Summer has passed. And I have already been home for about six months, but I decided to write my own view of America and my summer of 2014. Some spent it at home, some in the countryside, some in camps, and I participated in the international student program "Work and Travel". I think America changed me, and not only me; students here grow up and sometimes make their very first serious decisions. For example, whether to return home or not? The temptation is great; even without an education any immigrant can quite easily get a job in a supermarket, a restaurant, etc., and earn, as we say, "above average", dream of buying a car, since it is considered normal there to own and drive a car from the age of 16. You don't have to take a car on credit because its price is many times lower than at home, and I myself was able to earn enough in one and a half months for a decent used car, which I could not have achieved in my homeland in such a period of time. Many immigrants I met in the USA asked me: "What is there in Russia that isn't here?" The attitude of 'our Americans' toward the arriving 'our people' is substantially different. In Chicago they helped me both with words and deeds. In New York it was different. There everyone survives as best they can. I suppose 'our people' there are spoiled by money, and everyone profits from others. For the most part I saw smiles from passing Americans on the street, and if you got lost, someone would always approach you, ask if everything was okay, and wish you a "Nice day!" Perhaps this is insincerity of Americans, as Russians note; this politeness is instilled in them from birth and becomes part of the foundation of the American mentality.

But every coin has a flip side; the first time in the USA happens on a wave of euphoria — it's impressions, acquaintances, the politeness of shopkeepers and police. America seems like a country of unlimited opportunities. But once, sitting on a bench in a park, I thought about how my social status from Russia plays no role here; you have to make do with low-skilled work, for example like mine at that time in the field of housekeeping. Most arrivals work for $7–9 an hour, while the average salary for the middle class is about $20. You run like a hamster on a wheel, and rent (an apartment or a room) takes away 50% of your earnings, as do bus or subway fare and food. And it's hard to jump above that threshold without an American education, so you allow yourself time off from that job only on weekends in some cafe. But sad people in America are seen as weak, and showing a bad mood here is simply not customary. I saw how young and not-stupid people lost themselves, for example girls... The rumors that girls from Eastern Europe have loose morals, alas, are not just rumors. Along highways, and generally in cities, especially large ones, bar-restaurants are developed, like gentleman clubs, where they recruit young girls my age to pole-dance, and most often these are our Russian-speaking girls. I was deceived and taken there, incidentally by our 'arrived Russians' under the guise of work as a barback, but I ran away from there. I knew about four girls for sure who worked in this dance field.

But there are many who want to leave their homeland for life in the USA, both the active educated segment of the population and very young students. Families often leave as well.

In summary, I believe that this summer was, of course, a success despite all my mistakes and troubles, but after all that's how life experience is gained. I spent half of the summer in the provincial town of Ocean City on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, then I moved to Chicago, which is on Lake Michigan, and the end of my journey was New York. As for all J1 students, we returned different; we have something to compare to the reality we knew since childhood, and this stay in America is a kind of hardening. Well... and returning to the question "What is there in Russia that isn't here?" I would probably answer: it is in the depths of the souls of our simple Russian people, for we know how to enjoy simple ordinary things.