diff --git a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/create-loadbalancer.py b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/create-loadbalancer.py
index 7114094..2e5f725 100644
--- a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/create-loadbalancer.py
+++ b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/create-loadbalancer.py
@@ -7,17 +7,28 @@ import boto3
 ################################################################################################
 
 
-region = 'eu-central-1'
-availabilityZone = 'eu-central-1b'
-vpc_id = 'vpc-eedd4187'
-subnet1 = 'subnet-41422b28'
-subnet2 = 'subnet-5c5f6d16'
-subnet3 = 'subnet-6f2ea214'
+# place your credentials in ~/.aws/credentials, as mentioned in AWS Educate Classroom,
+# Account Details, AWC CLI -> Show (Copy and paste the following into ~/.aws/credentials)
 
-# if you only have one VPC, vpc_id can be retrieved using:
-#
-# response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
-# vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
+# changed to use us-east, to be able to use AWS Educate Classroom
+region = 'us-east-1'
+availabilityZone1 = 'us-east-1a'
+availabilityZone2 = 'us-east-1b'
+availabilityZone3 = 'us-east-1c'
+# region = 'eu-central-1'
+# availabilityZone = 'eu-central-1b'
+
+# AMI ID of Amazon Linux 2 image 64-bit x86 in us-east-1 (can be retrieved, e.g., at
+# https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/v2/home?region=us-east-1#LaunchInstanceWizard:)
+imageId = 'ami-0d5eff06f840b45e9'
+# for eu-central-1, AMI ID of Amazon Linux 2 would be:
+# imageId = 'ami-0cc293023f983ed53'
+
+# potentially change instanceType to t2.micro for "free tier" if using a regular account
+# for production, t3.nano seams better
+instanceType = 't2.nano'
+
+keyName = 'srieger-pub'
 
 
 ################################################################################################
@@ -31,6 +42,35 @@ client = boto3.setup_default_session(region_name=region)
 ec2Client = boto3.client("ec2")
 ec2Resource = boto3.resource('ec2')
 
+# if you only have one VPC, vpc_id can be retrieved using:
+response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
+vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
+# if you have more than one VPC, vpc_id should be specified, and code
+# top retrieve VPC id below needs to be commented out
+# vpc_id = 'vpc-eedd4187'
+
+subnet_id1 = ec2Client.describe_subnets(
+    Filters=[
+        {
+            'Name': 'availability-zone', 'Values': [availabilityZone1]
+        }
+    ])['Subnets'][0]['SubnetId']
+
+subnet_id2 = ec2Client.describe_subnets(
+    Filters=[
+        {
+            'Name': 'availability-zone', 'Values': [availabilityZone2]
+        }
+    ])['Subnets'][0]['SubnetId']
+
+subnet_id3 = ec2Client.describe_subnets(
+    Filters=[
+        {
+            'Name': 'availability-zone', 'Values': [availabilityZone3]
+        }
+    ])['Subnets'][0]['SubnetId']
+
+
 response = ec2Client.describe_security_groups(Filters=[{'Name': 'group-name', 'Values': ['tug-of-war']}])
 security_group_id = response.get('SecurityGroups', [{}])[0].get('GroupId', '')
 
@@ -39,9 +79,9 @@ elbv2Client = boto3.client('elbv2')
 response = elbv2Client.create_load_balancer(
     Name='tug-of-war-loadbalancer',
     Subnets=[
-        subnet1,
-        subnet2,
-        subnet3,
+        subnet_id1,
+        subnet_id2,
+        subnet_id3
     ],
     SecurityGroups=[
         security_group_id
diff --git a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start-and-add-new-target.py b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start-and-add-new-target.py
index a8d4dfe..3feb52b 100644
--- a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start-and-add-new-target.py
+++ b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start-and-add-new-target.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import time
+
 import boto3
 from botocore.exceptions import ClientError
 
@@ -9,17 +11,26 @@ from botocore.exceptions import ClientError
 ################################################################################################
 
 
-region = 'eu-central-1'
-availabilityZone = 'eu-central-1b'
-vpc_id = 'vpc-eedd4187'
-imageId = 'ami-0cc293023f983ed53'
-instanceType = 't3.nano'
-keyName = 'srieger-pub'
+# place your credentials in ~/.aws/credentials, as mentioned in AWS Educate Classroom,
+# Account Details, AWC CLI -> Show (Copy and paste the following into ~/.aws/credentials)
 
-# if you only have one VPC, vpc_id can be retrieved using:
-#
-# response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
-# vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
+# changed to use us-east, to be able to use AWS Educate Classroom
+region = 'us-east-1'
+availabilityZone = 'us-east-1b'
+# region = 'eu-central-1'
+# availabilityZone = 'eu-central-1b'
+
+# AMI ID of Amazon Linux 2 image 64-bit x86 in us-east-1 (can be retrieved, e.g., at
+# https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/v2/home?region=us-east-1#LaunchInstanceWizard:)
+imageId = 'ami-0d5eff06f840b45e9'
+# for eu-central-1, AMI ID of Amazon Linux 2 would be:
+# imageId = 'ami-0cc293023f983ed53'
+
+# potentially change instanceType to t2.micro for "free tier" if using a regular account
+# for production, t3.nano seams better
+instanceType = 't2.nano'
+
+keyName = 'srieger-pub'
 
