I had the good fortune to travel through Russia on a riverboat cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg in 1997. We traveled first on the Moscow River and then the famous Volga! Many locks enabeled us to make it all the way to the
Lake Lagoda. This lake is famous for freezing during the second world war and allowing many hundreds of peop0le to flee Lennigrad, as St. Petersburg was then known.
Our boat stopped at many places but the one I remember the best, other than St. Petersburg, was Kostroma.
After our dinner we had some time before the boat sailed so a friend and I returned to the town.
While walking down a street a young girl aproached us and asked me if I spoke English. Of course "American"
is stamped on our faces anyway!
She asked if I would talk with her for a while since she was competing to learn more English and win a trip to the US.
When we parted I gave her my nephew's address at Syracuse as well as mine.
When I arrived home I already had a letter from her.
We have continued our correspondence but now do it as emails. She has since married ( she was 12 at the time).
She has a job teacihng English as a second language.