Jorge Miranda "When a dream comes true"

Have you ever felt some intuitive connection to the country or place which is far away from you, and where you have not been before? Was it something special that does not go along with common sense? It happens rarely, but sometimes people out of nowhere get unimaginably great interest in some country or culture which is much different from their own. The curiosity about this phenomenon gets even bigger when the country or culture they are interested in does not belong to the mainstream choices like France or Italy and remains out of popular tourist destinations. This interest does not go away, contrary it flares up and passes into the scalding passion to explore the country. This passion goes far beyond any conventional touristic experience and leads to a life-changing adventure.

This story we would like to dedicate exactly to such a case and narrate to you an amazing crusade of our close friend from Mexico, Jorge Miranda, which started from a dream about Russia and led him through a two-year-long experience of living and integrating into Russian society.

In his teenage, Jorge had a general knowledge of geography like any other person in his class. Russia was just one of the countries included in the curriculum at the high school. Hence, Jorge and his class-mates got a general overview of the country without deep insights regarding traditions and culture. “The first time I heard something specific about Russian culture was from my father, who said that Russian music is very melodic and beautiful. My father’s friend was a sailor and visited a couple of times Russian port city Vladivostok, which lies on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. He brought from there some vinyl composition disks and gave them to my father. That’s how my father experienced Russian music and fell in love with it”, says our friend. However, it was not the ice-breaking moment when Jorge’s mental connection to Russia was born.

Some time passed, and our friend had completely forgotten his father’s feedback about Russian music. However, a reminder about Russia came right on the TV commercial, which advertised a chance to win tickets for a concert by the Mexican rock band “Molotov” in Moscow. One night, Jorge had a dream that he and his friends were lucky to win these tickets and came to the concert in Moscow. As he woke up, he was extremely excited, since the dream was so real, and he remembered it so well in detail. Around one week later, while watching a movie on TV, he saw the scene pictured in Moscow at the places he encountered in his dream. “It was pure magic for me and the moment when I realized that all these things definitely happened for a purpose which I cannot ignore ”, says Jorge.

After this encounter, Jorge started to search and learn everything about Russia, its culture, and traditions. More he learned, more admired, and thirstier he got to the next explorations and discoveries.

I can truly say that I have become a huge fan of Russian culture. I was using any opportunity available to get closer to the country. I learned by myself the Russian alphabet which is quite different from the Latin one and made the first tries in writing and speaking in Russian. How curious I was when one day I heard about a Russian souvenir store in a shopping mall in Mexico City. As I went there, I got fascinated with a huge variety of traditional items like Russian nesting dolls, balalaika, and dozens of pictures from Russia. I bought butch of things from there and once again shaped myself to visit the country in the nearest future.

As Jorge was about to graduate high school and apply for studies at university, he decided to use that moment as a perfect chance to move to Russia for studying. “I remember as I went to the Russian embassy in Mexico City, to ask about application procedure at Russian universities. The lady over there told me that it was too late to apply that year, and I would need to wait another year to start my studies there. This of course made me upset, since it did not go the way I wanted, and I decided to start studying at a Mexican university. But I did not give up on my dream to move to Russia one day”, explains our friend.

After Jorge graduated from the university in Mexico, he started to work as an IT specialist for an Argentinian based company with a headquarter in Buenos Aires. After two years of stable working life with the comfort most of the people would like to have, Jorge quitted his job, sold his car, and applied for a preparation program in Russia, to further undertake a Master's degree at Moscow State University.

I always kept it in mind that as soon as I have some financial opportunity, I will move to Russia. And after two years of working, it was the time. Certainly, my family and friends were pretty much surprised by my sudden decision, but they understood how much it was important for me and wished me all the best in my adventure.

As Jorge arrived in Russia, he was extremely excited and invigorated about starting his journey. The first weeks in Moscow, he was spending days on end walking around, visiting museums and theaters, exploring everything he wanted for so long before coming here. “Moscow is really an incredible city. The city is outstandingly rich in terms of historical and cultural heritage, but very modern at the same time. Moscow City which is the city’s business district has the highest skyscrapers in all Europe and stands pretty much on the same level with other internationally famous business centers over the globe”, says our friend.

In the meantime, Jorge was doing his preparation program at the university, which particularly included courses in Russian language and culture, Physics, Mathematics, and Informatics. All these subjects were taught in Russian.

These courses brought me an enormous challenge since I had to study them in Russian, even though I still was learning Russian and was far away from proficiency. However, the Russian language and culture filled me with passion and love to do my best in studying and proving that I can. Even though the Russian language by itself is very hard to learn for foreigners, my passion was enormous. This gave me energy and motivation to overcome all the trammels on my way, to master the language.

Nowadays, Jorge is fluent in Russian and can explain himself the same way as a native speaker does. This is super unusual to hear that a young man from America would be so passionate to learn the Russian language and to master it so well like Jorge.

“When anybody asks me how it was to integrate into Russian society and to deal with locals, certainly it was hard. Good knowledge of the Russian language is essential for your well-being there, even though

young people speak quite well English. If I compare the social atmosphere in Mexico and Russia, I would

say that Russian people have a colder attitude towards people they don’t know. It is rare to see smiley people around when in Mexico it is just the way people are. As I asked my friends why it is so in Russia, they explained that Russians consider smiles from strangers as something suspicious and not sincere. People in Russia tend to have a straight attitude to everybody around and to be honest about what they think and feel”, narrates Jorge. At the beginning, it was quite hard for Jorge to get used to this kind of communication which quite much contradicts many norms and standards in Mexico. However, as time passed, Jorge started to like the way Russian society is. He appreciates how honest are people there, what always gives a clear understanding of how any person really is.

Once you break the ice between you and Russians, you acquire life-long friends who will do their best to make you comfortable and to help you with any issue you have. Then, you can really experience the Russian soul full of friendliness, bright emotions, and warm feelings, what makes the atmosphere around you amazingly fun and graceful.

“I would like to underline that language is really the key from any society. Language is like a code or DNA inherited by society. As you learn this code, you find many answers just into the language. It shows you how people think and even feel. Russian language is incredibly rich and valued by the nation. Therefore, as I learned the language, I revealed many things that had been hidden from me. It helped me a lot to gain a good acceptance from Russian society and to make a lot of good friends”, emphasizes Jorge.

Overall, Jorge visited 10 Russian cities and spent two years of his life in Russia. This adventure left him unforgettable memories and emotions and fully uncovered the intuitive connection between him and Russia. Jorge made many life-long friends in Russia what he is very grateful for. He actively keeps in touch with them and tries to visit them in Russia at least once a year.

I will always be a sincere friend and fan of Russia and Russian culture and will do my best to keep this relationship in the way it is at the moment. I highly recommend everyone to visit at least once this incredibly beautiful country. I promise that you won’t regret it and certainly will want to travel there again! If you have a dream, don’t just desire it in your thoughts, do something about it and make it happen. We have only one life, so let’s make use of it!!!

If you have any questions about Jorge’s experience in Russia or need any piece of advice regarding planning your future trip there, you are more than welcome to DM Jorge on Instagram @Seitseman.

We hope this story provided you a nice example of following dreams and making them come true. Do not be afraid to take steps forward to your dreams. Fear is just a limit that does not let you explore more and find the place you really belong to!!! Once you understand it, you will not be the same, and this change will determine who you really are for your own sake!!!

Stay motivated and be hungry for success!!!

Yours,

Bonis Rebus team