So, here we are in America, what now? It's true, just yesterday you were rushing to finish a lab report, and today you're standing in the middle of classic one-story America—such a sudden realization of a dream... It's disorienting x). By the way, I never said where I was going! My workplace was the world-famous Niagara Falls, or rather, a hotel near them. By the way, the locals say "Niagara Falls," none of that "Niagara" stuff.

On the first day, they gave us a day off to look around the city. I went to the observation deck on the last day.

So, what should a newly arrived worker do? Besides the really obvious things, there are some important ones. Let's go through the list again:

First, you still need to continue processing your documents, specifically getting a Social Security Number (SSN). There's nothing difficult here, just follow the instructions they give you. And don't be like me—read carefully which of your parents' surnames you need to provide... You might also run into a problem with the I-94 form, which needs to be printed. It's not at all certain that this will happen; I don't know anyone else who had problems with it, but I did—the website just couldn't find it in the database. Don't panic—just call the CBP office and they'll tell you what to do. For example, they told me to go to the customs office at the Canadian border x).

Not just the Canadian border, but also a decent observation deck.

Second, mobile service. It's not at all certain that you even need it. Back home, for example, we already had Wi-Fi, kindly provided by our neighbors (we're still not sure if it was included in the house bill or if we were just borrowing it from them...). You won't have to make calls often either. Personally, I did it maybe once, when I had issues with my documents. Why am I emphasizing this? Because it costs a pretty penny. What, in Russia you pay 300 rubles for unlimited 4G internet? Forget it! Here, this service can cost up to $100, as my WnT roommate paid. You should have seen his face when I said mine cost $20. Actually, as befits a poor Russian student, I decided to save money. After a detailed study of the market, which varies quite a bit from region to region, I decided to choose Mint mobile and a plan with 8GB of data. Yes, watching videos in 144p was painful, but who has it easy these days? I mainly used it for entertainment at work and on the way there/back, fortunately, they didn't beat you for listening to music and podcasts at the workplace... as long as you didn't mess up x). Yes, find out the rules in advance. Because we were allowed to wear headphones, but not talk on the phone. But back to the topic.

There is another option—you can buy a plan for several "lines," which will save you money if you have a group willing to chip in; it might even work out cheaper than my option.

There are also pitfalls—despite the fact that all compatibility tests showed that my phone was perfectly suited for American communications, in practice it turned out that the internet kept dropping out and couldn't connect to 4G, and only in support did it turn out that it wasn't quite compatible. Mint mobile, "Cause we're so nice," offered to refund the money but... Who am I kidding, I hadn't found anything as cheap at that time, so I decided to put up with it. Overall, it was livable—it didn't catch, suddenly, in my bedroom and partially further around the city. And also, no less suddenly, on the second floor of the hotel. However, unexpected problems with it didn't end there, but more on that towards the end. The moral of this paragraph is this—after buying a SIM card for your Russian phone, check if it catches the network normally and how critical failures are for you. Also, if you were planning to upgrade your tech, it's probably better to do it upon arrival. Just don't buy phones "locked" to specific carriers, which are sold quite cheaply for signing up with a carrier, otherwise you'll have to hack them. Unfortunately or fortunately, I can't say anything about that process.

For city navigation, the internet is also useful.

Third, the bank. At work, we were given checks, which are better to cash at the same bank they were issued from (it's written right on the check), otherwise, you might face a huge fee. In our case, the bank was M&T, and from here on, we will only be talking about it. However, the locals don't worry much about this—at work, many had accounts at other banks. So, if you still need your own account, don't be lazy and go there as early as possible. Why? We'll come back to this, but the operating hours in American establishments often... leave much to be desired. As one commenter aptly noted in Google Maps reviews: "this branch is open only when I'm at work." Inexplicable but true, it didn't work on weekends, and on weekdays it worked until 4-5, just when the shift ended. Oh, yes, don't be me and don't forget proof of your residence. I showed a rental agreement, but neighbors showed letters addressed to them. And one more thing. When opening an account (bank account), they will tell you to close it before you leave the USA; let's jump ahead here. I had another brilliant plan: I'll use the card until the last moment, and close the account in New York! That was a damn bad idea. In the case of my bank, transactions were processed quite slowly—up to a week. So, you won't be able to close it if you have pending transactions. So when I came with my request to the M&T branch in Harlem, I heard "Well, here is the situation," and they showed me a monitor with pending transactions at McDonald's x). But even then, the worst part was that I spent several hours of valuable time on this. In the end, I just withdrew all my money from the account there, and closed the account already in Russia by calling via Skype. Technology makes many things too simple, doesn't it? And there was a positive moment too—I walked around the quite atmospheric Harlem, it even reminded me of Russia in some way, I don't know why.

By the way, you didn't forget to take enough money to live until your first paycheck, did you? I forgot, or to be more precise, I didn't calculate it. Nevertheless, I made a sudden discovery—at one of the ATMs in the nearest department store, you could withdraw money directly from a Sberbank card. The funniest thing is—I never understood if there was any percentage.

First paycheck, will go entirely to pay rent.

Fourth, bicycles. I heard about churches that give away bicycles for free, but upon arrival, I discovered some very unusual scheme. I was too shy to use it myself, but my neighbors all got themselves a two-wheeled... helper. The point is that at Walmart you can return bicycles or exchange them for others within a certain period of time. Check on the spot, because, attention, my friends told a Walmart employee about their plan directly (!), to which she frowned very unhappily, but answered the questions asked. In the end, they changed bicycles almost every two weeks and the scheme worked perfectly. There was also another funny moment—right on the street, some enterprising Asian guy approached us (I was borrowing a bicycle then) and asked how much we could sell the bicycles for. As they say, audacity is the second happiness? x). In short, just in case, his phone was saved. This is to say that a bicycle can also be sold. The main thing is not to damage it. And don't get into an accident, because there are nuances with insurance. Fortunately, I have nothing to tell about them, which I wish for you too.

Another way to ride for free is to borrow from neighbors (Do not repeat the photo, the trick was performed by a professional).