‘Summer in Moscow is the Best Foreign Experience I Have Ever Had’
So far, summer in Moscow is the best foreign experience I have EVER had. Before I arrive at Moscow, I only had limited knowledge about Russia. Frankly speaking, the image I had about Russia was pretty negative ones, mainly because of my education about Soviet Union. When I was young, as a South Korean student, learning about Russia was heavily oriented to communism related topics. Given my country’s situation, tension with North Korea, it might be pretty reasonable. However, whatever image I had about Russia has completely changed since this trip.
For me, Moscow was just like a typical city of Western European county: clean, vivid, and urbanized city with full of kind people. I am particularly impressed by Moscow’s metro system. It was easy and convenient to use, even with minimum level of Russian language ability. I watched people commute through metro in the morning and the evening. Just like any other cities in the world, hardworking and diligent people take metro to go to work in Moscow.
Also, classes I took at the Higher School of Economics gave me a clear picture of current Russia. It is not a perfect country and has long way to go, but I saw a tremendous opportunity Russia, as a ‘developing country’. It’s system of housing market, health care, and pensions issues were topic of our lectures, and the current situation was not that optimistic. In my opinion, the situation could be developed with large natural resources and human capital Russia has. Dependency on oil price would be an issue, but I believe Russia will find its way to move forward.
Personally, experience of Moscow in this summer has broadened my vision about the world. I see a growth of Democracy, another type of one compared to U.S., and many opportunities will accompany with Russian version of Democracy. As a doctoral student at SPEA, I noticed many opportunities over there, particularly for the field of public policy. Russian government wants to answer people’s demand for better future and they need public policy experts who can build and implement right policies for the country’s development. It was a motivational trip, which gave me another reason to pursue my study. I am thankful for this opportunity and wonderful people whom I met through this programme. I sincerely hope many other students join the SPEA at Moscow programme next year and have this eye-opening experience.