>Some of you might have noticed the small controversy I caused with my last post about a particular city. I don’t know where these people came from, I can only assume they had some kind of search on their country’s name. Not five minutes after my post was published did they appear to leave comments. Which I find amazing and really apprecite. But did you notice that some of their arguments stood to prove my case, that they very much dislike the Russsians.
I doubt they’re still reading, so I’d like to give a little follow-up by recounting a conversation I had the other night (after I made the blog post) with a really nice Russsian Girl born in that particular country. She speaks the language, but does have trouble remembering words from time to time. She would prefer to speak in English, as she has been on ships for five years and is very out of practice in that language which is not her own. She says she has trouble in places like the Pharmacy because of her accent, and people will give her attitude for that reason only.
And she told a story about when she was in school and had a boyfriend for quite some time. One day he asked her to come to his mother’s birthday party. He had told his mother he had a girlfriend and wanted to introduce them. “But can you pretend you’re Polish?” he asked.
There are two sides to a story which is not my own.
To add some colour to this post, have you ever seen this?
As seen in Russsia,
Felt woven through silk to make a really interesting scarf. There’s one for the guild, Grandma!
The Ocean is Bluer.. on the other side 
>A coin has 2 sides right? Each story has 2 sides too. And in every country where there are smaller or bigger tensions among populations (and Belgium is one of them!) it are always sensitive topics as both sides usually feel hurt, insulted, wrongly understood etc…I can imagine that if (I say if…as I don’t know although I can use my imagination) there’s been oppression by the Russian regime in the past that the current populations still lives with those associations and with those scars and grudges. And that it’s hard for them to be totally openminded and forgiving and accepting towards the Russians still living in their country. Is that fair?? no of course not. Should that behaviour be encouraged? Certainly not. Is it the fault of the Russians living there? No, probably not. Is it the fault of the non-Russians? hmm probably not either.Pfff difficult situations in Israel, Libanon, Northern Ireland, Canada too, Belgium too, ….the truth will never be black or white, but grey. But then there’s many tones of grey as well. Does time heal all wounds and fade all differences? Previous generations in Belgium/Netherlands/France were quite hatefull against Germans but I don’t think that feeling is alive anymore. Hopefully time will fade the tensions away elsewhere as well, rather than creating new incidents and new scars.
>It sure does make for interesting reading, Stacey, doesn’t it!