Quote Originally Posted by Danka
To all of you, especially TATY.
It's easy to assume that I'm naive,
and in a lot of respects, I am.
I want to move to a country that
is not respected by America, not from
my standpoint, anyway,
I don't know the language, I've never been there,
and I'm young.
I suppose that qualifies me for naivete.
Nevertheless, I have entrenched myself in Russian
politics and formed a fierce attachment for the country.

My reasons are many, but are simple:
America is not the best country in the world.
I'm tired of hearing that; it's drivel
I've been fed for the last 18 years.

Russia has proven itself over and over
to be strong and capable.
The Soviet Union may have fallen,
but Russia is adapting.
The Bear is showing its claws,
and any country who thinks that
they can suppress Russia is sorely
mistaken.

I understand that Russia is no
longer a communist country,
but I am a Marxist, an original communist.
Like someone said before, this is
an odd step for an American
and I agree. My family has ostracized me
for it.

Thirdly and lastly,
I admire Vladimir Putin.
I know he's ex-KGB, I know he's
reputed to have killed prying journalists,
and I understand that he's fully in
control of Russia.
That doesn't lower my respect for the man.
I think what he's done for Russia is
amazing, and, quite frankly,
I'm completely done with America.

It's going to take me a long time
and lots of red tape to get
to where I'm going, but I want to be there.
That's the basic premise of my joining
this forum: to learn the
language of a country I love.
Is this a poem

Just because you don't particularly like your country right now doesn't mean you need to latch on to another one.

The main thing is if you've never been you have a sort of idealised version of Russia in your head. When you finally get there you are just going to be disappointed, it won't be as amazing as you think it's going to be. You'll probably like it, but I doubt you'd actually want to live there.

And anyway, it's very common for people to get the whole "I'm done with my country" thing at age 18.

And you can't love a country without ever having been there. That's like the equivalent of saying you love someone you've only ever talked to on the Internet


I had a similar thing; I had wanted to go to Israel for years, read so much about it, read Israeli news every day, talked to other people who'd been, looked at their photos, started teaching myself Hebrew. Then this summer I went, and I enjoyed it a lot, but I was underwhelmed. I was underwhelmed because I had built the country up in my sub-conscience, it had almost become a mythical place, and when I got there, in a way, it wasn't that different from Europe.

As I said, when you get to Russia you'll think "well this is nice... but it's not as amazing as I thought it would be"*

*And I'm not saying this as a criticism of Russia, merely highlighting how high expectations generally lead to disappointment.