We arrived back in Orlando at a little after 9PM tired and sad to have left Russia.

Our little 3 week trip was amazing. We saw most of the Moscow Metro, the glorious white nights in Saint Petersburg, many many churches and cathedrals and more! The Financial University Under the Government of the Russian Federation hosted us in their on-campus hotel and had staff to teach us Russian. The language classes were fantastic and we all learned a lot of Russian. Each day we would get up and get breakfast at the nearby restaurants: Coffee House, Shokolodnitza, and Moo-Moo. By 10AM we were in class and learning. At 2PM we would eat lunch and then begin the day’s excursions.

The first week was largely introductory: learning how to use the metro, learning the layout of Moscow and the labyrinthine halls of the Finance University. We saw the magnificent Red Square, Saint Basil’s Cathedral and the walls of the Kremlin. The next part of our trip involved a train ride to Saint Petersburg where our lovely tour guide Tanya showed us so much of the city in only 5 days. We saw many palaces: the Winter Palace (now part of the Hermitage Museum), Catherine Palace, Peterhof Palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress.

After arriving back in Moscow we resumed classes at the Finance University. We also had students at the Moscow City University give us presentations on the many influential Russian writers and composers: Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky and others. On the final day we exchanged heartfelt goodbye’s with the students had been so kind to us and taught us so much about Russia and shown us so much of Moscow.