Rom: Reiseführer, Preise und kostenlose Unterkunft · 2026

DDDaria Dikovadikovadasha2002 · 10.01.2023Lesen

“There is a kind of magicness about going far away and then coming back all changed.” Kate Douglas Wiggin Even though I have not participated in the Work and Travel program yet, youth exchange programs are an extremely important part of my life. That is why I want to share with you the story of my experience with such kinds of programs. My story is a sequence of failures, victories and valuable lessons that youth exchange programs give me that make me love them so much. This is a story about my vision of youth exchange programs and how they shape my personality, so I gladly welcome you to read it. Since childhood, I have been obsessed with the idea of exploring the diversity of our world. However, there is a question of what does this exploration really mean? Is it enough to arrive in the country’s capital and see the main tourist sights? For me, the answer is definitely no. I believe that a true understanding of the visited country is impossible without cultural exchange, which can be gained with the help of interaction with locals. That is why for me youth exchange programs are the best way to explore new cultures. The format of youth exchanges gives me emotions different from any other type of journey. Moreover, youth exchanges often include educational parts or provide an opportunity to improve professional skills, making them not only enjoyable but extremely useful experiences. Thus, being raised in a small city without the financial opportunity to travel a lot, I always struggled to see the world, and I chose youth trips as my tool for achieving it. As a result, today, I have visited 11 countries and created connections with more than a hundred people in diverse world corners. My first interest in international exchanges occurred in 2017 when I decided to apply to the FLEX program. I tried twice, but I only got the status of alternative finalist and finished one step away from my dreamy exchange school year. Analyzing the situation from today’s perspective, I realize that I was denied because my applications for both attempts were almost identical. Thus, the first lesson that exchange programs taught me is to keep progressing all the time. After five years, in 2022, I returned to the idea of participating in the US exchange program, which is why I chose the Work and Travel opportunity. For me, Work and Travel is an amazing opportunity to earn not only money but things that are much more valuable. With W&T, I am eager to dive into unknown American culture and learn how people live on the other side of the world. Driven by such motivation, I signed the job offer and prepared for my summer in the US, but my plans were ruined by the war. I am from Melitopol, which is now an occupied city and being there at that period of time did not allow me to make confident decisions, and that is how my plans to see the US was ruined for the second time. In such a way, the second lesson that exchange programs taught me is never to give up. Thus, aside from chasing my American dream, I actively investigated other parts of the world with the help of youth exchange programs. After my failure on FLEX, I started to search for further opportunities and applied for several exchange programs at international universities. Again, I did not manage to pass the last selection stages and got refusals. Still, I did not give up on searching for an active social life and decided to start with the program inside my country. Thus I took a gap year and entered the Ukrainian Leadership Academy, which is a program of informal education gathering young leaders which allows us to share experiences and implement social projects. With the Academy, I went on my first cultural exchange to Israel. During this trip, we lived in Machines, which can be described as social leadership preparatory programs for high school graduates. We stayed with Israeli students who shared their national values with us as well as we introduced them to the beauty of our Ukrainian culture

