July 7, 2010 (9:00 PM) Hi! Haven't written in a while. Still haven't found a job. We're living in a hostel. I'm staying for free—sleeping without paying. If there are empty beds, I take one; if the whole hostel is full, I sleep on the couch in the game room. We mostly eat fast food. I've already eaten at many American diners (McDonald's, Wendy's, Wawa, Burger King, etc.). It's tasty everywhere, but a bit pricey at $5-7. In the morning, we eat cereal with milk. The milk comes in jugs—it doesn't taste like the Russian kind; it's not fatty. We have dinner at home. The fridge in the hostel is shared—sometimes we take someone else's food and drinks; it's cheap and fun. I went with Ilyukha to get an SSN. Leonid drove us (a guy who looks like a mobster, has been in the US for about 10 years). We met them at the hostel. At the SSN office, a guy approached us, claiming he works there but lost his SSN. He drove us to the place where his friend rents a room, and they have 2 rooms for rent for 400 bucks + deposit. We think it's a setup. They take a deposit here in case the tenant breaks something. But you can't check everything. At the end of the term, the landlord will definitely find a scratch and say they won't return the deposit. Apartments are expensive. Still no work. We go into restaurants, but nothing so far. The guys from Novosibirsk, Egor and Sanya, are working in roofing—cleaning up trash after those who do the roofs. It's hard because it's +40°C outside. 100 bucks a day is good compensation, but they are exhausted after the workday. Maybe we'll have to try that—they don't need extra workers yet. No options for now. Maybe we'll find something in another field. That's it. Otherwise, it's okay—we should get settled. #USA #WorkAndTravel


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