wanted to help out, "contribute", along my travels
a friend I met in Russia told me that was a very western thing to do and that
Russian people really don't have this need or desire.

Of course, I noticed that trash on the street is very common and that
there is no signs of recycling or composting and the tap water is not
drinkable. However, I found out that in Irkutsk there is an environmental
movement going on that I was completely unaware of which means that there
could be the same movments in St. Pete and Moscow that I'm not aware of
either.

Well, again these are just my observations and experiences but I thought
it might be interesting. I found it interesting. Please feel free to make
comments or questions about them. I hope I didn't offend anyone. I've
tried to be as true to my experience as possible.

Keep on learning and teaching
Kelly