Vietnam: Travel guide, visas and free housing · 2026

ККириллstriklend · Nov 1, 2009Read

Myrtle Beach is the main city in northern South Carolina. It's a kind of local family tourism hub (meaning, for the neighboring states). The city is like a Kinder Surprise, i.e., it also consists of 6 parts at most:) After we found housing—in one day (unfurnished, but with a washer, dishwasher, dryer, huge fridge, internet, etc.—that's where we lived all summer), and went to get our Social Security numbers, 2 weeks passed in unsuccessful, at first fun, then tired, then angry and envious job hunting) By May 20th, Myrtle is already full of our people and Ukrainians, especially the latter, apparently their exams are a bit earlier. When we finally got jobs (which is great, all three of us in one place), and someone even found a second one, the usual routine began. I don't know if it's just us or not, but the days went by one after another, replacing each other so quickly that we didn't even have time to remember them by date. Everyone had days off at different times, so we only gathered together around 12 AM after work, and the next morning someone had to be in by 9... But Myrtle was memorable for: 1) A Vietnam veteran living downstairs who, to escape overwhelming memories, would blast heavy rock at night and mow the grass with a machete he forged himself. 2) Mexican neighbors who didn't understand a word of English but would shout "MMMM, chikkka)))" at the girls. 3) A guy killed in front of our house, 5 minutes after we had walked past that spot. 4) Two night visits from the police, who suspected us (or rather me) of pimping and attempted murder. 5) A careless, friendly "What's up, nigga?))" said to a Black guy. 6) A trip to Columbia (the state capital), when a tire went flat exactly halfway there. 7) Our best friend there, a Marine, who was also: - A sniper with -7 vision, who shot in Iraq ONLY with our Mosin rifle and gave us a '46 cartridge, which we later smuggled across the border, only to find out later that it's up to 15 years in prison for "possession of ammunition." - A Mason. - Had been to jail twice for defending women. - The owner of an awesome Harley. - Knew sign language. - And so on and so forth)) 8) Buying a car, when, while choosing a ride, we stumbled upon a super specimen without any seats except the driver's, splattered with paint inside and out because it was a painter's former car, with wire instead of a handbrake and consuming 1L of gas per kilometer))) It cost $2000, by the way. I still don't understand why I didn't buy it))) And a bunch of other things... However, for the last 2 weeks, we couldn't wait for the first day of our trip to arrive. Moreover, because we had to be in Myrtle on August 30th for a work bonus, we had to split the trip into 2 parts. And on the 25th, we desperately wanted to be at Cape Canaveral, as NASA was launching one of the last shuttles in history))

UUSAblogi · Oct 5, 2009Read

Have you ever gone shopping with your boss? Well, I have... My luggage is still missing, and I have to start work tomorrow. In search of a uniform, we headed to Ross, a chain of relatively inexpensive clothing stores. It's not a thrift store, no, although that's popular in America too... it's just a store where you can find even branded items very cheaply or with a good discount. What I like most: people in the USA have a choice! There is all kinds of clothing, plenty of expensive stuff too, BUT if you want to dress cheaply, you HAVE that opportunity. And they have popular sales, and these aren't those ridiculous discounts like we have (5-10%)! On sale, you can buy a good, high-quality item 5-10 times cheaper than it cost before. That's why even simple workers there can afford to buy real Nike sneakers. It's a shame for my homeland... Everything is very cheap. Out of curiosity, we look at the labels - made in: Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia... Everyone works for America. And what's also cool is that there are ANY sizes! Jeans are made for any, excuse me, backside... and all the tops are made as if for pregnant women: loose and with a waist under the bust - so that Americans have somewhere to put their "wealth"... But, by the way, the fact that ALL Americans are fat is not true. But if they are fat, they are 100% (or even 150kg =))! And the scariest thing is that even their children suffer from obesity! Many times we have witnessed some 8-year-old elephant-girl (from the back, by the way, you might think it's a 35-year-old woman) splashing in the ocean, and next to her are the same elephant-mom, elephant-dad, and elephant-grandma... it's awful... But let's return to our story, the prices are great: jeans - $15, dress - $7, sneakers - $13, for $100 you can update your entire wardrobe! In short, in our case, it went like this: for the uniform, we needed jeans and sneakers. And so we were running around looking for suitable ones, and then showing them to Reina (our boss)... to get approval... well... it's not exactly pleasant, I must say... And finally, I'll tell you about such an important thing as a belt. When we were already at the checkout, Reina was very surprised that we didn't buy belts, she looked at us so strangely... Well, big deal, a belt is a belt (the boss is always right =)), so we went and bought them... imagine our surprise when we were told later that girls without belts in the USA are, well, of a different orientation... and here we are, Nadya and I, arriving, TWO OF US and WITHOUT BELTS! What did people think?))))