New Hampshire is a small state in the northeastern United States. Its unofficial nickname is the "Granite State," because the White Mountains are located in the north of the state, but I will talk about them in my next blog. For now, here is a stream of useful information:
- If you delve into history, New Hampshire was the first state in the US to declare independence from Great Britain;
- The official state motto is "Live free or die," so personal freedoms are highly valued here and the laws are as liberal as possible, just so people feel comfortable. For example, you can drive here from the age of 15 and wearing a seatbelt is not mandatory at all (don't think I consider this right, but as you know, Americans have their own point of view on everything, including freedom; unfortunately, I cannot provide statistics on traffic accidents). Freedom is also expressed in tax rates; New Hampshire is considered the state with the lowest taxes, and importantly, there is no sales tax here like in other states. That is, in a neighboring state, when you go to the checkout to pay and give the pre-calculated amount of money, you still have to pay a certain percentage of sales tax on that amount, but HERE IT IS LIKE AT HOME: if there are taxes, they are included in the price, so you don't have to worry about it.
- The climate here is also almost like at home: it is moderately hot, so it is easy to get used to, and acclimatization happens quickly (if you are from the middle latitudes, of course). There are no natural disasters like tornadoes or anything else, only storms sometimes, and even then they are not strong, just for variety, so there is time to watch the AMAZING FURY OF THE OCEAN. By the way, the water in the ocean is unfortunately cold (it is a northern state after all), but people still swim, although it warms up more or less only by August...
I have already been to the resort town of Hampton Beach in New Hampshire twice, located right on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. To be honest, my first impression was that the whole city, with its only two central streets, Ashworth Street and Ocean Blvd, just consists of hotels, motels, and private houses, which are also often rented out for the summer, so there are TONS of vacancies for housekeepers here! Moreover, salaries are from 7.25 to 10 dollars per hour, sometimes with free or paid housing, but also very good. Tips in HOTELS are decent; for example, in our hotel, it came out to 100-120 bucks a week per housekeeper, and we basically lived only on them without withdrawing money from our bank cards. Naturally, the industry of recreation, entertainment, and all kinds of fast and not-so-fast food is very developed, so everyone mainly works their second jobs there. As for me, I first worked my second job at a family entertainment center where moms and dads brought their cute kids to play and win toys, and the work gave me great pleasure, but they didn't pay very generously, so I went to work in the kitchen. It was harder there, of course, but the pay was appropriate. But now I know how to cook a lot of different American super-caloric junk.
Basically, everyone gets a job here because in the height of the season, tourists come here to relax not only from all over the state but also from all the neighboring ones, from Boston, which is an hour's drive away; Canadian French people come, who for the most part speak English worse than us, by the way, and much more. Labor is needed everywhere: for owners of beachwear shops, souvenir shops, laundries, etc.
...But the point of the trip, of course, is not only in money or improving English, but also in excellent rest and travel! We started planning each of our days off a week in advance: we looked at tourist brochures in hotels, asked acquaintances, developed shopping routes, bought beach mats and tanning products, arranged for cars and a friendly company, charged our cameras, and waited, waited for IT - DAY OFF!!!
You can find out how COOL we spent our free time if you don't get lazy and go to my next blog ;)
