Dmitri Boulanov

Dmitri Boulanov didn't have to audit the Russian language class at Beverly High School. But the lure of speaking his native language during school beckoned, and over the last two years Boulanov has mostly listened as his classmates learned Russian.

But last June, during a class discussion about Moscow, Boulanov decided to share his dream with his friends. ``I said that instead of talking about what life is like in Russia, we should go and see it," he recalled recently. Boulanov, whose family moved to Beverly from Moscow when he was 11, also wanted his childhood friends to meet his American friends. Lisa Chernyak, who teaches the Russian class, seconded the idea, and began planning the trip. After months of fund-raising, Boulanov, Chernyak, and nine other students and a chaperone flew to Moscow in April for a two-week trip.

``Once I was there I translated for the first week, and then I decided that the kids should speak Russian on their own. They surprised me -- they learned more Russian than I thought they would," said Boulanov, 18, who will attend Boston University in the fall.

The group stayed at a Moscow hotel, and attended classes at Moscow school No. 1060, the SAAS Marina School, the Podolsk No. 23 school, and Moscow State University. In between bites of borscht, the group found time to attend the Bolshoi Ballet and the New Moscow Circus, and walk though Red Square and Gorky Park.

The only bump in the trip came as the group prepared to return to America. Because he's still a Russian citizen, Boulanov was told he could not leave the country because he did not have a notarized permission document from his parents. To cut through the red tape, Boulanov's father, Oleg, flew to Russia to bring his son home.

Despite the holdup, Boulanov remains ecstatic about the experience, and the chance to bring Russian and American teens together. ``Once I had the two sides meet, they stopped being so biased, and they started thinking that life is not like a James Bond movie."