Those Commies!

Please forgive the title of this post and let me explain.

In June I met a man named Sergei.  He works for a sister company to the one hubby is partners with.  While in Munich, many of the European sales team had meetings and we all ate dinner together for two nights.  Sergei is in partnership with Mage like hubby but he is a Russian.  He speaks good English and over a so-so steak dinner (we do them so much better in the US!), we got to know each other.  He is a very interesting, down to earth man, who loves his family and works very hard.  He lived in Moscow and elsewhere, getting a flat for he and several of his extended family to share during some very lean times after the splitting up of the Soviet Union in the 80's.  The stories he told about his life were dramatically different from what I expected.  Hubby was the first American he ever met.  He told him that the he thinks Russians are far more like Americans than they are like Germans or other Europeans.  That is an interesting thought which made me happy because I really respect the Germans!

I am so glad that my perspective has changed from the days when I was taught to "duck and cover" in the event that those Russian Commies dropped a nuclear bomb on my elementary school!  Although I suspected that politics and propaganda skewed reality, I didn't know for sure until I met Sergei.  Tonight he is visiting America for more sales meetings and we had dinner again.  I like him very much and hope that someday we can travel to his country where I can meet more "Commies"!  We won't have to try very hard to erase those old stereotypes of our youth.