Myrtle Beach is a small J-1 state on the oceanfront, a cute resort town with a bunch of hotels, bars, restaurants, amusement parks, and other entertainment)

A ton of seasonal workers come for the summer from everywhere: Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Ireland, Poland... If you want to improve your language skills, Myrtle is not for you, but if you want to party hard with students just like you, it's exactly what you need! Gradually, I stopped being surprised when clubs played "Tanets Loktey," "Mama-Lyuba," and other Russian hits. Americans come to such parties exclusively to meet Russian beauties! So, girls, who knows – maybe you'll find your happiness right there, in America, in sunny Myrtle or somewhere else) Personally, American guys showered me with compliments, texts, dinner invitations, one even proposed marriage) Of course, you shouldn't believe everyone, they are quite the talkers)

I had just turned 20 in America, and the law that you can only drink alcohol from the age of 21 gave the summer a peculiar twist) At the entrance to nightclubs, visitors show their IDs and get red bracelets marked "over 21" or green ones saying "under 21"; in some clubs, they even draw a big cross on the back of your hand with a marker) Well, would I really not use Russian ingenuity if I wanted to have a drink for the mood? Crosses wash off easily, and in my bag, I had a red bracelet carefully removed from the wrist of one of my 21-year-old friends last time – that's it! We put it on, drink up, and party on))

Although, when the police showed up at our student party where everyone was drinking, it got a bit uneasy – many weren't 21 and nobody wanted trouble! Fortunately, everything worked out)

After Kolya left, I moved from a hotel with an ocean view to a typical messy student apartment in a black neighborhood with mattresses on the floor) A sharp return from heaven to earth, so to speak! But that's not so important: I was morally crushed by the breakup with Kolya, cried for two days, spent hours on the phone! I would never have thought that in two weeks you could get so used to each other! And one day he really cheered me up by sending flowers through a delivery service, it was very nice)

Again, I had to set up my J-1 life: I carried clothes to the laundromat, quite cheap - 2 dollars to wash and dry everything, I went to Walmart for groceries! Walmart is a separate topic! They have everything here: food, SIM cards, appliances, shoes, clothes, greeting cards, stationery, endless rows of mysterious boxes, 5-liter jugs of milk! It's cheaper to buy everything in bulk - Americans stock up for the whole week! I love healthy food, I spent quite a bit of money on fruits and vegetables, but thanks to this, I didn't gain weight) For all three months, I never ate a single American hamburger, I only allowed myself ice cream at work)

I walked to and from work for 20 minutes, and someone would always offer me a ride) Now I realize that I didn't have much sense in my head if I often got into cars with strangers! But my Uzbek neighbors, fans of cool cars, were stunned: "The day before yesterday you arrived in a Chevrolet Camaro, yesterday in a Cadillac Escalade, today in a Dodge Challenger! What will surprise us tomorrow? I envy you girls, I wish someone would give me a ride in a car like that!". All white Americans said that I lived in a terribly dangerous place! But I never returned home before midnight and no one ever hurt me! I guess I was lucky)

The fact that I had to get used to conditions I had never experienced before was brightened up by my new neighbors) I was lucky with them again) They were 2 girls from Nizhny Novgorod and 4 guys from Uzbekistan, of whom only one was Uzbek, and the other three were by origin – Chinese, Korean, and half-Chinese, half-Korean) I couldn't imagine that in one house there could live boys so obsessed with cleaning and cleanliness in the house, and girls completely indifferent to it! I took the guys' side, for which they simply adored me! A couple of weeks later, the girls went home, and a Kazakh girl Rimma and a Moldovan guy Dima moved in with us! With them, we often had home gatherings with hookah and cocktails from Chen, went out to clubs together, chatted until morning, argued about politics, and laughed at everything possible)