 
 ################################################################################################
@@ -105,8 +116,19 @@ for i in range(3, 4):
     instance = ec2Resource.Instance(instanceIdWeb)
     instance.wait_until_running()
     instance.load()
-
-    print("tug-of-war-in-the-clouds can be accessed at: " + instance.public_ip_address)
+    # sometimes even after reloading instance details, public IP cannot be retrieved using current boto3 version and
+    # AWS Educate accounts, try for 10 secs, and ask user to get it from AWS console otherwise
+    timeout = 10
+    while instance.public_ip_address is None and timeout > 0:
+        print("Waiting for public IP to become available...")
+        instance.load()
+        time.sleep(1)
+        timeout -= 1
+    if instance.public_ip_address is not None:
+        print("tug-of-war-in-the-clouds can be accessed at: " + instance.public_ip_address)
+    else:
+        print("Could not get public IP using boto3, this is likely an AWS Educate problem. You can however lookup the "
+              "public ip from the AWS management console.")
 
 try:
     response = elbv2Client.describe_target_groups(Names=['tug-of-war-targetgroup'])
diff --git a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start.py b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start.py
index f95de7a..f38255c 100644
--- a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start.py
+++ b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import time
+
 import boto3
 from botocore.exceptions import ClientError
 
@@ -9,17 +11,26 @@ from botocore.exceptions import ClientError
 ################################################################################################
 
 
-region = 'eu-central-1'
-availabilityZone = 'eu-central-1b'
-vpc_id = 'vpc-eedd4187'
-imageId = 'ami-0cc293023f983ed53'
-instanceType = 't3.nano'
-keyName = 'srieger-pub'
+# place your credentials in ~/.aws/credentials, as mentioned in AWS Educate Classroom,
+# Account Details, AWC CLI -> Show (Copy and paste the following into ~/.aws/credentials)
 
-# if you only have one VPC, vpc_id can be retrieved using:
-#
-# response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
-# vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
+# changed to use us-east, to be able to use AWS Educate Classroom
+region = 'us-east-1'
+availabilityZone = 'us-east-1a'
+# region = 'eu-central-1'
+# availabilityZone = 'eu-central-1b'
+
+# AMI ID of Amazon Linux 2 image 64-bit x86 in us-east-1 (can be retrieved, e.g., at
+# https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/v2/home?region=us-east-1#LaunchInstanceWizard:)
+imageId = 'ami-0d5eff06f840b45e9'
+# for eu-central-1, AMI ID of Amazon Linux 2 would be:
+# imageId = 'ami-0cc293023f983ed53'
+
+# potentially change instanceType to t2.micro for "free tier" if using a regular account
+# for production, t3.nano seams better
+instanceType = 't2.nano'
+
+keyName = 'srieger-pub'
 
 
 ################################################################################################
@@ -33,6 +44,13 @@ client = boto3.setup_default_session(region_name=region)
 ec2Client = boto3.client("ec2")
 ec2Resource = boto3.resource('ec2')
 
+# if you only have one VPC, vpc_id can be retrieved using:
+response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
+vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
+# if you have more than one VPC, vpc_id should be specified, and code
+# top retrieve VPC id below needs to be commented out
+# vpc_id = 'vpc-eedd4187'
+
 subnet_id = ec2Client.describe_subnets(
     Filters=[
         {
@@ -205,5 +223,16 @@ for i in range(1, 3):
     instance = ec2Resource.Instance(instanceIdWeb)
     instance.wait_until_running()
     instance.load()
-
-    print("tug-of-war-in-the-clouds can be accessed at: " + instance.public_ip_address)
+    # sometimes even after reloading instance details, public IP cannot be retrieved using current boto3 version and
+    # AWS Educate accounts, try for 10 secs, and ask user to get it from AWS console otherwise
+    timeout = 10
+    while instance.public_ip_address is None and timeout > 0:
+        print("Waiting for public IP to become available...")
+        instance.load()
+        time.sleep(1)
+        timeout -= 1
+    if instance.public_ip_address is not None:
+        print("tug-of-war-in-the-clouds can be accessed at: " + instance.public_ip_address)
+    else:
+        print("Could not get public IP using boto3, this is likely an AWS Educate problem. You can however lookup the "
+              "public ip from the AWS management console.")
diff --git a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/stop.py b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/stop.py
index 233da15..48ff8c2 100644
--- a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/stop.py
+++ b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/stop.py
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ from botocore.exceptions import ClientError
 ################################################################################################
 
 
-region = 'eu-central-1'
+region = 'us-east-1'
+# region = 'eu-central-1'
 
 
 ################################################################################################