Well the officials told us we could go anywhere and do anything we wanted to do, then they planned an itinerary that would keep us busy. They would tell you things that were technically true bot not tell you the complete story. The were always people watching us. However I mat a man who was from the core group from dayston ohio, retired military. We would meet the busses at the determined place, but walk past the loading busses and drop right into the subway. We'd ride a few stops and come up. Then armed with a bag full of gum, candy, yes, ladies, nylons, lipstick, other assorted make up, we would meet real russians. You could not just walk up and say "do you speak english (every one who was middle age and down did speak englist) you had to do something that made them know you were not secret police. They were afraid of their government. Now the russians for not having much, did have some of the best ice cream you'll find. We'd walk in to a little restaurant, hungry or not, look around, find someone eating ice cream and approach them, " excuse me, that ice cream looks so good, but, I do not know how to order it, my friemd and I do not speak rushian, could you tell me how to order some?" worked every time. Poor old doumb westerners needs help. They'd aways help and we'd end up at their table doing what we were there for making friends. If there were no ice cream eayers, then we'd pick someone ewating some kind of pastryt and "that reallyt looks good, I'd really like to know how to order some...." you know they were taught that a russian had built an airplane before kitty hawk? American government was stealing all there inventions. We were very frank in our discussions we told the truth about the crime rate and the slums when ask, but the we pointed out the good about america. We also pointed out the good and bad about ussr. We would give the somethng from our bag and others would come up. Our new friend would 90 % of the time give us something they had on them, I still have these things packed away in "ken's treasures." I'd like to go back to finland and russia in the summer instead of winner. -----Original Message----- From: Magenta Raine [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Saturday, October 12, 2002 11:15 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: CNN Breaking News (fwd) What was that like? To go to the USSR in 82? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you use Ebay to shop online, you can shop Ebay from my website! www.itilink.com/traine.iti