TNTomiris Nurgaliyevatomirisnurgalieva22 · 10.01.2023Lesen

I sit and look out the window at the falling snow And think about how I can make a breakthrough, One like those two unknown eccentrics, Who broke away from the Soviet Union to New York. And in their pockets, eight bucks for the two of them And a bunch of rainbow hopes and dreams, Enough for great success. I sit and look out the window at the falling snow And think about how somewhere far away, Ten thousand kilometers away, Where the Atlantic is, and bays, and inlets, And territories with a four-century history; There are palm trees there, and skyscrapers, And even beaches amidst the concrete and glass. There are Chinatowns and Little Italy, Or you can just call it a neighborhood. There is the Statue of Liberty with a torch in her hand And a waterfall that gives the city energy, And the White House, and the Grand Canyon, and the state of Nevada. I will see all this, not in a dream! Hello, everyone reading my story! My name is Tomiris and in exactly 20 days (as of this writing) I will be 18. I am a first-year student of the West Kazakhstan Innovative Technological University in Uralsk, Kazakhstan. In the future I will become a specialized translator. Since childhood I liked studying languages, their features, noting the beauty of each, but I was especially interested in English. I began to learn it from the age of seven years and participated in many competitions, both in the city, and in the national. In grade 11 I dreamed of going to America, and began to prepare hard for the international exam IELTS in March 2022. I got 5.5 points when the threshold was 6.0. But I am not discouraged, I took the experience with gratitude because I improved my English to the upper-intermediate level while preparing for the exam. I think that today it is one of my most important achievements: an official confirmation of my knowledge by the British Council. Further I hasten to inform that by the time I am years old, I already have quite a good experience in the HoReCa sphere. In tenth and eleventh grades during summer vacation I worked as a waitress at a food court and, even in that position, I successfully used my knowledge of English while communicating with English-speaking guests at the establishment. Why did I decide to participate? Last May my brother Darkhan flew to America, Massachusetts under the Work&Travel program through your company and I was inspired by the idea. I started reading stories of guys from all over the world about their trip, what interesting people they met there, how they realized their dream, some even stayed to work there. This is my first reason for wanting to go there: to get to know their culture, customs and traditions, and to talk about ours. This program will allow me not only to earn money, but also to explore the country, make friends from all over the world and traditions, and to talk about ours, to explore the country, make friends from all over the world and gain professional experience. Secondly, but no less important reason, to study English in more depth, communicating in it with native speakers, and considering that there are so many accents in the U.S. language as there are people living there, this experience is absolutely invaluable. Thirdly, all of this learning can be combined with work, as I will have to constantly be in that environment with only English spoken around you. Moreover, I will get and develop my new skills in order to develop competencies in different areas, I have a goal to earn decent money or capital that will help me to pay for my studies and make my parents happy. I want to give them everything they gave me. They have always believed in me, supported all my endeavors and been there for me. I want them to be proud of me. And most importantly, being in the United States, I will be promoting my country's recognition, culture, traditions, and customs. After all, my country is the 9th largest country in the world! Also, if I have a chance, I will participate in official, cultural, s

АБАлександр Борисовtdr241 · 10.12.2018Lesen

Hello, dear reader! I want to thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts, which I jotted down in my notebook during the difficult and fun moments of Summer 2018. I want to say right away that these are excerpts of my memories, divided into chapters, so you can read them during your subway commute or on a coffee break at university. So, let's begin! Story 1 - I want to go to London! I'm sure you've heard somewhere that if you fly to America via England, you get the right to walk around London for 24-48 hours. Yes, I heard that too back in the day. I didn't think long or reflect seriously, I just bought the tickets. I bought these tickets: St. Petersburg - Riga - London - Reykjavik - San Francisco. The first mistake: I didn't buy transit tickets from London to San Francisco to save money. We arrive in London, there's a huge waiting hall where everyone is standing with their English visas waiting for the customs officer to let them through. My passport is empty. I approach the counter, explain the situation, and immediately hear: "No, I am sorry, you should be waiting for your plane only here." I approach different staff members, hear the same thing, and with my peripheral vision, I'm already looking for a soft spot to spend 48 hours. A coincidence saves me. An elderly border guard walks by, I tell him everything again, and he promises to help. My saviors: two American visas and a booked hotel room that would be lost if I wasn't let in. He "takes me by the hand" and goes to the chief customs officer, saying he vouches for me and that I won't stay in England illegally without transit tickets or a visa. He takes my passport and stamps it. That's it, I'm in England. Next, I visited Reykjavik (Iceland), but it's easier there. It's Schengen. Video from London https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6pjbfM2z0Y&t=4s

