Hi, my name is Vika and I'm from the city of Yekaterinburg!

My blog won't be too long, nor will it be stuffed with epithets, metaphors, or descriptive turns of phrase (even though I'm a philologist by education). It's just a light story, and I'll focus on a few specific moments. If you, dear readers, like my blog but don't find the answer to your question, or if you want to expand on any topic, you can easily contact me (addresses at the end of the blog). So, I'm starting ^_^

I want to thank IEC for the opportunity to have a mass landing of students from all over the world in America. You are simply geniuses, and the person who invented, implemented, and perfected the Work and Travel USA program is a genius. I admire it, honestly. Not every adult can afford a trip to America. It's an expensive pleasure, and it's far away. And I don't think it's like a typical family vacation... it's easier, cheaper, and closer to go for a family vacation to Crimea (I love Crimea, I spent my whole childhood there) or Turkey. And here is such a chance! Thank you for this, I'm thrilled! =)

My summer story began on June 5, 2014. Five pale and exhausted-from-finals future traveler-frogs met early in the morning at Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg. We really looked tired and weren't particularly happy about the upcoming trip. I think we just didn't understand what was happening =) We stood modestly with our little suitcases, waiting to board the bird of happiness from the Aeroflot company.

I want to say thank you to the bird that safely delivered us to Moscow, to Sheremetyevo Airport

In Sheremetyevo, the traveler-frogs ran around looking for currency exchange points and for another dose of coffee for me—I'm just a wild coffee addict. And finally, we tucked our little bottoms into the main bird that took us straight there, to New York. Woohoo, no more sitting in a fetal position, wondering, "I wonder if I'm the only one who feels like a child in a tight stroller?", or suffering from a lack of sleep and annoying the flight attendants with requests to bring something to "chew on." Yes, that's how we ate away our boredom, because the movies just didn't work for us at all.

And we really should have slept!!! I, a walking—and at that moment, sitting—miracle, made a mistake in the declaration (they give it to you on the plane, if I remember correctly, just before landing at the American airport). I put a checkmark in the wrong place... the question was written something like: "Are you bringing fruits or vegetables into America for further distribution?" YES! I am bringing a kilogram of cranberries for sale, well, you know, extra income! And a big African-American guy (actually, I love them very much and am not afraid of them at all), while checking the declaration, started to react nervously and comment on my checkmark, and I realized... and started waving my arms just as nervously, clearly keeping up with the pace of the dialogue he set, and saying that it was a mistake, I'm a student, Russia, I just messed up, sorry-excuse me uncle, but NO! The guy (the same sweet African-American guy) sent me to a separate counter with another dark-skinned guy... scenes from movies about American prisons or scams immediately came to mind... and I was in the lead role... and they were going to torture me... with a lamp, a chair, and ropes, well, everything as it should be, you understand. But I kept repeating like an oath: "it's a mistake, I'm a student, Russia, I just messed up, sorry-excuse me uncle" and they let me go. A good oath, remember it=))

My girls, including me, hadn't yet managed to adapt to the sound of fast American speech, and we made the airport workers laugh)) It was funny)