We finally met at the bus station in Manhattan, sat down in a café, opened a map, and sat thinking about where we would go (yes, we had a job offer, of course, but we immediately decided that we wouldn't go there).

We were already in line for tickets, but still hadn't decided where, and then we heard some guys nearby talking about some Portland, so we asked what kind of city it was, and they told us that the pay was decent and it was a nice place.

That's how we ended up in Portland (we traveled for almost a day).

We got off the bus... where should we go?

• Let's go to the right.
• Okay.
  We didn't have many things, just a small bag on our backs.

So we went to the right.

On the way, we asked passersby about work and housing.

We stumbled upon a Baptist church, went inside, and asked there too.

They said they would help, and started taking us all over the city, to some social housing, but it didn't yield any results.

And then they decided to go to the state governor (Portland city, Maine state).

She turned out to be a wonderful person, said that they would help us find both housing and work, but before that, she called the IEC in New York, handed us the receiver, and there was Russian: "What are you doing? How can this be? Where is your job offer?......" in short, they told us that everything would be found by tomorrow (I'm not lying, honestly).

We went outside and decided to continue our search; after walking all day, we (I, Oksana, Olya, and Slava) came to the conclusion that we didn't like it here, it was a bit cold.

We went back (it was far) to the bus stop, but of course, the buses weren't running anymore.

Not a problem, there was a hotel opposite, we headed there (they were wonderful apartments, in a European style).

We wanted to save money, take one room and then sneak the others in through the back door, but it didn't work, it was locked.

Alright, we went in normally, said we were students, staying for one day – they gave us a discount.

In the morning, there was breakfast downstairs in the lobby.

We got bold and grabbed all sorts of buns and fruit for a couple of days (of course, it's not nice and... but the money was running out, we are students and hadn't fully decided where we would stay).

We decided to go south, closer to the ocean.