YTYauheni Turavetsevgeniytyrovez · 15.12.2017Lesen

Everything for the first time From the airplane cabin Austrian Airlines, flight Minsk-Vienna, Vienna-New York. 1.5 hours to Vienna, a layover, and another 8.5 hours of flight to get there, across the ocean. Everything was new to me – after all, it was my first time flying in my life. The flight was not easy for me. I arrived in Vienna looking really red, as if I had just spent two hours in a steam room. I didn't expect it to be so nerve-wracking for me. I managed to pull myself together in two hours. During the long flight to the States, I thought about my future job at a restaurant, about what and how I would have to do, and if they would fire me if I did something wrong. In short, there were only questions to which I (alas) could not yet give answers. Upon arriving at JFK airport in New York, we (I was flying with a friend) had to go through passport control. And so, after standing in line for about an hour (there were a lot of people), our turn finally came, and we headed to the officer. We greeted him calmly, gave him the necessary documents, but that's when our adventures began. During the flight, we were offered to fill out a declaration, which is MANDATORY when entering the USA (a lot is written about this on the Internet), but we didn't attach any importance to it. A big mistake. We stood there not knowing what to do. There was a long line behind us. But we were lucky. The customs officer handed us the declaration and asked us to fill it out right there on the spot. I am grateful to that man for not sending us to the back of the line. Having finally passed passport control, we quickly rushed to get our suitcases, as time was running out and we might miss our bus. NY city We knew how to get to the bus station because two of our friends had arrived a week earlier. Using the AirTrain (they have them in Moscow too), we reached the necessary station and transferred to the subway. After about 40 minutes, we were coming out of the underground passage, and there it was before me, that very same, real New York that I had only seen in movies. An endless stream of cars, crowds of people, steam from the sewers – this is exactly how I imagined it. We were hugely impressed by the real New York, but there was no time to admire it, as we were in a hurry to get to the bus station. And we got lucky – we made it to the last bus to Cape May (New Jersey), which was our final destination. It took more than 4 hours to get to Cape May with one transfer. On the way to Cape May, we made a stop in one of the largest cities in NJ – Atlantic City. Late at night, we finally reached Cape May, exhausted and so tired that we almost missed the stop where we needed to get off. We got off. 2 a.m. An unfamiliar country, an unfamiliar city. No connection at all. No transport running. We are standing there with our suitcases. What the hell are we supposed to do, where are we going? We only had the address of the house. A few minutes later, a car pulls up, a man gets out and says: "Roman?" My friend answers: "Yes." And I thought, finally...

АБАлександр Борисовtdr241 · 26.11.2017Lesen

Goodbye, Saint Petersburg I caught myself thinking that I was flying to the USA somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There was no turning back. I recall the words I learned in school during English lessons, trying to imagine a conversation with an American, not thinking about the fact that I have to work, because I only want to think about good things. To my right sits my girlfriend, or rather, she has already fallen asleep, and I am still sitting here thinking about what I have ultimately agreed to. Imagine flying to another continent, to an unfamiliar place, not being very fluent in the language, with $400 in your pocket, and an entire summer ahead that you will have to, as I thought at that moment, survive. So much unknown, and there is nothing to calm yourself with except the stories of past participants. Okay, I thought, we'll figure it out, and I asked the flight attendant for a glass of orange juice. Aeroflot planes, by the way, seemed so cozy to me at that time; they even gave out slippers and a blanket. Mom, I've arrived! I couldn't fall asleep during this long flight, which is a pity, because I still have to stay awake for at least 16 hours. We get off the plane, which landed in New York City, and immediately enter winter. The cold from the air conditioners is striking; I involuntarily notice goosebumps on my skin and start looking for the jacket I wore from St. Petersburg. We show our documents to the border control officer, who, unlike our stern ones, smiles and jokes with every new person. Our first stroke of luck happened by chance. The airport employee in St. Petersburg told us that our flight was to Boston, so we only needed to check our luggage once in SPb, and we could pick it up in Boston. In NY and Moscow, there was no need to worry about it. Relieved and traveling light, we went for a walk around the airport and accidentally saw our luggage already lying on the baggage claim belt. It turned out that we did need to pick it up in NY after all, so it was lucky we noticed. The airport in NY is strikingly different from ours; it is huge, with many gates connected by a train. After a long search, we figured out where to go and started waiting for our plane, which was leaving in 7 hours. It was surprising that there were almost no seats in the airport, and people were sleeping on the floor or just walking around. We didn't walk for long because it was very hot outside and there was nothing much to do there, and it quickly became boring inside the airport. In the end, awkwardly, we still laid down. After a short sleep, we finally boarded the plane to Boston, where we immediately plunged into American culture. Instead of the usual fruits and vegetables for breakfast, we were given a pack of chips and a soda of our choice. We took off. From Boston, we headed to our final destination, the city of West-Yarmouth, where we were to work all summer at a trampoline park. First impressions Upon arrival, we were immediately settled into the room where we would live and shown the work. At first, the job seemed quite good. We had to sit by the trampoline slide and let children in one by one, ensuring safety. It seemed easy and simple, exactly what was needed. The next day I went to my first workday, where I met all the Russian guys, who turned out to be very sociable and friendly. And on the very first workday, I got tired of my job. It was overcast and there were almost no people in the park, so I just had to sit and look at the sky. A couple of times I almost fell asleep, I stood up and walked to cheer myself up. I walked back and forth, here and there, then sat down again. On my break, I went to my girlfriend Lyuba, who bought us some American pizza to eat. I really liked the pizza because it fully met all my expectations: big, stretchy cheese, toasted - everything was as it should be. After a delicious lunch, I returned to work, where I sat out the rest of my day. After the workday, we decided to go to a store, w

