Somewhere in November, I suddenly realized there was no turning back and I would have to tell my dad that I had decided to go to the USA for the summer. Knowing his love for Americans and everything American in general, his response was clearly not what I expected to hear. "A wonderful decision, it's better to see everything for yourself than to listen to all sorts of experts, even me." Perhaps, for me, this was the first sign that the summer would be unforgettable.

In December, my friends and I received our first job offer. Now I understand how lucky it was that due to some technical problem we couldn't confirm it, and well, in general, we were left without that offer. Back then, it was a tragedy. We were really afraid of being left without work. With these worries, we entered the new year 2018. For two months, we stubbornly tried to find something that would suit all of us, in all parameters. A decent salary, a city on the ocean coast, not exactly a backwater, but at the same time not Myrtle Beach, which is so popular with Russian students, and also, to have the opportunity to work overtime, free housing... In short, it is obvious that the search was simply torture for us.

This continued until the beginning of February, when we received an email from the International Exchange Center with a job fair. Most guys for some reason do not pay them due attention, but I believe that opening and thoroughly studying this letter was one of the best decisions during the entire preparation period for the program. We signed up for an interview and started waiting. I remember very well that one of my acquaintances said that he was only asked things like "do you smoke or not?", "how are you with lateness?" and that's it. I, reassured by his, frankly speaking, vague formulations, ended up completely unprepared for the questions that my future HR Manager asked. However, all three of us passed this interview and then there were only formalities left. Finding housing, a visa... well, okay, not such formalities, but for us it all went by so quickly that I didn't even notice how the day of departure arrived.

We initially tried to set the earliest possible start date for work, so that we could return to Russia a little earlier and return to classes at the university without much loss. Therefore, we flew out in the 20s of May. When we were approaching New York, I suddenly caught myself feeling nothing, at least nothing that I was supposed to feel. Here is the city that I saw so often in movies, the city I read so much about, the one I dreamed about for so long. But no. Nothing. At all.

It was like that exactly until the moment the plane's landing gear touched the ground. It was at that moment that I realized my summer had begun. Behind me are all the interviews, searches, document collection, trips to the embassy, early exams. I am in a country that evokes a storm of emotions in all people on the planet, a country that millions of people dream of getting into.