Come july 1st, we invested 12 times traveling through Russia for company Insider.

We also surely got to invest per night when you look at the $18,000-a-night presidential suite at the Moscow Ritz-Carlton. Certainly one of my most remarkable experiences had been visiting A russian that is 200-year-old bathhouse where I paid $85 become whacked with branches and doused in ice-cold water.

While my travels had been mostly smooth sailing, used to do experience some social clashes. Listed below are six cultural distinctions that tripped me up in Russia.

1. The language barrier ended up being more pronounced than I’d anticipated.

Unfortuitously, I do not talk any Russian.

While I would anticipated communication become tricky in rural Siberia, I thought more and more people might speak English in Moscow, the administrative centre city. But also at restaurants and stores when you look at the money, i discovered that lots of locals talked small to no English.

Happily, because of a mixture of hand gestures, my trusty Bing Translate application, and mercifully patient Russians, I happened to be capable of making go it work.

2. Unlike People in america, Russians do not have a tendency to smile at strangers.

In the beginning, I happened to be intimidated by numerous associated with Russians we saw, thinking they seemed stern and unfriendly. But we quickly knew they just never smile at strangers the means People in america do.

In the usa, we anticipate smiles from individuals we work with, through the one who acts us our coffee, as well as from individuals we inadvertently make attention connection with. This is maybe perhaps not the instance in Russia.

Some cultures — including Russia — perceive smiling for no apparent reason to be a sign of stupidity as Olga Khazan wrote for the Atlantic.

But despite their stony expressions that are facial everybody else we came across or asked for aid in Russia had been completely friendly and helpful.

3. Russia’s views on sex seemed outdated.

A few commentary Russians me personallyant to me inside my journey made me believe that the views on gender within the nation are not quite exactly like when you look at the United States — or at the very least in liberal new york, where we reside.

Francesca Ebel published for the Associated Press previously this current year that while feamales in Russia may hold government that is prominent, “traditional sex roles nevertheless hold sway, and efforts to deal with dilemmas such as the sex pay space, domestic physical violence and intimate harassment have actually barely scratched the top. “

Throughout my journey, locals seemed surprised that I happened to be traveling alone in Russia as a female.

Within my two-day journey riding the Trans-Siberian Railway— the longest train line in the whole world — one of many Russian ladies sharing my compartment asked me, “You’re perhaps perhaps maybe not afraid to visit in Russia alone? “

We shrugged. “not necessarily. “

“Because our company is, ” she stated. “Russia is just a dangerous spot. “

That doctors recommend women don’t work in the mines because it could harm their reproductive health while I was visiting a diamond mine in Siberia, a publicist for Alrosa, the country’s largest diamond miner, told me.

And soon after in Moscow, a professional contact we invested each and every day with exposed a vehicle home for me personally then straight away seemed worried. He looked to me personally and asked in most severity, “In America, will it be considered harassment now to open up a hinged home for a female? “

4. Almost all of the Russian ladies we saw had an even more usually feminine style — with completely manicured nails, very very long flowing locks, immaculate makeup products, and high heel shoes — than i am familiar with seeing in ny.

As Yekaterina Sinelschikova published for Russia Beyond, “a Russian girl never ever seems in public places without making herself up very very first (which regularly means foundation, powder, rouge, mascara, then one else to her flavor) — even when she is simply taking right out the trash. “

With my jeans, sneakers, and hair that is unstyledi enjoy think about it as effortlessly tousled), we usually felt underdressed in the streets of Moscow.

“for females, showing femininity. May be the title regarding the game when selecting what things to wear, ” Sinelschikova penned.

5. Recycling failed to appear to be a plain part of Russia.

Whenever we visited toss one thing away inside my journey, i really couldn’t look for a recycling container — merely a garbage can.

Recycling is evidently perhaps maybe maybe not yet typical in Russia. Just seven per cent of Russia’s waste is recycled, in accordance with France 24. Some landfills that are overflowing been known to spontaneously catch on fire.

6. Trading company cards is important.

Trading company cards is really a practice that is common the united states, however in Russia, it seemed necessary.

Virtually every time we came across a contact that is professional Russia, they handed me personally their company card within 30 seconds of presenting on their own, prompting us to scramble to dig around within my case for personal.

Almost all of the continuing company cards I became offered were printed in Russian on a single part and English regarding the other.