Thirty years ago I first came to the United States. Thirty years! October 22,1991. I will never forget that date. At the time, it was emigration, not travel. At the time, I didn't know if I would ever return. It was still the USSR, which collapsed just two months later. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDxRpMXXrTA

Why did I leave? Many dreamed at that time of escaping USSR, and I, in particular, thought about it, from the very beginning of Perestroika and Glasnost. Suddenly, after many, many years of censorship of the Soviet Union, new information about Stalin, about Lenin, about the Gulag, about the repressions, poured into the mass media. I eagerly listened to Voice of America and dreamed of escaping to the West.

In the summer of 1991 I got an invitation to some conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. I don’t even remember now what kind of conference it was, but by some miracle I got invited. Then there was the fuss of getting permission to leave the country and to obtain the visa. From the film studio where I was working at the time, I was given a letter of recommendation to the Ministry of Culture. A representative from the ministry had to take my invitation and the letter to the American Embassy in Moscow. The chairman of the film studio, happily wrote me the letter and wished me luck. With all these papers, the representative of the Moldovan consulate went to the American embassy for the visa. I remember how he called and told me that I was given a one year visa! Not for three days, not for a month, but for a full year! I jumped to the ceiling! Wow, I got a visa!

Next, I had to get some money for the trip (I borrowed it from my sister), then buying a ticket (one way (there was not enough money for a round trip) and a joyful (but also scary) anticipation of my journey. Or, I must say, for my emigration. I already made up my mind that I will stay in the US (later I regretted it, but I only had a one way ticket, so...). The ticket was not that expensive, I still have it. Aeroflot, $380. Part of the payment was in dollars, part in rubles. After the help from my sister and the sale of my camera, I had $200 left. My entire budget for moving to the USA. Without knowing the language, without acquaintances, without knowing the realities of a foreign country... What was I thinking?

Early in the morning of October 22nd, 1991, I arrived at Sheremetyevo. That airport was different back then. Even the lights weren't on everywhere. There was a long dull line of people with suitcases. When I approached the border security, my luggage was scanned and I was taken to a separate room. There were three tapes with my documentaries in the luggage. They were carefully watched it, from beginning to end, forty minutes of material, nothing anti-Soviet was found and then they let me go.

When I walked from the gray airport building into the Duty Free Zone, I was blinded by the contrast. Everything was bright: Matrioska dolls, cognac, smelling of perfume... I'm in the West, I thought. I made it! A short promenade through the transit area and finally boarding the plane. That's it, I'm leaving, I'll never come back! But I was wrong. I wanted to return literally in a few days, but since I had no money for the return ticket (one way ticket, as Boney M sang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZhOU6yEe9U), I was stuck in the US for two and a half years until I got my Green Card.

I flew into Washington DC, where I was also detained at the airport. Where is your return ticket, they asked. I explained, using sign language, that my return ticket is in the luggage (who keeps the plane ticket in the luggage?). After one hour of anxious waiting, I was finally let into the country. They probably didn’t wanna spend money to send me back. Okay, go... good luck.

I stepped into the airport. I had a tiny Russian-English phrasebook in my hands. It was with this brochure that I began my conquer of America. How to get there, how much is it... there are many questions... but then, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I got to New Orleans by bus (the cheapest form of transport, ticket was $113). 

Everything was surreal there. After the USSR, New Orleans seemed to me like a different planet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_ExbwSwXng. I can't say that I liked the madhouse, it just surprised me. But then, you get used to anything.
 
So, why did I take that step thirty years ago? Not for economical reasons, that’s for sure, as my financial situation in Moldova at that time was more comfortable than in New Orleans. But I realized that later. It wasn't because of the money that I left. Apparently, we have a desire in us to always learn something new and to evolve. And so we go through difficulties, overcome obstacles, create problems for ourselves and then solve them... and this is one of the mysteries of life. Man does not live by bread alone, that’s what they say. Having traveled half of the world, you understand that you are happy only where you are loved and where you are truly free.