In 1989, "growing up" with John Hughes movies and Miami Vice while listening to Depeche Mode and Duran Duran, what did I know about Russia? Well, I watched War Games, Red Dawn (the orginal) and Rocky IV. So, I guess that meant THEY didn't like US and WE didn't like THEM. Pretty simple concept since we were smack dab in the middle of the Cold War that guaranteed mutual mass destruction.
So when I was invited to apply to be a part of a student diplomacy trip for a month in Russia, I did what any other red blooded young American would do, "Where do I sign up?" 30 students from the different high schools were going to be selected to go and visit several schools. The idea was that we would spend a week in Moscow, then Riga, on to Tallinn, a stop in Kiev and wrap it up in Leningrad. Sure, why not? My first trip abroad, might as well make it memorable.
The search for an accurate representation of American Youth began and the 30 that were selected was a cross section of every social economic group that resided in this dusty little town that someone had the misconception was a booming metropolis. I wouldn't go so far as to say we could have been the stars of a United Colors of Benetton ad, but we were pretty close. You had jocks, artists, drama queens, computer nerds, preppies, band peps. You know, all the groups you had in high school back then.
There were four of us selected from my school, the rest came from our rivals, 15 boys and 15 girls, my oh my what have I gotten myself into. A crash course in Russian begins, and let me tell you, learning Russian as your first "other" language is not the easiest of tasks. I mean, I had ingrained our football play book into the the fibers of my skin. I was just having a challenge with ванная,пожалуйста and Спасибо Yeah, bathroom, please and thank you. Oh boy, this wasn't going as smoothly as I had originally felt it would. A cute tutor and lots and lots of practice and I could finally tell someone that "Я потерян (I am lost)." Cool, I have all the basics I need and I am armed and ready.
I am not really sure who gave the speech, but we told that we were very lucky to have this opportunity. That we should be on our very best behavior since we are not only representing our families, but our schools, community and nation. The list of things we couldn't do would choke a hippo. We were advised that we would have strict curfews and chaperones. Didn't they know who we were? For those of you who didn't know, 1989 was kind of a big deal in Russia. Perestroika and Glasnost were in effect and we were about to witness it first hand.