My trip to the USA this summer wouldn't have been this cool without all the people I met during this time.
To start with, the American mentality is strikingly different from ours. Anyone visiting this country for the first time will notice this. Just arriving at the New York airport, you start to notice how smiley (positive thinking), responsive (ready to help), neat, and cautious the residents are (saying "sorry" at any accidental touch, even if they just walked by and didn't touch you at all).
This time I was very lucky with my workplace; you can get there from New York in half an hour from Grand Central station. While I was on my way, I suddenly realized that because of all the early exams, the hustle, and the packing before the trip, I didn't have any information other than the location of the workplace itself. I didn't know how many students would be there, who they were, or where they were from. Later it turned out that all the guys had found each other in advance and created a group chat that I wasn't in, so no one knew about me, and I was a real surprise for everyone. I also had a dilemma in my thoughts: was it right that my friend and I decided to go to different places again for the sake of practicing English, or would it have been more fun together? I also thought that I might be the first J-1 to arrive at work this season, since it was May 29th...
On the first day, when I just arrived at our Country club, there was already an event taking place. In the main building, I found my boss, and she said she would send another J-1 to take me to our housing. I was burning with curiosity: who would it be?! And then a long-haired brunette came out and asked me in English where I was from. How much happiness was in her eyes after my answer. She asked again, "Russian?!!!" and hugged me tightly. No one had ever met me so joyfully before. On the way to our house, she managed to tell me a lot, that there were already four of them here: her and her friend, as well as two Slovaks. She said they had arrived a couple of days ago and for now, her friend was living with her in our four-person girls' room, but he would move to another one tomorrow. And so we lived the three of us in that room for a whole month until two Italian girls arrived, and our macho had to move out. Yes, we were just five of us there for a whole month. In the evenings, we went to our beach to watch movies or just sit on the internet, and not because we loved the beach (it was, of course, beautiful, but by evening it was overflowing with biting midges), but because that was the only place we had WiFi. And at night, returning late to the room, we would start conversations about life. Oh yes, perhaps one of my favorite activities this summer was philosophical conversations. We often talked about the differences between American and Russian cultures, and over time, when guys from other countries arrived, we shared our observations about their culture, and sometimes we argued.
By the middle of the summer, all the hired J-1 students had arrived, and there were 13 of us. Of course, not everyone was able to become friends with each other or just find a common language, but everyone was able to gain valuable experience communicating with a native of another culture. We were also very lucky with some of our colleagues. For example, we had our cheerful Peruvian Raul, who shared something useful with us at every opportunity (for example, he gave us a refrigerator) and was always ready to take us to the store whenever we asked him. And also, the American James, who was in charge of the yachts in our club's harbor, won universal love. To say he was kind to us is an understatement. When we first met him, we found support in his eyes. He was like a kind American uncle whom we all came to visit. Once he took us to his favorite seafood restaurant, which, by the way, was in another city, so he had to drive there three nights in a row so that we could all visit it, talk to him, get to know each other better, and taste his favorite dishes and the best Piña Colada you can find. After that, he periodically organized dinners for us, bringing various food to our house. He did all this from a pure heart, asking for nothing in return. And what is even more interesting, at the end of the season, when we were all leaving, James gave everyone farewell gifts (for me, it was a postcard and a box of chocolates) and paid for our taxis to the airport. If someone had told me that such people exist in our world, I wouldn't have believed it. But now, after America, I know for sure that they do. And I want to change for the better myself, bringing something good into the world.
Thus, this summer brought new acquaintances, new people, new emotions, and impressions into my life. Now I have friends from Milan who know a lot about wine and pizza and also love various philosophical conversations; a good Slovak friend whose sense of humor cheered me up all summer; a cheerful American friend who dreams of coming to visit us in Russia; the romantic James, waiting for some mail from us (because he loves letters and postcards so much). And, of course, I have two friends in Russia with whom we experienced so much this summer, discussed and planned so much. And what I realized for sure is that I don't regret that I spoke Russian for most of the summer (even though we sometimes tried to make it a habit to speak only English with each other), but with these guys, the whole summer went more soulfully and fun. I know that we didn't meet this summer by accident; each of us taught each other something new. It is true that every person who appears in your life gives you a new invaluable experience.
Therefore, you can be sure that by participating in this program, you will definitely meet the people you are meant to meet in order to experience together what will remain in your memory forever.
