All I do is use a website called Italki where I can talk with tutors from around the world and they can teach me one-on-one for an hour every day. I also use an app on my phone to teach me new words for an hour every day. This may seem like a lot to try, and at first it probably won't be fun because it will be hard and use up a lot of your time, but the reward is unbelievable. You can make so many new friends by speaking their language, whether that be Russian, Spanish, Finnish or German. As an American, you actually have a secret super power. Nobody thinks that you will know another language because we normally don't focus much on them in school. This means people will want to be your friend even more than an Italian who knows Russian, for example, because it's harder to find American friends who speak your language.
Besides its different stores, language, and better metro, Moscow doesn't feel too much different than say, Chicago. I never really feel out of place here, and the Russians actually help me feel quite quite at home, to the point where sometimes I feel more at home here than in America! For instance, here at my school I get my own room, which in five years of living in dorms in America I have never had. I also feel comfortable asking just about anybody on the street for directions. Even the school staff and guards are nice to me, and they smile everytime I come onto campus. By the way, there's a stereotype that Russians don't smile, and that's untrue! They don't smile all the time, but they will smile if they're happy, and instead of smiling to people they see on the street, they say hello. Their hello is like our smile! Speaking of smiling, let's talk about friends.
