The Last Onion Dome

I like finishing things.  So, even though I've been back in the US for 2.5 months now and have personally spoken with (I'm guessing) a large portion of my readers, I want to finish this blog account.  Why today?  Because one year ago exactly I got on a plane at Logan airport knowing absolutely nothing about what was in store for me.  Now with almost a full season gone between me and the Fulbright, I still sometimes find myself unable to clearly articulate what happened to me in the strange place called Russia.  Here are the most common questions people ask me, and my best answers.



So how was Russia?

Ok, this is an unfair question, so unfair that to their credit, people usually apologize somewhat after asking it.  And here is my short answer.  Russia was wonderful.  It was an incredible experience that I am so thankful to have had.  Sometimes it's staggering to think about just how many people's goodwill and hard work it takes to make a program like the Fulbright happen and to keep it running.  Having been able to live, work, learn, travel and worship in a new culture, language and people is something I am so glad to have had become a part of my life, and something I hope can continue to become parts of people's lives all over the world

What are the people like?

Hospitable and generous.  Russian hospitality involves opening much more of your life to someone.  It is something I hope to make a part of my life going forward.
But beyond that, I think one of my friends said it best when he was sitting in my Russian kitchen looking at a picture I had on the fridge of me and my college suitemates hamming for the camera in the 49th street subway station in New York.  He looked at it and sort of laughed, and said that if you cropped the sign out, that picture could have been taken in Nizhny Novgorod, one of the major Russian cities.  He went on that it was so strange that none of the people were Russian, because he (and here I'll start generalizing and using "we") are so attuned to the wide variety and differences of the people around us, but the further away something is, the more we tend to forget how strong those differences can be.  So, [some] Russians are shy, [some] are weird, [some] are incredibly friendly, [some] are really really smart, [some] talk a lot, and [some] make snide comments in the back ground.
There is a lot of life in Russia, and though many people are pretty discouraged by the current economic and political environment, there is a lot of optimism too.  And the cool thing about Russia is that people just seem to interact more with each other in everyday life, and so you get to see and experience the full diversity of personalities much more frequently, and as a general norm, personalities are much more evident upon first acquaintance than they are in the US.  And that is something I really miss.


What do you miss the most?

My students in the institute

The people.  My students.  My friends.  The babushkas selling berries on the streets.  The school kids walking to and from school in groups like little herds of geese.  The guy biking around town with two milk jugs hanging off each handlebar.  The babushkas at the university check point who would smile and wave my through every day.  I only got to say goodbye to 2 of them.


Do you think you've changed?
No.  And yes.  This was not a life changing experience.  Rather, it was a life refining experience.  If anything I feel like I am a better version of the person I was when I got there.  I'm stronger, more willing to ask for help and more eager to give it.  I have clearer ideas of what is important to me.  I have a better idea of what excites me.  I have more of an idea of where I am going now.

Will you go back?
Lord willing.  Probably not to live and settle.  My home is here right now and I've learned how much I value a community and family history.  I've learned how much I value really fitting into the culture around me and the joy of saying "this is where I've come from".  But, the daily surprises, confusion, and minor and major victories in Russia made everything so vibrant.  Who knows.  Maybe it'll be a vacation.  Maybe it'll be just to visit friends.  Maybe it'll be a semester in graduate school.  Maybe it'll be graduate school.  Regardless though, I don't think this will be the last Russian stamp in my passport.

My "last" day in Russia