Narrative Essay On The Cold War

It began with ten long nights. I wish I could say that I was doing it for the adventure or for the stories, but if I was being honest, I was doing it as a resumé booster. Each night after school, I would sit down in a classroom with eight of my other classmates. Here, we would learn about Russian etiquette: the do’s and the don'ts of Soviet Russia. Halfway across the world, eight Russian exchange students were doing the same. The world was at a confusing point in time. It was as like a jenga tower. You pick at the wrong block and the whole tower could come crumbling down. Afterall, it was 1988. The Cold War was in full swing, and I was about to go into the heart of it. Even though we were lectured about Russian etiquette, I was still unsure what to expect. I didn’t know if I would be coming back a changed person. Maybe more grateful? I live in a small town in Rhode Island, and nobody gets an opportunity like this around here. I felt privileged to be given the chance to explore a different part of the world, but I couldn’t help but feel like some guinea pig. Americans haven’t traveled to Cheboksary, Russia for decades. It was unseen territory– and who better than a seventeen year old girl than to explore it for the

I did not have access to a phone so this was the one bit of home that I had. The father put the movie in, and at first I just thought the characters were extremely bad actors. But then the girl took her shirt off. And then the guy. And then more happened. And then I looked over at the mother. I was hoping she would realize what she was watching, but her eyes remained fixed on the television. We watched this “american film” for over an hour. I was just waiting for someone to speak up and turn the television off, but no one would. The sound of silence has never been so