Probably everyone who has visited America remembers their first day. Not the long flight, no, but that moment when you stepped off the plane, went through all the checks, and walked out of the airport. You realize you are in America, with taxi drivers shouting in English, Russian, Spanish, and God knows what other languages. You don't really understand anything—just questions: where to go? how to pay for the subway? what does this say? what is he talking about?—and a multitude of other constantly arising questions. Now I would like to dwell in more detail on five vivid moments of my America, although, of course, in almost four months there were many more.
So, #1. Skydiving. Well, here there are only emotions. We jumped in the town of Newport—we specifically went there so the jump would be on the coast (the view is more beautiful). Everything turned out to be more than American: fast, precise, without unnecessary details and conventions. We arrived, watched a 5-minute training video, put on the gear, got on the plane, and flew. No extra explanations, changing clothes, or preparations—an hour later we were already free. The jump lasted about 5 minutes, no more, but what five minutes those were! At first, I was acting brave and saying I wasn't scared, but when we got on the plane and the door closed, I realized I was brave for nothing. Now, when I try to remember the moment of jumping out of the plane, I can't do it. Initially, there was free fall, then the instructor opened the parachute, and from about that moment, I started to realize something and admire the view. And there was really something to admire there; we didn't go to the coast for nothing.
#2. Six Flags amusement park. The emotions here were no less than from skydiving. The whole park can be divided into two parts: water slides (roughly speaking, a water park), which are open until 6 PM, and "dry" coasters. While it was day and warm, we tried to ride as many water slides as possible. Despite it being a weekday, there were still lines for the slides. The scariest one to me seemed to be the slide where you have to stand in a glass cabin and wait for the floor to drop from under your feet, and you fly down. That was quite nerve-wracking. All the other water slides were just cool: high, enclosed, twisting, smooth—for every taste. But the "dry" coasters made everyone scream, shriek, and experience that pleasantly ticklish feeling of fear. Upside down, from a height, and through tunnels—and all this at high speed and always unexpectedly. An incredible place!
#3. Car rental. The beauty of America is the ability to rent various cars. All you need is a bank card with $400 in the account and a driver's license (Russian ones worked too). Over the summer, I managed to drive about 5-6 different cars. Cool cars, cool roads, fast highways—what else do you need for happiness? Taking another car with a friend one weekend, we went to Providence for shopping, then to the beach in Newport. That day we had to spend quite a lot of nerves. The failures started from the moment we couldn't remember where the parking ticket went—because of which we couldn't leave the store parking lot. Behind us were "unhappy" cars, we couldn't find the ticket, we tried to call support, and finally, (oh, miracle!) the ticket was found. Thank God, we paid and left. Further—worse. We got into a traffic jam, we needed to get out of the city back onto the highway, and the navigator showed some incomprehensible interchanges. Having lost a lot of time and done a couple of circles, we finally got on the road to Newport. We arrived there, probably around 4 o'clock. We found the beach, parked, ran to swim, then went for a walk around the city. We decided to leave the car in the beach parking lot.
Newport turned out to be a very cute and beautiful coastal town. Various restaurants on the street, beautiful views of the ocean, yachts, shops with all sorts of trinkets. After walking around, we realized it was time to go to the car. We approached and saw that the parking lot was closed, and they were looking for the owner of our car over the loudspeaker. Well, we thought, now a fly in the ointment awaits us. But no, everything turned out better than we thought: they calmly opened the parking gate and wished us a good evening. We got home without traffic jams or adventures. Another wonderful day is over.
#4. Niagara Falls. In America, I couldn't believe that I was walking through those cities, visiting those places that I had seen in movies or read about in books. Who could have believed that I would ever see Niagara Falls with my own eyes. See this miracle of nature on the border of Canada and America. I still can't believe it.
We arrived there in the morning. It was a sunny, warm September day. After walking a bit and looking at the waterfall from afar, we went to the ferry that approached Niagara as close as possible. A ferry was also sailing from the Canadian side. The difference between them was that American passengers wore blue raincoats, and Canadian ones wore red. If from a distance the waterfall seemed like something grandiose, up close it was a truly majestic sight. When we sailed very close, it was difficult to see anything because of the sunlight reflecting in the spray. It was something noisy, bright, and huge.
They say the view from the Canadian side is better. I don't know, I haven't seen it—my breath was taken away by this sight alone. Magnificent!
#5. Kayak. Having finished work, we rented a car and drove from the east coast of America to the west. Of course, there was a lot of interesting stuff on the road, you can't tell it all. Number five in my story is kayaking in Yellowstone National Park. The park itself is something grandiose. Various lakes, geysers, "colored pools"—all this was very interesting and beautiful. Unfortunately, we had very little time to fully enjoy this park, but, nevertheless, the impressions are more than enough.
Having rented a kayak, we went to the nearest lake. It turned out that it's not so difficult to control it, especially if you try to row evenly, without losing count. Despite the fact that the kayak is quite agile, which created additional difficulties, we had another bright adventure!
This is what America became for me: bright, fast, with a bit of adrenaline and drive, and, of course, unforgettable!
