When he was a junior, World History/Culinary Arts teacher Scott Huntley was part of a student exchange program to travel to the Soviet Union. He stayed there for six weeks, travelling through Norway and Finland, and to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Afterwards, the group journeyed south to the Black Sea.

One highlight of the trip was at the border between Finland and the Soviet Union, where his train was stopped and boarded by Soviet soldiers. In retrospect, Huntley realizes that the stop was routine, but in the moment, the brandished guns and the loud shouting of the Russian border guards caused alarm and made him wonder if he did something wrong.