When most people think of Russia, they think of the Cold War and villains in spy movies. However, I’ve found something beautiful behind the iron curtain.

For eight years, I’ve gone to camp at Concordia College’s Russian language village. Over the past three years I earned high school credit for studying Russian.

Before camp, all I knew about the Russian culture came from my father, who grew up in Russia. I assumed the only people who spoke Russian were from Russia. But at camp, we had native Russian speaking counselors from Kazakhstan, the Ukraine and The Republic of Tuvaand Russia.

Camp is not just about learning the language. On the first day, you begin your month-long immersion in Russian speaking culture, from the food you eat, to the games you play. Every week, campers pick different cultural activity classes, including traditional dancing, matryoshka painting and chess. Every night, we have an evening program which teaches us about some aspect of Russian life.

Two weeks into the session, we have International Day. All of the camps in session come together to share our different languages and cultures. The different camps include Spanish, French, Norwegian, Japanese and Arabic among others.

This year, I was picked to go to the rededication of the Peace Site. The Peace Site is a physical embodiment of Concordia’s goal of world peace.

One of the guest speakers explained that the first step to world peace involves learning about different cultures. The speaker then went on to thank the campers of all of the villages for taking time out of their summers with the purpose of learning about another culture.

Russian camp has changed the way I see the world. It is important to remember that there are people and cultures outside of what we are exposed to on a daily basis. I met people from all sorts of countries by studying another language, and I’ve opened up the Russian-speaking community for myself. Studying Russian has given me more options for my future, as well as an opportunity to teach others about the Russian people.