Goodbye, Saint Petersburg
I caught myself thinking that I was flying to the USA somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There was no turning back. I recall the words I learned in school during English lessons, trying to imagine a conversation with an American, not thinking about the fact that I have to work, because I only want to think about good things. To my right sits my girlfriend, or rather, she has already fallen asleep, and I am still sitting here thinking about what I have ultimately agreed to. Imagine flying to another continent, to an unfamiliar place, not being very fluent in the language, with $400 in your pocket, and an entire summer ahead that you will have to, as I thought at that time, survive. So much unknown, and there is nothing to calm yourself with other than the stories of past participants. Okay, I thought, we'll figure it out, and I asked the flight attendant for a glass of orange juice. Aeroflot planes, by the way, seemed so cozy to me at that time; they even gave out slippers and a blanket.
Mom, I've arrived!
I couldn't fall asleep during this long flight, which is a pity, because I still have to stay awake for at least 16 hours. We get off the plane, which landed in New York City, and immediately enter winter. The cold from the air conditioners is striking; I involuntarily notice goosebumps on my skin and start looking for the jacket I wore from St. Petersburg. We show our documents to the border service officer who, unlike our stern ones, smiles and jokes with every new person.
Our first stroke of luck happened by chance. The airport employee in St. Petersburg told us that our flight was to Boston, so we only needed to check our luggage once in SPb and could pick it up in Boston. We didn't need to worry about it in NY and Moscow. In our joy and traveling light, we went for a walk around the airport and accidentally saw our luggage already lying on the baggage claim belt. It turned out that we did need to pick it up in NY after all, so it was lucky we noticed.
The airport in NY is strikingly different from ours; it is huge, with many gates connected by a train. After a long search, we figured out where to go and started waiting for our plane, which was leaving in 7 hours. It was surprising that there were almost no seats in the airport, and people were sleeping on the floor or just walking around. We didn't walk for long because it was very hot outside and there was nothing much to do there, and it quickly became boring inside the airport. In the end, awkwardly, we still laid down.
After a short sleep, we finally boarded the plane to Boston, where we immediately plunged into American culture. Instead of the usual fruits and vegetables for breakfast, we were given a pack of chips and a soda of our choice. We took off.
From Boston, we headed to our final destination, the city of West-Yarmouth, where we would work all summer at a trampoline park.
First impressions
Upon arrival, we were immediately settled into the room where we would live and shown the work. At first, the work seemed quite good. We had to sit by the trampoline slide and let children in one by one, ensuring traffic safety. It seemed easy and simple, just what was needed.
The next day I went to my first workday, where I met all the Russian guys, who turned out to be very sociable and friendly. And on the very first workday, I got tired of my job.
It was overcast and there were almost no people in the park, so I just had to sit and look at the sky. A couple of times I almost fell asleep, got up, and walked around to cheer myself up. I walked back and forth, back and forth, then sat down again. On my break, I went to my girlfriend Lyuba, who bought us some American pizza to eat. I really liked the pizza because it fully met all my expectations: big, stretchy cheese, toasted - everything was as it should be. After a delicious lunch, I returned to work, where I sat out the rest of my day.
After the workday, we decided to go to a store, which, as the guys said, was not far away. We walked this "not far" for 40 minutes, but finally arrived at a large supermarket. Entering the sales floor, I was, excuse the expression, "flabbergasted." There was everything: from fruit salads to fruit carvings, from cola to Russian Baikal, which is called "root beer" there, from healthy cereals to 5 kg packs of nachos; in short, words cannot describe it.
After evaluating the prices, I immediately realized that "clean" organic food is significantly more expensive than regular food, and eating healthy would be very expensive. For example, two apples cost about $1.75, a large berry salad $12, while applesauce was $0.99, and some berry cereals were $3. Besides that, the presence of a huge number of various GMO products and fast food products on the shelves immediately caught my eye. There were whole rows of them; they looked very tasty and were also cheap. I couldn't resist and bought some. We also immediately stocked up on ice cream, of which there was simply a sea. The best thing is a box of fruit ice (80 pieces), which was in an unfrozen state; you could put it at home and slowly add it to the freezer like logs to a fireplace. Great.
In general, the grocery store impressed me very much; I even filmed a separate video about it, which you can watch at the link below. I also offer you my video about work, which I filmed a little later.
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Video about the store;
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Video about working in the USA.
A little about stores
Since I started talking about stores, I will delve into this topic. There are a lot of stores in the USA, and their assortment, even after St. Petersburg, always surprised me. There is everything you can think of, and it all comes in at least 10 different varieties. I counted 8 different flavors of just Powerade, and they were all in one store. But we, the students, were always interested in the question of technology and clothing.
I'll tell you about the first one. There is also a lot of electronics in the USA, and it comes out significantly earlier than in Russia. Most household appliance brands are their own, American ones. Regarding phones, I can say that I did not notice big discounts on iPhone or other Apple technology. No, of course, it is cheaper than ours, but, for example, for me, a resident of Saint Petersburg, it would be more profitable to go to Finland and buy the same iPhone there with a subsequent tax refund. I cannot say anything significant about other electronics firms, but in general, it seemed to me that the prices do not differ much.
In matters of clothing, everything is completely different; you can buy a lot of it here cheaply, but with one small caveat - if you look well. Yes, yes, exactly look, going into an official Nike store, the prices will be the same as in Russia, or maybe even more expensive. Realizing this, I started looking for ways to buy cheaper.
The first way is shopping on the Internet. As banal as it may sound, this is the cheapest and most effective way, thanks to two factors - delivery and competition. Delivery in the USA is really very fast and cheap; I remember ordering Puma sneakers from LA, CA, and 4 days later they were already with me, in my little village. The mail works at a very high level, and even if the item didn't fit you, returning it is as easy as pie. You just need to come to the post office and give the return paper - that's it! No filling out papers in English, no boxes or payments; they didn't even ask for my passport then. In addition, the same item can be bought in hundreds of different stores. Therefore, I would like to recommend that you do not get hung up on the official website of the company, Amazon, and eBay, but look everywhere. Although often even on Amazon, thanks to competition between sellers, discounts can be solid.
Below I will provide some photos of what I managed to buy cheaply.
TH jacket for $40.
Suitcase that I bought for $30 on Amazon because it had scratches on it.
The second way is buying offline in a physical store. What is the downside of this method? The first and most important thing is that a suitable discounter may simply not be nearby. The second is unpredictability. Entering a store, you don't know what awaits you: either cool fashionable sneakers or empty shelves. Therefore, to buy the necessary things, you can sometimes spend a lot of time. But prices for branded items like Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, etc., are often very low.
Here, for example, is my basket of what I bought in an offline store for $60. This is very cheap, considering that there are CK, Levi's, and other firms here.
I would also like to recommend that you do not leave shopping for later, as I did. Having lived almost the entire summer in a small town - Hyannis, I did not buy many things with the hope that I would stock up in NY, both cheaper and in larger quantities. But, having walked around the stores in New York, I quickly realized that I would not buy anything there because all the shelves were empty, or my size was not there, or it was simply more expensive. Therefore, you should not leave this question for later.
Summarizing, I would like to say that you need to compare prices both on the Internet and in regular stores. Because even the large suitcase that I posted above, I bought on the Internet much cheaper, although it would seem that delivery should have been expensive. The choice is always yours; just remember that the service offline and online is the same and is at a very high level.
My favorite offline stores were: Sears and Marshalls.
!To be continued!
