If America sneezes, the world catches cold.

The past few days have been extremely busy which is why I really haven't had a lot of time to write about whats been going on. On Thursday I only had one class, but then that afternoon our group met with a group of Russians (some young, most old) to talk about politics and stereotypes. Amazingly, one of the older women talked about when she was younger and she read a book called "Tom Sawyer." She always dreamed of the imaginary land in the book until one day she learned that there really was a place like that and it is called America. Her entire childhood she saw America as a competitor in sports and the race to the moon but she never saw America as the enemy.The way she described America made me want to go there myself. She was speaking like she was a young child again and by the way her eyes shined, you could tell that everything she said was straight from the heart.
Another lady spoke on how Russian women aren't so wrapped up in worrying about what Russian models look like, but they do want to look like American models. They do all these things that Americans do such as "eat hamburgers."It broke my heart that she said that because even though America is pretty great, Russia is also great as well. They are two different cultures but that doesn't make one culture better than the other. Obviously I thought Russia is pretty amazing because I'm willing to take 4 months out of my life in America to come here, explore and learn.
A lot was earned from this experience and I now have a greater respect for America as well as Russia. We have to realize that the actions of the government do not always reflect the beliefs of the people. Just because Russia and the USA have some issues on a governmental level does not mean the Russians and American people have to have issues with each other. We are all humans. We want a lot of the same things out of life; to make a comfortable living, have our children have a better life than we do and to live in a peaceful environment. Until we all communicate with one another on a personal level, we will sit 4,000 miles away from each other, watching CNN and FOX news believing whatever 'news' they happen to be selling that day.