St. Petersburg, Russia

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October 1993

On Sunday, the 3rd of October, 1993, both girls headed off on week-long field trips; Audrey was off to an Outward Bound program of mountain climbing and adventure stuff in the Alps, and Megan was off to Russia! Megan's group headed off from the school about 11:30 AM to drive to Frankfurt Airport, where they caught an AeroFlot flight to St. Petersburg. Keep in mind the date they left; October 3rd 1993. That's the very same day that Boris Yeltsin counter-attacked the rebels in the parliament building at the beginning of "the excitement." The class was in the air flying when we heard about it! That was a nerve-wracking day or two for us! I was glued to CNN at work! Instead of the planned schedule of three days in St. Petersburg and four days in Moscow, they modified the itinerary and spent all seven days in St. Petersburg, thank heaven!

In attempting to squeeze information out of them to include in this letter, I finally resorted to a WHO - WHAT - WHEN - WHERE - HOW - WHY fill-in-the-blank form that I had her fill out. They both loved their trips, but all we get is one-word answers from them when we ask about it! I guess its the age.

In her own words (right off the form): When was the trip? Oct 3-10. Where did we go? St. Petersburg. Why did we go? To conclude our studies of Russia. Who else went on the trip with me? The whole 7+8th grade and the chaperons. How did we get there? We flew (Aeroflot, no less!) Where did we stay while we were there? In a hotel. What was the hotel/gasthof/hostel/etc like? It was really big and stuff wasn't all that great. There were 17 floors. How was the food? Disgusting! What did I bring home? Lots of stuff. Dirty clothes, Christmas gifts, souvenirs, clean clothes, ME! What was my most favorite thing about the trip? The shopping and the circus & ballet. What was my least favorite thing about the trip? The food. Do I want to go back? Yes. Why? To see all the things we missed from not going to Moscow. Anything extra to add? It didn't snow!