Fwd: BBC News on foreign students in Russia

[Deborah Hoffman]

I had a good amount of success in '91 with buying
local clothes, putting a scarf over my head and not
speaking English in public - though admittedly my
concern at the time was more at avoiding muggers,
black marketeers,exorbitant prices on the Arbat, and
people trying to sell me lacquer boxes :-).  Have the
standards  of how one "stands out" changed in the
intervening 15 years?  Assuming one has the random
luck of being pale enough to pull this off.

--- Deborah Hoffman <lino59 at ameritech.net> wrote:

> Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 07:19:56 -0800 (PST)
> From: Deborah Hoffman <lino59 at ameritech.net>
> Subject: BBC News on foreign students in Russia
> To: 
>     Slavic & East European Languages and Literature
> list <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
> 
> I have the same concern - can anyone share
> impressions
> on the different regions or cities?  I'm jewish and
> can pass as not but my husband is more obviously
> (stereotypically?) so.  I'm hesitant to bring him,
> much less our son, which would curtail any extensive
> study or work in Russia, though obviously not short
> trips I could do on my own.
> 
> It's hard to sort out the extent or scale of the
> threat because those without the same fears may
> underestimate the risk, and those of us who have
> reason to fear may perceive the overall risk as
> being
> greater than it actually is because we don't want to
> be that one in a million.  Ironically, I had thought
> of going to a smaller area (like Voronezh) instead
> of
> Moscow for this precise reason.

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