I traveled to the United States for family visitation, English was hard to learn but hearing it around me in the state of New York helped me learn. I have visited Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and New York. The western states were a change for me as it was warmer than expected, the experience I had was amazing in Las Vegas, Nevada, there is nothing like it in Russia so it was amazing to see such lights and sounds and casinos.

The food was different, although McDonald's being in Russia I got to experience new foods and new styles of culinary expertise. In America they have pancakes which are like Blini (popular Russian breakfast food) but they are much thicker and fattier. The Americans have a far more expansive cuisine than i expected. In Russia we mostly have foods and drinks from grain (bread and alcohol) but in America they did not experience the shortage of foods and ingredients, where Russians have bread based foods Americans have so much more. I learned that America got most its food knowledge from Britain.

TV and Cinema was more than I expected (again) as they do not seem to have censorship from the Churches or Government. TV in America was…..dramatic, everything was in a serious tone of voice and rarely exceeded anything above the obvious information. Although the commercials were concerning, the ads for medical made me believe I had 5 serious diseases.

The American people of the south were less friendly to outsiders as i learned, and one of the reasons i say that is because i knew very little English and they became hostile if i pronounced a name of someone or something wrong. The people of the North and The Nevada state were either too drunk to care or did not mind teaching a poor traveler English.

The American pastime seems to be that of drinking cool drinks on a porch or going to a beach. It surprised me to see parks and playgrounds near empty on a nice hot day, in Russia we mostly go to parks and drink Kvas, Kvas is a grain based drink fermented like alcohol but not the same process as it ends up having little to none alcohol content. I found it hard to do anything in the northern U.S when a hot day, the humidity was a large factor in me sitting in my family home with the air conditioner on. The Western states seemed to not have this humidity and I did many activities outdoors.

A hilarious thing about my travel, i visited the northern state NY in the winter time and found i was the only one wearing the traditional winter hat of Russia, the Ushanka 1. Everyone else seemed to wear what i would call a beanie, but they called it some word i did not know until my travels to Canada (later that year). The people called it a Tuqe? I think, an odd word but then again Ushanka is not a common word in English either. Along my travels in the cold I got weird looks and many people questioned me about my hat, it seemed to be a conversation starter.

1.[The Ushanka is a fur hat made from sheepskin originally in the 17th century. The design has changed throughout the years and there are variants of it throughout the country, but most notably the Russian Military uses the hats for long patrols in the cold, they tie the strings upon the top as mandatory style.]