OOOralbek Otegulovjohnfkennedy · 29.11.2015Lesen

America was created for everyone and it is full of fun. You can live there as you want. Of course under the American laws. You have the rights and duties. If you are under 21, you can’t drink alcohol. It’s prohibited by Federal law. During my trip in America I found a lot of friends from different countries of the world. Most of my friends are from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Turkey etc. We are still keeping in touch. Some of them invited me to see their countries. And I decided to write something about them. The first person who I met in Rehoboth Beach was Mirela Balan – helpful Balkan girl. She is very friendly, intelligent, attractive, beautiful and clever. She is from Romania and she has been living in America for some years. When I was working in Corner Grille as kitchen assistant, she also worked there as waitress. She is really nice person and true friend. I dream to see her again and I believe that my dream will come true in one day… Rehoboth Beach is full of students from all over the world. We meet most of them on the street, on buses, in churches. The next friends I met were Monika Mageranova and Didi Ilieva from Bulgaria. We met while we were going to the Walmart supermarket. Monika helped me choose a phone. Before that, I walked around for 3-4 days without a phone. Yes, walking without a phone is not an easy task. At this moment, I realized that our lives are completely tied to mobile phones. When we are in our country, if something happens, we immediately run to the phone. Following this habit, I also reached for the phone in my pocket, took it in my hand, and only after looking at the screen did I realize that it couldn't help me here. Only then did I wake up. Even though there were people all around, I felt lonely. I really had no one there. I didn't even have a phone with Wi-Fi to access the internet. Others at least had these phones. But I had nothing at all. The French language, which I had been struggling to learn for years, was of no use. My only weapon in my hand was the English language. From this moment on, I realized that it is a very powerful weapon. Only when I mastered this weapon freely did my life improve. Yes, English is truly the most powerful weapon in the world. If every Kazakh child masters this weapon perfectly, no enemy can defeat us. I met many people in America. It is impossible to write about all of them individually. I will only briefly touch upon the most noteworthy ones. One of the people who left a special impression on me was a Kosovar girl, Arjeta Zabeli. I met her on August 20, 2014, when I went to the state of Pennsylvania. - Hi! - Hi! - What’s your name? - Arjeta. - Oralbek. - Nice to meet you! - Nice to meet you too! Where are you from? - Kosova. - Kosova? Oh, really? - Yes… Do you know Kosova? - Yes, I know Kosova. - Where is it? - It’s in Balkan Peninsula. Between Serbia, Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia. She was wondered and said: “You are the first person who knows Kosova. Nobody knows Kosova here”. - I know. It’s new country… That’s why most of people don’t know about it. - How do you know Kosova? - I like politics. I know your President Ibrahim …(I couldn’t remember his last name) - Ibrahim? Our President is woman…. - I know. Your first President… Who was his last name…? - Do you mean Ibrahim Rugova? - Yes! Ibrahim Rugova. He was very nice person… She was very surprised when she found out that I also knew about Ibrahim Rugova. Because even about Kazakhstan, which gained independence in 1991, many people in America do not know much, let alone Kosova, which gained independence only in 2008. If they know, they only know from movies. Yes, Ibrahim Rugova was indeed a good person. But he did not live to see his country gain independence. He passed away 2 years before independence, in 2006, at the age of 61. I never thought I would meet people from a small country located on the Balkan Peninsula in America. I met such a pure creation of nature for the first time in

