“CHOCOLATE!” said me and my friend, Christina, when we smelt all the delicious aromas of hundreds of different types of chocolate.

The trail that led us to this lovely revelation was a bus ride from our school, AAS of Moscow, to the Babaev Chocolate Factory. Originally I had started this trip thinking this was just a trip where we saw cold, metal, old machines making okay chocolate -- but boy was I wrong.The reason we went there is because I go to the AAS of Moscow, and our school decided to take us eighth graders on a discovery trip, a week where we learn about all kinds of things like ourselves, our friends, the actual place we’re in and more. I decided not to go to Altai, the place we were going this year, because in past experiences of discovery trips I never really enjoyed myself and always got hurt.  

Furthermore I actually got to stay in Moscow and surprisingly enjoy a nice calm yet exciting trip.The actual trip was very fun and interesting ,and I really enjoyed myself; one of the most remarkable things we did was visiting the chocolate factory. My eyes were as tired as a sleep deprived adult working too much, because I had woken up extra early since we were leaving early to get there. We drove a decent amount of time on the bus filled with all types of children: some quirky, some lunatic, some introverted, all types. The only things we did were socialise, listen to music, and just rest until finally -- we arrived. In the beginning, my nose wasn’t filled with all types of sweet chocolate smell ,but instead it was filled with a mix of metal, cleaning products and a little bit of dust.
Additionally, I thought we would see the chocolate and possibly get a sample, but it was much more. First, they had taken us to something similar to a small museum, showing us a room filled with artifacts of the Mayans Indies since they were the first to truly discover the cacao bean. My brain was getting filled with many new fascinating facts from a short video about chocolate’s history.

Another part of the trip down chocolate memory lane was, we were taken through small little door to a big marvelous room full of the history of chocolate. This room was as magical as the night sky, this mesmerizing room had actual scenes with dolls and furniture, making it feel as if we were taken back in time to when it all started. This room contained more about the history of how chocolate was brought to europe and later Russia, enriching us with the history in the best way possible by showing real things like chocolate wrappers or chocolate art from those times.

Out of the blue, they had given us these interesting white lab coats and taken us through some more small doors starting another real adventure. We were taken from all these doors to a bunch of little rooms full of different aromas, one which was assumingly the break room full of smoke smell, another room smelling like caramel and vanilla, and finally we arrived to where they make the chocolate.

My nose was filled with all types of sweet, then bitter smells. Happy squeals and and smiles had spread around us all,”YAY”, “OMG”, “CHOCOLATE”, had been heard all over the room. As we went through the factory it was truly surreal to see all the detail and effort put into the the chocolate. The chocolate bars were layered with layers and layers of a rich chocolate put onto its delicious filling. The machines were kept as clean and shiny as crystals which made them resemble the workers which were wearing hygienic lab suits as white as snow. The workers looked like a group of Santa’s little helpers, the tour guide as happy as an innocent child, and the rest of the children were examining the chocolate as if it was some type of science experiment. It truly surprised me how wrong my thoughts about the factory were... making me feel as if I shouldn’t judge things without trying them, I should try new things.

Additionally, the amount of chocolate samples we got were unreal. We even got to taste a brand new chocolate they had filled with mango filling. The taste was wonderful, it was like nothing I have ever tasted before yet it was very sweet and also almost sour. We also got to try a couple of other chocolate bars, one tasted like a fluffy milky chocolate fudge, another tasted like a rocky road texture filled with a copper colored caramel in it, and another great chocolate, my personal favorite, which in words can be best described as the taste you would get from a hot chocolate on a nice winter night.

Afterwards we had come into a room that had some truly unique art, it was filled with statues made of pure chocolate. Some were as simple as an actual chess figure while others were portraits of people. One of the more divine portraits was a portrait of a woman. The portrait looked so exquisite and elegant as the woman was covered with almost silk like drapes and elegant body language making it look like a goddess made of rich white chocolate.

When we were done with the tour of the whole place including the history and process of making chocolate, we were very kindly treated, and even given very nice gift bags including a box of chocolates with all types of tastes, sweet chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, caramel, and many more delicious tastes.

Finally we got on the bus and were on the way back to school. Although the journey didn’t end there since we were talking about the factory. Christina and I kept talking about the place, but Christina actually said the way they were talking about Christopher Columbus and glorifying him wasn’t correct. The reason for that was that while in the video they showed Christopher Columbus taking the cacao bean and bringing it to Spain, even going so far as to put a halo angel over his head, when in reality he stole the Cacao beans from the Maya Indies and even tortured them.

I had actually learned a lot from this trip, some history about chocolate, too much chocolate isn’t tasty and I will never have more than just 2 pieces of chocolate, I no longer really relate to sixth graders and barely any 7th graders, and I should try new things that i’m not sure about doing.

Later in the day, when I was finally back home, I thought about how happy I was to stay in Moscow and actually come to this factory. This was quite an interesting trip. I had went to the Babaev Chocolate factory and saw all kinds of marvelous things like for example I had seen the process of how chocolate is made and all the effort put into it, I had learned about the actual history of chocolate and had it disproved by a friend, seen some art made of chocolate -- and had seen how worth it was to go on this type of a school trip even though I had some previous thoughts about this factory. This was a great opportunity to actually learn information and history about so much things, one of them being chocolate ... instead of just eating it from time to time. I felt very thankful for this experience.

Theme:
The theme of my story is that you should you try new things, even if you had previous thoughts about them. Some examples of that are “had seen how worth it was to go on this type of a school trip even though I had some previous thoughts about this factory”, “It truly surprised me how wrong my thoughts about the factory were... making me feel as if I shouldn’t judge things without trying them, I should try new things.”, and “I had started this trip thinking this was just a trip where we saw cold, metal, old machines making okay chocolate -- but boy was I wrong”. In conclusion, you should try new things even if you have former thoughts about them, it could change the way that you see the world around you.