In New York, we head to the customs officers' counters. We get checked, and a native American, Mikhail L. Shulman, asks if we want to stay. After finding out he’d been to Odessa for about 20 years and getting our stamps, we head to the subway. A guy approaches, says he’s meeting students, and offers a unique bus to the city center for just 15 dollars. He also says it’s too early (9 AM), the subway isn’t running, it’s expensive, it’s dangerous, and it’s better to go with him.

As intuition suggested, and experience later confirmed, in America, Russians only try to bring other Russians down. Sometimes it’s better not to deal with them (us) at all. But that’s only sometimes) We thank him and head to the subway. The train to it (AirTrain) is cheap, the subway is a couple more bucks, and an hour and twenty minutes later, we are in the center of a modern Carthage, Novgorod, etc., all in one, or rather at Port Authority (where the Greyhounds leave from), where we had booked tickets with a 50% discount 3 weeks ago.

The bus is at 6 PM, so there’s time to walk around. We buy a phone, don’t leave our bags in storage (6 whole dollars per bag, crazy!!)), call home, and go to Times Square. I won’t talk about the wandering. Tired after the madness in London, we look at everything quite skeptically. Although America greets us with wonderful weather (that’s how it is here, don’t pay attention))), the City doesn’t impress.

Skyscrapers look, strangely enough, familiar. The mass of different nationalities on the streets is no longer surprising after the capital of England, where everything is even more colorful and turbaned. Rap on the streets has been boring since the days of friendship with the "neighborhood boys," so we see the Statue of Liberty, walk around the center, eat our supplies, and get on the bus. The bus allows a maximum of 2 bags per person, the rest is for a large surcharge. We get lucky - we have exactly 6 bags, so we sit down and go.

But New York is cool, we just didn’t have enough time then. To feel it, you need at least 3 days. Walk around, go into the black and Chinese neighborhoods, clubs and churches, wander through the crazy streets of Manhattan and meet the morning in Central Park, get into a couple of scrapes, and spend the night on the banks of the Hudson. In general, New York turned out to be more worthy than what we could offer it then. We messed up, I agree) But we thought we would visit it on the way back, and for now....

We are going. The first 15 minutes we intend to watch the USA, proud of the path (as it became clear later, actually very short) that we have to travel. However, after 15 minutes, we get sleepy and... The driver’s voice wakes us up - some stop. Night. Connecting bus in 2 hours. We sit, we sleep... We get on, we go, we sleep... This repeats a couple of times. Waking up periodically, we see the same greenery and hills outside the window. It starts to remind us of Russia (Oh, how many more times will this happen!!)) In the end, having surprisingly easily slept for 18 hours, we get out in Myrtle. I never thought I could travel so much by bus. From this moment on, I believe that everything will be super in the car too. It was even more, but that’s later, and here.. -

Here! Finally!! American life has begun! Now it’s just us and America! One on one! Let’s breathe in deeply! (metaphorically, since the humidity here is such that for the first week you will feel like an asthmatic).) Now english only! Change the way you think by the way you speak!!! "Hey guys, don't you need housing?" - suddenly a RUSSIAN voice rings out from a group of young people meeting the bus. "I might have some work" - another echoes. We walk away in shock.

A third one approaches and whispers, handing over a business card: "It’s cheaper with me." A fourth offers cars, a fifth again housing, a sixth just says his name is Pasha (or Kolya, something familiar, in general) . Well, damn!! Yes, yes, America, it’s like that)))

Then began the ordinariness, about which a small, medium, gray, in short, stylized next post,) after the next mission.)