So, my epic journey has begun! Here I will describe not only my successes with the USA, but also other events on the path to my dream)

It all started with the fact that I love to travel wildly, and one fine day it hit me that I want to visit the New World, walk through the hills of Hollywood, take a bite out of the Big Apple, see the fogs of San Francisco, and much, much more.

So I decided to sign up for the program. I sent an application, but I received a message that recruitment would only open in the fall, and there were still 2 months until autumn. So I kind of gave up on my obsession. After some time, I decided to go to the IEC website, and something prompted me to send an application to participate in the program, quite spontaneously, since by that moment I had already pretty much forgotten about the program. And to my surprise, they called me from the office and invited me to register. I was wildly excited; after all, it's the USA, a world-famous country, difficult visas, and the cradle of liberal society and the rule of law and freedom)

A few days later, I went to the office. A nice girl conducted an interview in English, where I didn't encounter a single difficulty. The interview is truly elementary.

And from this moment, the most interesting part begins. I went to pay the first installment) I wandered around Novy Arbat for half an hour because the IEC representative gave me the wrong address, but in the end, with great difficulty, I got there and paid everything. The wait took another half hour.

So the first part of the program resulted in the following figures:

Registration fee: 2700 + 60 rubles commission

Payment for the first part of the program: 300 dollars + 20 dollars commission for the currency transfer

SEVIS Fee: 35 dollars

Having paid everything, I went back to the office in high spirits, and the world sparkled with new colors; even the people on the streets seemed like good Samaritans))) Arriving at the office, they made copies of all my payment receipts and handed me an excellent guidebook with maps of the USA. A small thing, but nevertheless a useful and pleasant one. Very useful and fascinating reading.

A couple of days later, a letter arrived with instructions on further actions. I had to fill out a questionnaire, prepare a recommendation letter in English, take photos, and perform other simple manipulations. In the end, these simple manipulations turned into a 2-week nightmare for me. My printer died, and I had to run around to friends to print everything out, and the questionnaire, as luck would have it, wouldn't print or printed with incomprehensible symbols.

In the end, with great difficulty, having printed it and collected everything necessary, I went to the office. I thought, now I'll hand it in and for a while I can forget about everything and focus on myself and my studies. Not so fast. They found a typo in my recommendation letter, and I had to redo it, which took me another week. Finally, I handed everything in, and I could breathe a sigh of relief.

But it's not as simple as it seems. Read about my adventures with the program, how the trip almost fell through, and much more in the next post.