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For the first time, I heard about the Work&Travel USA program in 2021 and it always was my dream to visit the United States.

When I finally get it to the US I tried to communicate as much as possible with the locals for practice: the trip to made my English perfect.

During the program I experienced several culture shocks:

The first was the food. I was working at an oceanfront amusement park in the relaxed town of Wildwood, New Jersey, and the fast food that was everywhere was frightening in quantity. I tried to stick to a healthy diet, and the locals around showed the opposite with their figures, so I had to quickly find a store with buckwheat from the first days.

The second was the English language. Annoying that even the little kids who came along for my ride, spoke much better English than I did.

The third was the American mentality. From communicating with my American colleagues, I could see differences in attitudes toward work; for Americans, it is grace and the meaning of life, while for others it is «work less, earn more and rest more».

I also noted the independence of Americans from an early age. For example, visitors would get off a boat that floated on a small canal with a pirate-style Caribbean setting. I was often surprised to see a parent standing and watching a child agonizing over trying to get out of the boat on their own, not offering to help and not allowing me as an employee to help. After all, the child has to learn to do it on his or her own. It was the same with the elderly, most of them would not accept our help in getting out of the boat.

I was struck by our amusement park corporate events, where there was no alcohol, yet they were incredibly fun and friendly. When I told my friends from my country about it, they simply could not believe it. The concept of hourly pay was interesting to me, compared to our usual monthly salary in country, where unpaid overtime is often welcome.

That summer I made a vast number of friends from all over the world-Americans, Czechs, Brits, Scots, Turks. We communicate with them to this day; we travel around Europe together and visit each other.

When I returned to my country, I got a prolonged depression related to going through a reverse adaptation. Having lived a year's worth of life within four months, you just can't settle for less.

After graduation, I moved to a city, where I quickly found a good job in administration with a decent salary. The string of work experience in the U.S. gave me an advantage, and the fluent English with an American accent made a proper impression. I did not accept invitations to interviews where the duties were interesting but the pay was low, because in the states I worked summer jobs, earning more in a week than those positions offered in a month. I just couldn't psychologically afford to work for pennies.

In my spare time, I traveled the world a lot. I flew to England for a vacation and also went to language school, because after going to the States I had the side effect of not being able to hear a British accent. After that trip the problem was solved.

When I traveled, it was interesting to see how other people lived, if there was a better place than America. I directed my efforts to work and self-development, got a job at a large international company, worked with foreigners.

I enrolled in simultaneous interpretation courses at State University's Graduate School of Translation. I and 3 other people were selected from 30 applicants at the entrance test, where they put us in booths and asked us to synchronize without preparation. This is how they tested for learning ability. The experience of accent recognition helped me a lot back then, and I graduated from this course, passing the final exam better than anyone else.

Last year I accidentally came across an article in a publication about our compatriots who came back from the U.S. and Canada. For the sake of interest, I studied the requirements and realized that they were just like copying them off me. Canada has never interested me, because there is a stereotype that it is cold and boring there. But my American friend who lives in Seattle, two hours from the Canadian border, changed my mind. I discovered the city of Vancouver, where the mild climate and the ocean are all the things I loved about the US. So I decided to try to migrate. I passed my IELTS at the right score the first time, got my papers together, and just a month ago received permanent resident status in Canada. Now I am waiting for Canada to open its borders after the pandemic so I can fulfill my long-held dreams.

The Work&Travel USA trip divided my life into a before and after. If I hadn't gone to Wildwood for the summer then, I would be living completely differently now. I don't think that is a bad thing, but I wouldn't trade the opportunities I have right now for anything else. America taught me how to dream, achieve, make friends, travel, and showed me that adapting in a foreign country is not scary, expanded the boundaries of consciousness. Networking was a useful bonus. For example, recently my former boss from the amusement park in the States gave me a good review on LinkedIn, which will come in handy in the future in Canada.