Welcome to my blog! Here I will talk about my stay and travels in America. I will talk about memorable moments, difficulties, and even my mistakes, even the stupidest ones. After all, I think this is the most useful thing I can tell future program participants. I should clarify right away - my experience will be useful primarily to those who are going on their first independent trip, just like I was six months ago. However, starting from the 4th page, I will also describe my adventures around America, so it can quite be considered a travel blog x).
Naturally, one should start with preparation for the program. Here, however, there is not much to talk about, which does not diminish the importance of this stage.
First, the language. Since you are a participant, you have at least a minimal level of English, so here are a few quick tips on brushing up for a... smoother summer. Undoubtedly, the most effective way is books or something with large volumes of text, like visual novels. It is ideal if the language in them is conversational (Believe me, it is better to struggle with phrasal verbs now, not in America). Movies and TV series are slightly worse, as it is harder to stop yourself to translate the next line of dialogue. However, I focus on them because it is just.. fun! Do not bother yourself with learning the language if you do not like it, it will save a lot of nerves x). Here is also a more modern way of learning - English YouTube. Perhaps not everyone knows, but almost under all videos of popular bloggers, after a couple of days, English subtitles appear, and sometimes Russian ones. But we don't need them, right? For example, I watched the well-known PewDiePie, and I am proud. He speaks clearly enough, so after a short viewing with subtitles, you will understand him even without them. From experience, I will say - if you understand most of his speech - you will be quite comfortable in America! However, not knowing English and surviving is also possible, but more on that later.
Why know English? To be able to laugh at strange signs.
Second, documents. Depending on the agency and the program, the process will differ. For example, I went through the remote full service program from CMO. The lack of an office in my city, of course, was annoying, but the discount on the program outweighed my doubts x). As far as I can judge, in this option, you are required to do a bit more paperwork, but nothing impossible, just do everything responsibly and on time. Since you are a student, you are used to this, am I right?
Sometimes you need to overcome yourself. Don't ask what this photo has to do with it.
Third, settle everything with the university in advance and for sure! I dragged it out until the last moment, and as a result, I accumulated debts. You can be happy for me, at the time of writing this text, only one remains. Employers are also often accommodating, so do not hesitate to discuss issues that have arisen with them.
While my classmates were finishing the semester, I was already in New York.
Fourth, the plan. It wouldn't hurt to work out a more detailed travel plan to your work location and what you will be doing. For example, I will give my own, as I saw it then: I will arrive at JFK Airport late in the evening, after which I will take the aeroexpress to the subway, and on it I will reach Manhattan, where I will stay in a booked hostel, and in the morning I will go to Penn Station to take Amtrak to my destination. There, the employer will pick me up. What went wrong? Well, almost everything x). I won't even dwell on the delay at customs and the inability to connect to the local Wi-Fi while I was in line. Upon getting off the aeroexpress, a subway worker warned me about something, but I couldn't understand him because of his African-American accent (problems with the accent will haunt me for a long time, but more on that later). As I soon found out, this section of the subway was under repair, and for losers like me, a bus was launched right from the station. Asking only if I was heading to Manhattan, they put me on it. Where was it going? I didn't know! I decided that I would orient myself at the final stop, looking at the GPS. In the process, we were dropped off at some station, the ascent to which suspiciously strongly resembled one of those in GTA 4. There, another confusion arose with the accent - another subway worker of the same race was trying to ask me where I was going. He repeated one word for a minute, but I stubbornly couldn't understand that "mntn" meant "Manhattan". And that happens. After confirmation, he let me inside for free, and thanks for that. Having reached the coveted part of New York, I headed to the hostel. And here is another sudden screw-up - I didn't specify the check-in time. Realizing that check-in would only be in 12 hours, I decided to walk through night New York to the station. It's cool, the largest city on earth! There will definitely be something interesting there even at night!
No.
This walk spoiled my impression of New York for a long time. Just... When you are in Times Square for the first time in your life, and the only people around you are a person walking a dog... You just have a feeling that an endless advertisement is spinning in front of you that cannot be skipped. Only by 6 a.m. did the townspeople start crawling out of their apartments, on some of them you can look with horror or interest. An incomprehensible dance, otherwise you don't even know what else to call this performance, singing (far from always good), it would also be better to just get used to this. Or you can stop being ashamed of your own oddities, it's normal here x).
But we got distracted. I'm on the train, going straight to the destination, what could go wrong? Well, it's worth thinking about this. While you are on the train, you have access to free Wi-Fi. There I contacted the employer, but we didn't do something very important. We didn't agree on the time when they would pick me up. What was my surprise when I got to the station and there... There was no free internet. And I didn't have an American number then either. What to do? That's right, go and explore the city on foot! That's what I did because it was a beautiful sunny day, but to avoid getting into such a situation in the rain or scorching sun - it's better to take care of the issue in advance. But there was also a good thing, I was still given a ride to my house by car x).
Maybe skyscrapers against the backdrop of dawn are not so bad...
Fifth, in addition to the plan. You should know this without me (because even I thought to grab them x) ), but take all the necessary medicines with you. If I hadn't taken my allergy medicine with me, it would have been the worst summer of my life. And one more thing. My above-mentioned plan included something else. I had this logic "if we here in Europe buy adapters from an American socket to ours, then there, it must be the other way around!". Nope. They don't know what our plug looks like at all. So buy an adapter for your charger (especially if you have a laptop) either in Russia or immediately upon arrival in the States, while you are still in a big city. I unsuccessfully walked around all the shops in the city for 2 days and didn't find anything. In the end, I bought a set of adapters for all the sockets in the world at an inflated price, because I was afraid to kill the battery of an already discharged laptop. By the way, does anyone need an adapter for Australian sockets?
There are many unexpected things in America that you want to eat. Prepare your stomachs.
