Quote Originally Posted by UhOhXplode View Post
Yeah, I thought it was kinda rude when I was little. Now i just think it's a better way to talk. And smiling isn't about friends. It's just that people smile if they get happy sometimes. I mean, just cause I don't smile at someone doesn't mean I don't like them. It just means there's nothing I'm getting that happy about.
Tosevski's one of my best friends and he's brutally honest about stuff too but he's from Slovenia. So it's not just Russians.

I read about something that happened in the Iraq war that was really weird too. They dropped boxes of pop tarts from planes for the refugees to eat. Pop tarts? That's gotta be the last thing anyone should eat if they're really hungry! I mean, why not packets of rice or mac and cheese or something? Or even just fruit? I don't think pop tarts have much food value and it wouldn't be my first choice if I was really hungry.
But yeah, I haven't heard anything about food or medicine either. Just arms and money for the rebels. And I don't think Jesus ever said to send more weapons if people are suffering. It was fish he multiplied, not guns.
I should have qualified that to say that the bluntness and the "serious" expressions are more Slavic in general, and not just Russian. I also encountered it in Poland. In the US, I think we call it "resting b*tch face":



I have been accused of having it from time to time. If you look at my Russian пропуск (from the Soviet era) you can totally see it



Regarding the food drop in Iraq. Interesting you mention that. When I was living in then-Leningrad, there was a state of emergency declared and some American benefactors delivered several cargo planes filled with food. But what I saw were pop-tarts, granola, yogurt, and mostly cheap fast-food type items you would find at the local "Quickie Mart." I don't know what the reasoning behind that is. I don't claim to understand it. People who are hungry need real food! Not crap from 7-11.