From 07.16 to 08.07 2002 twelve students from Dubna and La Crosse were involved in a program demonstrating the value of cleaning up the garbage along the banks of Dubna and Volga rivers and also in the Memorial area. The six American students, who whose age ranged from 15 to 17 years of age, and their chaperone, who came within the LDFA (La Crosse Dubna Friendship Association) program, and their Dubna hosts of the same age were also busy with a very well scheduled plan. The plan included a lecture of the history of Russia and the city of Dubna, a city tour and numerous trips. For example, they visited Moscow, Sergiev Posad, Verbilki, Tver, Vladimir and Suzdal.
A main purpose of the LDFA student exchange is to give the students and their families from both Russia and America an opportunity to share each other's lifestyles, traditions and history. LDFA is a non-profit organization inviting to join it everybody wishing to help in building bridges of friendship and understanding between the people of our two cities. Student exchange is tradition that begins in 1992 year. Our American friends raise most of the funds for the program.
This past summer six Russian families hosted six American guests in Dubna: Alyona Pipenko's family hosted Kelly Morrison, Ilya Prokh's family hosted August Weber, Julia Kucherova's family hosted Joanna Hilton, Liya Sirazieva's family hosted Jessica Ness, Olga Inozemtseva's family hosted Dana Barbour and Sasha Leonov's family hosted Jared Leis.
The Dubna students that were selected competed for the chance to participate in the exchange. First, the program was advertised in all Dubna schools, then, they all participated in written and oral English skills exams. Finally, a psychologist interviewed and tested the students.
Once selected, the students began their adventure by immediately communicating through e-mail. This enabled the students to get to know each other a little even before they met in Dubna. The chaperones started to work out the agenda for the visit. Bill Trussoni, the American chaperone, took a very active part in the process. It was his third visit to Dubna within the program.
In order to gather the money for the journey, the American students and their families worked very hard. For example, they had a garage sale, which involved the selling of household furniture, clothing and other miscellaneous items that were donated by the student's families and others who support the exchange.

Arrival.

The Americans landed in Russia after a long and tiring flight. Even though they were a little older than the Dubna students, kids are still kids. Some cried and longed to be back home the first night. Probably the journey was too long, and the country seemed too different� one girl, while calling home to her parents, asked them to make her dog bark to the telephone. No wonder they felt like this, none of the kids had ever been so far away from home, without their parents. Nevertheless, the schedule was too busy to worry for long. The first 5 days were spent in Dubna, working & meeting new friends.

Garbage.

Oftentimes, picking up garbage in the USA is a volunteers' job, which is without being paid any money. So, our workdays in Dubna shouldn't be regarded as the only thing as such. There were three working days during the program. The first two areas that were cleaned were along the banks of the Volga and Dubna rivers. The American and Russian students worked very hard. They not only picked up all the garbage along the area, but they also dug out waste that had been left there years ago. The most eager to work was Bill Trussoni. He deserves genuine respect of both Russians and Americans. After each workday, a truck full of garbage could be seen leaving the work area. The Town Administration helped considerably in organizing the disposal of the garbage that was collected during the clean-up efforts.

Meeting Dubna.

David Natanovich Bell graciously conducted a tour of Dubna, which also included the Canal. David informed them of many facts, such as who and how it was built and under what conditions. The students took many photo's, including photo's of the biggest Lenin statue in the world. The tour around Dubna was very interesting and informative for both Americans and the Russian students. The students also enjoyed an excursion to the JINR and the Dubna synchrophasatron.

Moscow.

The students visited a; the traditional Moscow tourist attractions such as the Kremlin, Arbat, and the Cathedrals. Our friends were interested in souvenirs and especially in Russian war uniform and arms. They were very impressed by the famous St. Basil's cathedral, the Armory, the Kremlin and Lenin's tomb.

In Tver, Verbilki, Sergiev Posad.

In the neighboring region center the students visited a local history museum and went on a charming boat trip. It was a pity, but the china factory in Verbilki was closed for summer holidays. However, everyone did manage to purchase lots of very nice items for friends and relatives in the souvenir shop. In Sergiev Posad most of the time was spent visiting the monastery. Many Plastic bottles were filled with holy water to carry home.

Entertainment.

Except for the obligatory schedule, and by design, there was several "free days" worked into the student's agenda. On "free days" Dubna families were free to choose how to fill the spare time of "their Russian and American children". Some went to Moscow, not only to visit historical places, but also to have fun. Several families went to the Dolphin House and to the National Exhibition Center. Some traveled separately but then met each other there wandering and laughing.
Our guests were very impressed with the National Exhibition Center, with its beautiful pavilions, fountains and enormous ferris wheel. These special excursions which also included carting (small cars race track) allowed our American friends to forget that they were not at home. All of the American students can drive so they liked very much the speed and extreme sensation while carting. Carting was more interesting then usual car! They seemed content to drive cart for hours.
The Nikulin Circus charmed everyone. In fact, most of our guests had never seen anything like this in their lives. This visit was like real adventure - with its revelations, enthralling sight, a lot of emotions. Bill Trussoni made a note that the next group of students who travel to Russia should be taken to the circus. The plan is for a new group of students to visit Russia in two years.

In Suzdal and Vladimir.

During one of the "free time" intervals, two families set off for Suzdal and Vladimir. Unfortunately, because of the burning peat, beautiful view around Vladimir was clouded in smoke and nothing was to be seen from the Observation Place. But still, the Golden Gates and The Uspensky Cathedral impressed everyone.
During the visit The Uspensky Cathedral everybody touched by their palms to holy stones of Cathedral, becoming revived its salutary energy, even more so it is said that everybody who lives in a radius one and a half kilometre never is ill.
They spent a night in the tiny camp "Pine-trees" and then, the next morning they went on to Suzdal. In this ancient city they visited the most beautiful churches, and also listened to a wonderful bell-concert in performance of three bell ringers. Children say that music was nice, piercing and touching your soul. At the end, the chief bell-ringer, master, was selling souvenir small bells for the memory about the concert....

Differences in Russian and American everyday life.

Except those moments when all hearts were beating fast in the face of all the beauties of our motherland, there were a number of usual days full of their own peculiarities. Probably, one of the most amusing things to observe was the difference in food preferences. The American students appeared to be especially careful about eating anything made with milk. Thus, they refused to drink milk if the fat percentage was more than 1.5. Our favorite chocolate cheese curds seemed absolutely strange and "glutinous" to our guests. However, they liked many of our Russian dishes such as harcho, borsch and pelmeny very much. Our Russian students were a bit offended when they read in a La Cross newspaper "there was not any Ketchup in Russia". They treated their guests to our famous "Baltimore" Ketchup, thus demonstrating that our ketchup is as good as the Americans. All Americans were curious about what animal is the Cheburashka. Jessica and Joanna bought a Russian language copy of "Hercules" cartoon. Augie Weber crossed Volga, back and forth in its widest place near the dam.

Departure.

Here's the farewell party at last: saying goodbye and summing it all up. Trying to answer the question, "How do you think such visits benefit the students?" The Russian chaperone, Svetlana Prozhirko had this to say: " I'm sure programs of this kind are extremely important. Our students are able to actually "live" a cultural exchange. The students also experience a wonderful and very rare opportunity to actually practice their English language skills with students of their own age and interests. However, how each student truly benefits, except for the "exotic" impressions - that is the question!" This question very much depends on what each particular student puts into and expects out of this experience. It should also be pointed out that such exchanges are designed to be of great importance to both the students and their parents and other family members as well.

The departure was very sad for all.