UUSAblogi · 05.10.2009Lesen

How to get to Montana and other transport adventures on the Mainland. Just the route, transport, how to get there, and where to book. The first flight, international: Moscow-Rome-New York, June 26-27, 2008. I was dropped off at Sheremetyevo 9 hours before the flight (I'm not from Moscow). After napping and lugging my bags around, I chatted with some students who were also flying and had an even longer wait. Later, I made my way closer to the Alitalia counter and met my fellow passengers. I had never flown so far, but the flight turned out to be quite fun (thanks to the random travel companions!), tasty, sleepy, and slightly tipsy. (Alitalia is the only airline I remember that freely puts wine and other drinks in the bar—the nightstand by the restrooms). The more we drank, the more we slept, and the closer we got to the promised land. After this flight and a similar one back home, I started to dislike Italians. Rude, boorish, insanely noisy, scattering things, littering, pushing, cackling—they turned out to be extremely unpleasant companions. We landed in New York without any particular joy. Tired and exhausted, we lined up to have some note-form attached to our passports (I-94; by the way, they should ideally staple it, but they just shoved it into my passport, and it kept getting lost among other documents...). The American in the booth with the forms turned out to be rude, chewing gum, and arrogant, but he signed it and let me through. Here I first encountered the 'yellow line,' which Americans strictly adhere to almost everywhere, even in stores where they behave like barbarians (no other word fits; go visit, walk into the clothing department of some Macy's and you'll see J). You shouldn't step over it until the person in front of you has finished their business. Then there was wandering around Terminal 4, finally discovering the AirTrain, and finally getting into the city, but that's another story :) The second flight, domestic, ill-fated: To begin with, everything was just against me, and I couldn't leave for a whole week. Planes weren't flying, buses weren't running, trains weren't moving. The small town on the Canadian border seemed like a bastion without civilization... And this is in America, where, in essence, everything is available everywhere. When we went to the bus station and stood in a huge line among dark-skinned people, I was sent to the trains. When we tried to buy me a train ticket, they were surprised that such a town even existed, and after finding it on the map, they sent me to register the ticket for a train that supposedly had a station two hours away. It turned out that tickets had to be booked more than a week in advance, and of course, there were none left. The person who was voluntarily helping me drag myself around for these tickets would occasionally add sadly: 'Lin, maybe it's not meant to be?' And when I finally despaired, I went to the Manhattan Public Library, wrote an email to my employer and parents that I wasn't going to that town, bought a local AT&T SIM card (which, by the way, worked everywhere except my Montana!, so it turned out to be quite useless throughout my stay), and called my friends to say I was staying in NY. Then a boy called me who also had an offer in my village and had bought a plane ticket to Billings (5 hours by car from Plentywood). Then my conscience got the better of me, and I couldn't do anything calmly because I had promised my employer, had been having lovely correspondence with her, and just generally given my word. So I decided to get there at any cost. Sometimes their servers for buying and ordering tickets, as well as in stores, cannot read our cards (I had VTB24), and I couldn't buy a plane ticket. On the last day, when 3 other Russian students—including the one with the ticket—said they could buy me a ticket, I was practically already sitting on my suitcases from Moscow. And on 07/03/08, sometime in the morning, I received an SMS from a Russian number saying

DFDiego Fernándezcdvbgcxvb · 20.08.2026Lesen

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32. #test #тест