There is absolutely no time to sit down and manage to put on paper even a fraction of the impressions that are constantly pouring in on us. All the days have blurred together in my head, my feet are worn out from walking so many streets, avenues, boulevards, and parks, but I still want to see as much as possible. In just a few days, we managed to visit different neighborhoods of New York, each of which appeared to us in its own way. It really is a city of contrasts; you can encounter anything here, as so many cultures from all over the world coexist. Yesterday, we played soccer with some guys from the Bronx, walked near the 'Great Kills' station on Staten Island, listened to random passersby singing, and watched amateur baseball in Central Park. We won't talk about Manhattan, which has been written about in countless guidebooks. We will just add that it is better not to rush into buying souvenirs, but to look for everything cheaper in more remote areas.
Between such important tasks for settling into the USA as traveling, we even found housing. Actually, not by ourselves—the landlady of an apartment in Brighton approached us while we were vainly trying to call landlords from a payphone, and offered a fairly cheap room right by the beach with all amenities. Great! After checking out the place, we went into a nearby house where a room was also for rent. While waiting for the landlord, we listened to a terrible story from a Ukrainian man living there about how bad it is here, how the landlord was bothering him, and that it is better not to come here at all. Finally, after about 15 minutes, a disheveled, limping man arrived and led us to the room. At first, we spent a long time looking for the light switch, and when we saw the apartment, we went quiet—an empty room with a dilapidated bed in the corner, a TV on the floor, and bare walls for a rent higher than the one by the beach. Walking into the kitchen and bathroom, we felt a terrible smell and the flies that accompanied it.
Advice! Do not despair in your search for housing and work. Do not take the first apartments you come across; look for better ones. For example, in Brighton, you can buy several newspapers (Russkaya Reklama, Russky Bazar) with a large number of ads. Call everyone, gather as many offers as possible, and go visit the rooms. Sooner or later, you will find something suitable.
If your English is poor, Brighton is the place for you—there are many Russians here whom you can ask about rooms and work. By the way, Russians often approached us, not just in Brighton, and we would strike up a conversation. Russians are somehow easily recognized in a crowd; you can ask for help. One girl gave us the phone number of people renting out a room. The W&T recommendations for finding housing on foot didn't help us much—we walked around hundreds of houses in different parts of NY, but never once saw any 'RENT' signs; we must have been very unlucky.
