A common stereotype is that Russia is morbidly cold, and Russians are perfectly comfortable at frostbite temperatures.

A much more rediculous stereotype is that Russians (particularly those who lived in the days of the USSR) sit in pubs drinking vodka while telling stories about when they had to trek across Siberia or aboutall the bears they fought bare-handed (bare hands vs. bear hands) or when they had to endure something similar.

Also, I noticed on italki that a lot of Russians type " ) " at the ends of sentences. Is this intentional or an error with the Russian-English keyboard?

Honestly i think that girls are pretty, guys are not, and u drink too much, just my opinion

These are my personal "stereotypes" about Russia and Russian people which have occurred to me now:
- high corruption (like in my country, after all ;-))

- arrogant and undemocratic federal government

- people drinking a lot of alchool (especially vodka)

- very low temperatures in winter and very high temperatures in summer

- many cute girls (but I am sure Russia is also plenty of much less cute girls :-P)

- low openness to innovation (social, cultural, economic,...)

I've took your discussion as a funny game...I am totally aware that I could be wrong about these stereotypes and we haven't (thanks God!) only one type of person for each country (I have few Russians friends and they drink few alcoholic beverages and are very open-minded!).

When I hear someone speaking about Russia, the first thing comes to mind is my father's & grandfather's trip to Russia 28 years ago & the accordion I got from there as a gift from dad.

Then I remember Ploshka Poli music & Tchaikovskys classics :) And finally I remember the novels I read for Anton Chekov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky & Doctor Zhivago miniseries that I watched years ago & loved so much. There was something in common between the old Russian novels that used to make me feel warm; I forgot the name they call it but it's like a fire place in their houses that used to make Russians warm no matter how cold the weather there;)

Shh Putin is listening!