Why such a long introduction describing all the minor troubles upon arrival? Because there were many such situations later on (for example, when we reached our town of Rehoboth Beach (DE), we were supposed to live with an American family by arrangement. The people themselves were nice, but the place where they lived was completely unsanitary. And I don't mean a little mess in the room. It was something like a dump inside their house with all the corresponding pets. So, in the very first week, we said goodbye to that family and found new housing). Some things happened because of our own mistakes, and some situations were completely beyond our control. But I want to note one thing: a perfect summer didn't happen and couldn't have happened, because when you come to another country, you have to admit to yourself that you can't avoid mistakes. Just like in any new endeavor in life, and that is very, very cool. What I am primarily grateful for this summer is my first experience of independent living and solving all my problems without anyone's help.
Work. This is a separate and large part of the time spent in America. I had two jobs: the first, according to the job offer, as a housekeeper (i.e., a maid in a hotel), and the second as a sales assistant in a souvenir shop. I won't say it was easy, but again, you get used to everything quickly. In the first 3 weeks, when we only had one job, we spent our evenings either walking by the ocean or just wandering the streets, complaining to each other about how hard it turns out to be to work as a maid and how we don't have enough time to recover and rest. Now I remember this with a smile. Because as soon as we received our Social Security Card, we went to get a second job (The reason was more financial. Life in America is quite expensive, and we spent half our salary just on housing. Therefore, the desire to travel at the end of the summer and bring something back home prevailed). And that's when it was worth remembering those evenings with gratitude! Now every day off at either job (that is, half a day) was perceived as the best day of the week - you could spend this time only on yourself. We lived at this pace all summer: we got up around 7, got to work, had breakfast, the first workday started at 9:30, it always ended differently depending on the hotel's workload - it could be at 2, or closer to 5 PM, after which we had to run home, take a shower and get ready, it was lucky if we managed to grab a bite, and we ran to the second job by 5, where we stayed until 11-11:30. Such a routine was absolutely normal for any exchange student. Many, after such a day, still managed to drop by some party and party until dawn. And there was a charm in this: almost everyone present had to get up early the next day and go to work, but this did not stop them from being there and having a great time with their friends - this united them and gave such rest meaning. This is how we got our outlet and forgot about all the difficulties of an exchange student's life.
