Ice Cream And Tears :: Immigration Personal Narrative Russia Papers

Ice Cream And Tears Exhausted, I passed through customs towards the exit door and stepped into a new world. My father gave my still sleepy brother and me a stick of Wrigley’s peppermint gum and we experienced our first taste in our new life. Every trip back home has matured me in many ways. Every flight I reflect back on my life, time after time, and become anxious of what I was going to face coming home to Russia. Often what I was looking forward to did not happen the way I wished. Now, events that I was planning for when I would come back to our new home in the United States began to be more reliable. Coming back to Russia I especially looked forward to seeing my grandparents. I was even more excited about seeing my friends with whom I could finally share my experiences with while I was away from them, living my new life. Every time, however, this excitement was diminished by more of my friends moving away or changing their lifestyles to become too different from me. I was becoming more isolate d from both worlds. I vividly remember crowds of foreign people staring at me as I walked through the isle with our cart full of luggage. As we put away our five suitcases I was still unable to grasp the idea that I was in America. Everything looked surreal; even the air I breathed had a peculiar scent. Nowhere where I had traveled throughout Russia was the air like this, humid and warm yet crisp. As we got into the car, my father’s American friend began asking us questions; I did not hear them. My eager young mind was not only incapable of understanding them because of the language barrier but I was unable to comprehend anything that was said. I was numb to everything around me. Every time I go back to Russia I become increasingly disappointed with the life people live there. The divide between the rich and the poor is becoming so great that it seems there will never be a middle class again. More poor are becoming homeless due to the government withholding their salaries and the rich are becoming as wealthy as the majority in the Western World because they may take advantage of the foreign investments and markets. What saddens me the most, however, is the effect on the Russian children.