Before writing the first lines here, I paused. What is the purpose of my story, and for whom are these pages written? I decided that, first and foremost, it is for myself, as an attempt to process a new life experience that I believe I will gain in the USA, and which will allow me to look at myself and the reality around me in a new way. Secondly, I hope that my reflections and stories will help other guys take the first step in realizing their dreams.

I can already imagine (no, actually, I can't even imagine how many surprises await me ahead).

So, my name is Andrey. Like most of you, I am a student. I am in my 4th year at the Faculty of Sociology of the RSUH (Moscow). I am 21 years old and full of ideas for the future, as well as anxieties about it))) I first learned about the Work and Travel program while I was still an applicant in the distant city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, my small homeland, Sakhalin. On one of the crazy days of taking entrance exams to the university, while waiting for the exam to start, I saw an announcement about the opportunity to go work in the USA for a whole summer. I remember my thoughts: how cool it would be to just take off for the summer!!!! And a deep thought took root to turn this idea into reality. Then there were years of study at Sakhalin State University, work—perhaps the best time of my life (I hope that I will tell you about the best and most interesting moments of this time as I write my diary). That little announcement was forgotten by me, like many dreams we forget in our lives. During this time, I managed to finish 2 years of university and transfer to study in Moscow, where I have been living for two years now.

Already in the first month of studying at the university, I had to recall that announcement I read three years ago. Fortunately, there were a bunch of such announcements both at RSUH and at MSU, where I had to be very often. Various newspapers, brochures, stories on agency websites—all this increasingly stirred my interest and desire to go to the USA. I was at program presentations at the university several times and became a frequent reader of forums where former and future travelers gathered. And as it turned out, many of my friends had already been to the USA, and how many of them dreamed about it!!!! All the stories about the trip were pure emotion. How cool and interesting it was there, and how they would love to go back—that's probably what everyone said. They showed photos and videos. I remember how the eyes of one of my acquaintances lit up; we met two hours after his arrival in Moscow. The guy was just beaming with happiness and positivity. How much energy and how many plans he had after this trip!!! (I will definitely tell you about his stories here too). But since the program costs a considerable amount of money, although it is worth it, in my first year in Moscow, my dreams remained just dreams. And as usual: university, work, various projects...

And so September 2008 arrived, the beginning of the academic year and a new page in my story that is just beginning.

So, a new academic year has begun, and with it, new tasks. But thoughts about a trip to America began to appear with enviable regularity. And our student body is simply not allowed to avoid them; at all exhibitions, various agencies present the program, and separate exhibitions are held. In general, almost all advertising platforms have been mastered (although I could suggest a lot about promotion to our agencies). The final decision to go to the USA was made, as always, spontaneously. I noticed that all the decisions I made quickly, without reflection, turned out to be the most successful. And here I am at our university, there is a career fair, and several agencies are offering to go to the USA. Well, I think, it's time to go. If not this summer, it's unlikely I'll be able to go later. And I imagined how I would regret it later, and decided to make it happen. Together with three of my classmates, we set a goal: to spend this summer in the USA!

I must say I agree with the ideas that any goal can be achieved if you believe in it and put in certain efforts to achieve it. I made the decision to go to the USA, sat down, and realized that I have nothing for it yet (the coolest thing is that I still don't have much, for example, knowledge of the language): no money, no international passport, I don't know English at all. Of course, the most problematic thing for me was finding the money. In early November, I paid the first installment for the program and submitted documents for an international passport. Since I am getting my passport in Moscow, but registered in Sakhalin, I was pleased with the news that I would have to wait a whole 4 months. Knowing that in the Russian system of government institutions, 4 months can turn into a longer time, I was worried that I wouldn't make it by March 1st to get the passport. It was possible to submit after March 1st, but according to the guys from the Center, this threatened a fine. The passport was made in February, and I finally arrived at the center on March 3rd. By the way, they didn't charge me a fine. I was very glad. If I managed to collect the money for the first installment without problems, then to pay the second installment, I got a job, and, by the way, I quit it just yesterday))) Having spent three months on it, an insane amount of mental and physical strength, and what is less pleasant, almost all my free time, and not only free time. At the university, they started to forget me))) I decided to pay the second installment without taking into account plane tickets and job searching. This helped me a lot. It gave me the opportunity to spend an extra two months looking for money for the ticket, which is 24,000 rubles. I bought the ticket around April 17th without any problems at Star Travel.

A little about the bank and Evro-26: I agree with many program participants that the cooperation between the agency and Uniastrum Bank turned out to be not very successful. Speaking about the bank itself, few people in it knew what to do with payments for the program; I had to sit for hours and travel to several bank branches. Of course, over time, these problems would have been resolved. But the Evro-26 card itself, which was intended to replace ISIC, does not seem to live up to its expectations. Recently, I showed this card to a classmate who was in the USA on the program last year; she was very surprised and said that the only thing convenient about these cards is the discounts on tickets, which are provided by both Evro-26 and ISIC, and, no less importantly, the ability to prove how old you are in the USA when buying certain goods, instead of carrying your passport with you. That's probably why Evro-26 is inconvenient; your age is not written on it. Combining a bank card and Evro-26 would be a nice idea if it weren't done "just to have a bank account," but, for example, automatically gave the opportunity to pay for purchases on the internet with this card, or gave at least some useful info on the benefits that this card can bring us. In general, I think that the CMO will pay attention to the feedback from the guys about this and will switch back to ISIC. I plan to purchase an ISIC in the near future myself. It turns out this can be done even at our university. It costs 400 rubles.)))