Discovering old charms, new vices in Russia

Before my trip this past summer, I had grand ideas about the strong Russian people, the rich history that the country could offer me and all of those amazing images from Russian novels.

I hoped it would play itself out for me like some fantastic spectacle, and I imagined returning fluent and enlightened about the intricacies of the Russian soul.

My time in Moscow and St. Petersburg has since led me to change my tune. Russia is rich in history and culture, but there is also (dare I say it?) debauchery, without which Russia would not have been such a charming place.

Upon our arrival in Moscow, we were shipped off to our respective home stay families, most of which were located on the very edge of central Moscow.

My host mother was a quasi-retired dentist grandmother type, so we were in for the usual grandmotherly nagging, although with some added Russian sass.

The first meal we were served consisted of fried spaghetti, a boiled hot dog and a salad of cucumbers and tomatoes. This hot dog type of bologna meat became the dreaded theme of many of our meals at home, but overall the food was enjoyable in a Russian, somewhat bland sort of way.

Other favorite foods were bliny (crepes), pelmeni (dumplings), black bread, sour cream in mounds and stuffed potatoes.

Classes were organized by the recently revived Hopkins/Goucher program and were held daily at the Language Link center.

They were divided into history, grammar and speaking. Although the grammar lessons were intimidating, they were naturally useful.

History lessons related to our excursions, and we would often learn the significance of a specific painting or monument before visiting.

Speaking was fun, despite being challenging, because we learned colloquial expressions from recent songs, films and magazine articles.

Our excursions took us to practically every notable place in Moscow. We saw the Kremlin, Red Square, the Bolshoi Theater (just before it closed for renovations), the Tretyakov Art Gallery, Tolstoy's house, Moscow State University and countless old churches with icons painted by such famous painters as Andrei Rublev.

My favorite trip was to the Novo-Devichy cemetery, the entrance to which required casually bribing the security officers. There are many famous Russians buried among beautiful overgrown greenery, such as Chekhov, Eisenstein, Mayakovsky and others.

We went to several ballet and folk dance performances, which were all very well done and reflected the important role theater and dance have always played in Russian culture.

So what about the debauchery? Within two weeks I came to realize that Moscow was a city of many vices.

Alcohol, tobacco and gambling can all be found on every street corner. It was admittedly hard to resist the kiosks boasting ridiculously cheap beer and cigarettes.

Drinking in public was also a new activity for us, and it soon seemed natural to combine beer with boating or beer with trips to the internet caf8e.

However, as far as vodka goes, although it was definitely there, it was not flowing from all directions as I expected, and, despite being somewhat cheaper and in greater variety, I wasn't impressed.

There were glamorous night clubs that stayed open until the early hours in the morning, and it was always amusing to see young wealthy Russians dressed up in ridiculous designer clothing, ready for a night on the town.

There were also packs of wild dogs that wandered the streets, and although they seemed harmless, they were a strange sight for a supposedly modern city.

We traveled to St. Petersburg on an overnight train for a five-day trip.

The train ride itself was amazing and gave us the chance to see beautiful Russian countryside, and again beer was readily available on the dining car. St. Petersburg was much quieter than Moscow and it was considerably colder, but we hardly noticed as we paraded down the streets at midnight admiring the permanent dusk of the White Nights.

The canals were breathtaking, and all the architecture was impressive after the freshly-applied coat of paint from the recent tricentennial celebrations in 2003.

We saw the Hermitage Museum, the Summer Garden, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Peter the Great's grave and a few locations where czars were murdered. We didn't get to stay as long as we'd hoped, but it was long enough to understand why people call it the brain of Russia, while Moscow is called the heart.

I learned many unexpected things from the experience. Russians seem to be so much more conscious of their history than most Americans, but unfortunately many lack access to luxuries that we take for granted here.

It is also unnerving that I was sexually harassed once by drunk men on the street, and once by a group of police officers, who were incidentally equipped with machine guns, but we were fortunate to not have encountered worse.

The political environment in Russia is currently unstable, and it is especially a dangerous place for foreigners and minorities, but these negative developments shouldn't scare prospective visitors away.

It is simply necessary to exercise caution like you would in any other foreign country. While it may be true that Russia has historically been a scary place, its rich offerings in culture, language, debauchery and the arts are too great to pass up, and I would highly recommend a visit or a trip to study abroad.