Níger: Guía de viajes, visados y alojamiento gratuito · 2026

ANAziz Nadjimutdinovanadjimutdinov · 5 dic 2015Leer

Looking at this photo, program newcomers are probably thinking: "Damn, once I get my J-1 Visa, I need to go and buy a flag." Yes, my friends! Absolutely. In my first year, I didn't think of this idea and arrived without any gear, and only this year did I bring a piece of my homeland. Last season, we only had two flags hanging. American and Romanian. Marius, a waiter from last year, brought both of them, and then, knowing he wouldn't return the following year, passed the American one to me like a relay baton. This year, I had an important mission. Not just to bring my own flag, but to return the American one, which, as it turns out, has been hung for several years in a row. Even before I arrived here. I later saw old photos of Ukrainian J-1 participants from here. Also, this year, Eugeni arrived with his flag, and Mihaela gave someone the task of bringing a Romanian one. The others arrived by chance. And so, we ended up with this international dormitory. Unfortunately, we are still missing Armenian and Nigerian ones, but even so, this staircase made every passerby in the parking lot stop and try to guess whose flags these were. This year, it happened that there were a few more Russian-speaking people in the dorm than last year (last year there were 2 besides me, this year 3), although we still tried to speak English. And, of course, this all plays into your hands. How? Well, because I came home speaking Russian with an accent. My mom was scared by every phrase I said, as I had to think before speaking. If I'm not mistaken, I've mentioned this before. And I'm ready to repeat it. Friends, try to go to places less popular among the J-1 community. Don't you want to find yourself in such an international circle? To study different cultures, learn a few other languages (for example, at least learn how to swear in a language unknown to you), and find friends from other countries? I constantly see people striving for places where the majority of students are from the post-Soviet J-1 space. But what's the point? Isn't the essence of the program to improve your English or communication skills, huh? This is, of course, your business, but believe me, finding yourself in such a situation might be difficult, but later you will realize what a blessing it is.

ANAziz Nadjimutdinovanadjimutdinov · 1 feb 2015Leer

-Hey bro! What's up? -Not bad, good, you? -Are you upset? You know, there are things you just can't fight. And one of those things in your life will be an influx of a certain nationality through the program. Our restaurant could have been called "A Romanian-American barrel with a Bulgarian-Uzbek-African spoonful of tar, oh, I mean marmalade." Well, with Americans, everything is clear enough. In the places where you'll be working, Americans are by nature often freer than birds. From season to season, they travel to different states and work wherever it's best at the moment. They rarely stay in one place for more than one season (well, except for the locals). Uzbeks - 2 specimens. Me and another cook. We are both from the same university, but didn't know each other before. Although, living in the same room, we naturally got closer. Bulgarians - 3 specimens. Evgeni, Miroslava, and one other girl. Evgeni later became my best friend among all the locals. We got much closer to each other than to the others. African - 1 quiet specimen. So quiet that I never even understood exactly where he was from. And... Romanians... About 15 specimens of initially arrogant young people who constantly spoke only their native language among themselves, which, of course, annoyed the rest. At first, there were none at all, and then in mid-June, their university studies ended, and the influx began. Along with them came another African-American guy. I remember my joy: -Oh, Sam, at least you're not from Romania! -Well, actually I'm from Nigeria, but I study in Romania. And he spoke Romanian too. And so, at first, we fought with them for a long time, trying to force them to speak English at least in our presence, explaining that what is the point of coming to the States to live here like in Bucharest. Well, what do you think happened in the end? It seems almost the entire dorm fell in love with this language and started speaking it. As I said above, there will be things that are useless to fight. In your case, it could be any other nationality. For me, it was the Romanians. And now I actually want to go to Bucharest because I miss my friends from there. But it is worth noting that those with whom I spent a lot of time also learned Russian, just as I learned Romanian. This is one of the pluses of the Work and Travel program, that you go not only to work, improve your English, etc., but also to develop knowledge and literacy about other nationalities/cultures/languages/customs. Therefore, Tip #15: Take advantage of this opportunity.