"Work&Travel"

Entry – authorized.

Input – voice.

Category – thoughts of a beginning traveler.

Title – "The world around. You won't run away from the world."

Please speak...

Yesterday I visited the IEC office. Well then, everything went well. It looks like I'm going! I need to make everyone happy – relatives, friends, acquaintances and people I barely know. Right now, as soon as I finish dictating, I'll send them messages – all at once, to every number – let them rejoice and be jealous. The information I provided is acceptable and a place for me is already available. I filled out the application the other day, answered the questions – all on the go, between home and the sports complex – after all, this bracelet-office is a wonderful thing! How did we live before them – phone, TV, computer, watch – and a damn lot of different devices – all separately, and with wires... horrible.

And now, I'm walking home after an in-person interview – what an archaic thing, they couldn't interview by video! Around – green grass, houses sparkle with their windows, people passing by laugh – cleanliness and freshness. It used to be different, I had seen it in films. And I myself managed to catch that time – when the world hung by such a thin thread, dirty, unkempt, soaked with fear. But we, hovering over the abyss, found a way out, removed the military and politicians from power, put labor and enlightenment forward – and at the conference in Beijing we prevented the Last War from happening! And don't talk about communism – it has nothing to do with it here – Grandpa Marx would probably give everyone a proper dressing-down now, but it's for the best; fanatics are not liked anymore.

Now I'm nervous like a little kid. No, I've been to many places before, but this is a different matter – not just a trip, but a trip on the "Work&Travel" program! I'm going to work! And work ennobles a person, especially if that work is interesting. IEC is now everywhere – in every corner of the world, in every country – the changes that have happened to the world have only benefited these people, which means they took the right course. By the way, I still need to make a choice – where to go and what to do. I haven't answered that question yet – it's not scary, they gave me time to think – a whole month, in fact.

So, where, where? Maybe to Europe – there are many opportunities now – work in a hotel – two-in-one, you help tourists, and you enjoy the sights yourself! And there's plenty to see – in Italy – huge Catholic cathedrals and ancient Roman ruins, in Germany – delightful brand-new mosques – patterned, slender, as if the flying minarets are tearing upwards, to the sky, the moon and the stars; lines from the Quran can be heard, making you laugh and cry. And in France – works of art – both old and new – like holographic paintings and psychoimages. Huge museums that you don't even want to leave.

Or, say, get on a stratoship and head across the ocean – there's also a lot of interesting stuff in the Confederation of Two Americas. It would be best to show up right at the engineering complex on the Nazca Plateau – where they assemble blocks for the first interplanetary ship. It will carry a scientific team to Mars and leave it there – for a long time, by the way. But getting onto this "construction project of the century" is an unattainable dream – no one will let me in there without a Master's diploma, and that diploma still has to be earned – such things are achieved through hard work, and not by everyone... and not even by one in ten, unfortunately.

Don't despair, whoever it's addressed to! After all, there are still fish farms in Australia, where you can care for fish and tell people about it, and around – the "Wild World" park, where you don't know which beast you'll run into next minute; there's the City of Doctors in Africa, where doctors work on curing diseases, where there are nanoworkshops, cloning complexes and Grissom emitters, and also – the Museum of Medical Art (why am I so drawn to museums, should I become a tour guide?); there's the floating artificial island New-Tokyo in Tokyo Bay, created by human hands from start to finish, controlled by the most perfect computer in the world named "Muramasa A-15"... well, only the Japanese could've thought of something like that.

A message arrived. From Innochka. What else does she need? She also signed up and is going... where? To Canada, to a resort, why all of a sudden – ah, that's it, the Midelson Observatory is nearby there and the timing is just right – the climate as well. Romantic... decided, I'll go there, at least a close person will be nearby.

I'll send the reply right now. Long live "Work&Travel".

Such unartistic drivel.