In Las Vegas, we said goodbye to part of our team and headed back to the East Coast, now just the three of us. The plane brought us back to New York on September 13th, and we spent the remaining few days looking for gifts for friends and walking around the metropolis. Housing in the largest city in the USA, as you might guess, is very expensive, even if it's a hostel with a 10-person room. So we decided to take a risk and use Couchsurfing, and it paid off – a Canadian named Alex kindly agreed to host three travelers in his small Manhattan apartment.

I can't say that New York impressed me. Maybe it was the fatigue from endless travel and flights, or maybe it really doesn't look as bright compared to other metropolises. The subway disappointed us completely: compared to it, the Moscow one seems like paradise even during rush hour. In any case, walking the streets of New York is worth doing at least once in a lifetime.

View of Manhattan from the 18th floor

However, we were lucky enough to get into the Google New York office – by a happy coincidence, Yulin's former classmate was doing an internship there at that time. After a long tour of the building, we settled comfortably on the roof and drank wine, reflecting on everything we had experienced over this long summer.

I can't say that the Google office is conducive to work

A garden on the roof of a high-rise building will surprise few people in the USA

Perhaps this is where I should move on to my modest conclusions.

On a particularly hard day at work, we realized that the money spent on the Work and Travel USA program could have been used to come to America as a tourist and travel carefree for two or three weeks. It was a very funny realization – but both then and now, I am firmly convinced that I would not have agreed to such an exchange. And here is why.

Three months in another country is an incredible experience. You can visit all the museums in Washington, but you will never learn as much about the real life of people as you do from them themselves. It's not just a cultural exchange and an opportunity to find new friends, it's a complete immersion into another reality.

This program is like throwing you into the open ocean, where you are left only to yourself. All decisions, all tasks – all on your own. How to overcome the language barrier? How to find a job? How to prove that you are being underpaid? Where to buy medicine and what are they called here? What to do if a bicycle chain breaks? What to look for when renting a car? Who to call if you get into an accident? All this makes you much more mature.

You also learn to look at the world through the eyes of other people. You, a student of a prestigious university, come to the best country in the world, but end up as a migrant worker – absurd. Service staff – cashiers, cleaners, waiters... do you often notice them? Have you ever wondered what it's like for them far from their homeland and family? For me personally, the reality in which these people live has become a real revelation. I hope I will remember this lesson for a long time and will always treat any profession with respect.

Finally, how do you feel about America, do you have stereotypes, and are you ready to break them? I don't think I had any, but studying the differences in our cultures was very exciting. Sincere kindness to strangers and not-so-sincere “Great job!”, love for junk food and “Sugar-free” products, a passion for traveling within the country and indifference to what is happening outside its borders – all this is amazingly combined in the American soul. Ultimately, this story is not about work or travel. It's about how different life can be.

We worked together with those who had never seen computers – and relaxed with Google employees.

We saw those who work 110 hours a week – and those who lose a fortune in Las Vegas casinos.

We met illegal immigrants who left their homes and studies for the American dream – and Americans who wished they weren't.

We were horrified by the most famous cities in the world – and admired them.

We lived in 7 states. We lived in a trailer, in a tent by the ocean, in the center of Manhattan, in a house with crazy people. We took five flights, rented three cars, swam in two oceans and Niagara Falls. We covered almost 6000 km of roads.

It was the hardest, the craziest, the best summer.

But definitely not the last...