Sitting at work... nothing to do... just a computer and the internet at my fingertips... What should I do?

I start browsing a huge number of forums, feeling like I'm wasting my time... memories of the distant past (or not so distant, depending on who you ask) come flooding back... And I visit the IEC.Exchange website in memory of the good old days...

I read a lot of interesting things here, especially in the travelers' blogs.

Much of it amused me, much of it surprised me, and some of it just left me in slight shock...

I decided to share my impressions of America and how it all was for me...

So, let's head back to the autumn of 2006... I think it was October, but that's not the point...

At that time, I was a very limited person... Since I am from the small town of Berezniki, I was a second-year student at the HSE (in Perm) and thought that the world ended at the glorious Perm Krai... and everything beyond that was VERY far away and I would never get there, and for me, abroad was like another planet entirely...

And then one day, my friend's mom came to us and started telling us how one of her acquaintances' children (to be honest, I don't remember the story anymore) flew to America...

I love such stories, when someone succeeds, when someone has an interesting life, but for some reason, in such cases, it always seems that such a thing just can't happen to me...

So, she gave us the idea that there are Work and Travel USA programs and that we shouldn't just sit around all summer, but go get some experience))

My friends started thinking, and so did I, but there was only one thought in my head - where to get the money for such a program???

We thought and thought, and then fate brought us to a girl who was handling these programs in Perm; as it turned out, we were studying at the same university... She explained everything to us briefly and invited us to come to the center itself...

Meanwhile, I called my mom, asked for her opinion, and asked if we could borrow a certain amount somewhere...

Mom, of course, was a bit shocked by the idea, but said that in principle, if we tried, we could scrape it together...

My friends and I went to the center, where they explained everything in detail, we got fired up about this idea, even signed a contract, but at that moment the whole idea still felt somewhat unreal... Moreover, the program wasn't as widespread back then, at least compared to this year...

In short, I urgently applied for a passport and started collecting the entire package of documents... Every day we thought more and more about America and dreamed, dreamed, dreamed...

The time until the consulate visit passed quite quickly...

We went to the consulate in Yekaterinburg, a night on the train - and we were there...

We walked around the city, arrived at our destination...

I don't remember how it all was anymore... I only remember the terrible excitement, checking documents every 5 minutes, what if something got lost in the previous five minutes... and in the end, the verdict - Welcome to the United States!

The realization that I was actually flying to America didn't come immediately... But when it did, my happiness knew no bounds, as if it wasn't happening to me, as if in a dream...

Before the trip, all that remained was to pass the exams early, explain to my mom that I wouldn't be taken into slavery there and turned into an exotic prostitute, and that I was going to improve my English and earn some cash...

And so June arrived, a week left before leaving... the closer the trip was, the more everyone started to panic that we were flying to who knows where, and what if it really was slavery??? Surprisingly, I was completely calm, which was not typical for me at all...