My journey to America began in the northern city of Surgut. First, I had to get to Tyumen. On the 3rd at 1 a.m., I was seen off on the train, and in my mind, I said goodbye to my hometown for 4 months. I wouldn't say I was sad to leave; rather, I was anticipating something much more interesting. The trip to Tyumen took 12 hours by train, and I slept through the whole thing after a sleepless week)) In Tyumen, I met an old friend, and at 7:40 p.m., the plane took off for Moscow. We arrived at Domodedovo, I was walking past the people waiting and bumped into a man with flowers... he was asking "Are you Tanya?" and gallantly held out a bouquet... but I recoiled and rushed forward) (though I probably should have taken the bouquet, ha...) In Moscow, I had a 10-hour layover! I thought that was it, I'd spend the night at the airport all alone. But that wasn't the case; I called my cousin, and he and his friend drove me around Moscow) I didn't see anything, but I had a great time))) At 3 a.m., I was already checking in for the Moscow-London flight. Almost the entire plane was packed with J-1 students))) The crew was English, and only one flight attendant spoke Russian. It was curious to communicate with an Englishman not in a classroom, but in real life)) We flew to London for 5 hours. By then, I was physically exhausted, but I still had a 6-hour layover in London and 7 hours to New York. It was the longest and most tedious layover of my life(( We sat in the terminal, and I walked around the shops about 500 times. The only thing is their currency is pounds, and I only had dollars, and I really wanted to buy souvenirs... I was surprised by how many books people buy; the book section was the most popular. My joy knew no bounds when boarding began! But there were still 7 hours ahead, although I comforted myself with the thought of sleeping through all 7 hours—oh, how naive I was))) I flew with Virgin Atlantic. They immediately handed out headphones and a traveler's kit as a gift: a sleep mask, socks, a pen, a toothbrush and toothpaste, all in their signature red color))) In short, all those 7 hours they kept feeding us: a main course, ice cream, dessert, candy, various drinks—as you can imagine, I didn't get any sleep. Plus, there wasn't a single movie in Russian(( And then, arrival in New York. My soul was filled with so much joy and emotion that this was it, America!! We went through customs, picked up our suitcases, and I was already heading to the train when I saw Dasha; she had come to meet me) We were planning to go to Virginia Beach, but we thought it over quickly and decided to stay here)) For the first day, we checked into a motel for $60, where I finally took a shower and slept in a huge bed. That's how my stay in America began)))