July 02, 2010 (01:30)

Hi. Haven't written in a while because I couldn't get around to it. I was about to fall asleep, but decided to jot down a few lines. I'm already in Philadelphia. It's a very beautiful and cozy city, not far from New York. I'm staying in a hostel, but I'll be sleeping outside tonight – it's cheap. Actually, the hostel is very good. $20 a night, there's internet, a kitchen, and rooms for several people with bunk beds. There are many people of different nationalities in the hostel. We also met two guys from Novosibirsk, Egor and Sanya. They say work is hard to find, and about 10 Russian students from the hostel have already gone home to Russia, having spent all their money and unable to find a job.

I got to Philly by bus with a guy named Ilyukha – we're hanging out together here now. He's from Perm. I'm thrilled with the city, the people, everything. Everything is different, everything is beautiful, it's warm, and the people are kind, very kind indeed. Today, a guy named Bob took us into the city in his car, showed us downtown, and fed us at a Mexican restaurant called Burritos – kind of like our shawarma, weighing 1 kg, made of donkey meat – didn't really like it. We met a Jewish woman who treated us to cola and told us about work. In general, there are many examples of good encounters with Americans, even very many. We tried looking for work – no results yet. Lots of interesting things... gotta run to sleep.