Our US: Ukrainian about the first year of life in the country

Photo: Instagram / olka_gamolk

27-year-old Olya Gamol, who won in 2015 year Green Card and has been living in Chicago for a year now, sharing his impressions with the publication Gloss.ua. Olya comes from the city of Rivne, and before moving to the USA she lived in Kiev. Now he works in the department of finance at the medical center and maintains his blog in Instagram.

I won a green card the first time, took my Ukrainian cat and moved to the States last year. It is worth noting that before moving to the States, I had never been to the States, so all my expectations were based mainly on stereotypes from American comedies that we all grew up with. My life here is a bottomless well of “Expectation vs. Reality” stories. I'll try to organize it point by point.

Photo: Instagram / olka_gamolk

1. Repeatedly received the question of whether the United States pays for flights, housing and cash grants for lottery winners. Green Card. Unfortunately, there are no super guys waiting for you at the airport with a suitcase of dollars. The winning itself is already cosmic happiness: many people who live and work in America illegally are ready to pay thousands of dollars for any fraud in order to be legalized and have documents. And they don’t give out iPhones here either.

Photo: Instagram / olka_gamolk

2. I, a naive child, waited just outside the airport skyscrapers view to downtown. In reality, the majority of America (well, I’ve only seen 7 states so far, but still) are suburban settlements, or, as they say here, suburbs. Housing in the downtown itself is very expensive and small in size, so people move further away. For example, the Ukrainian diaspora prefers quiet neighborhoods, where they can buy a house and raise children. Accordingly, there will be fewer dark-skinned people, Mexicans, and so on, and therefore the level of security is higher.

Photo: Instagram / olka_gamolk

I live, for example, even in the city of Chicago in a very small studio, where the bed is already at the door. Sometimes it surprises our people, but I really wanted to live by the lake, and I wanted the documents to say that I live in Chicago, and not in the village nearby.

Photo: Instagram / olka_gamolk

3. The next joke is housing. I remember I arrived green, my friends talked about the options for basement housing among Poles and Ukrainians. This is a very popular scheme here: a family buys a house and takes in newly arrived immigrant residents as residents. basement. I did not understand why only such options are available. Darling dreamed of a view of the lake and so on. For comparison, they wanted 600 dollars for the basement, and it was possible to take a studio by the lake for 750-800 dollars.

Photo: Instagram / olka_gamolk

I learned from my experience that even if you have money, you will not give up your apartment, because you do not have a credit history. There is such a general indicator of your financial responsibility. FICO score: it starts at 300 and can grow to 850. If you have it above 700, everyone wants to give you credit cards for the maximum limits, the coolest apartments and low interest on the mortgage. At that time (for three days in the States) my credit history had not even begun.

When I moved to my studio in March, some people asked me if I bought a studio: this is America and zero credits. But in reality, I prayed that with my 6-month history I was at least given a rent. In the banks here, too, intelligent people are sitting, and no one gives money to the right and left.

4. Language is a different story. I have a diploma in foreign philology, and although my knowledge of German and French disappeared as soon as I left the university, I was one hundred percent confident in my English... until my first dialogue with a black bus driver. I stared like a sheep at the new gate, because it was not English. All my skills Present Perfect / Past Perfect Continuous burst like a bubble through slang and style of speech.

Photo: Instagram / olka_gamolk

I had particular grief with Hindus and dark-skinned people. When I worked at the reception, I remember one phone call: a dark-skinned woman decided to oppress me. I politely asked five times what she wanted, and asked her to speak more slowly, and in response I received something in the style of “let’s come in large numbers here.” I transferred it to my colleague, and I ran to cry in the toilet. Americans have no problems with white people, because their pronunciation is understandable, but I still am not friends with dark-skinned people. I already understand them, but their style and intonation fills me with fear. Just kidding, but with some truth.

5. Back in Ukraine, I knew that medicine was expensive here, so I packed a large contraband first aid kit with our Strepsils and other things in my suitcase. I knew that everyone here is on insurance, and it’s happiness if you have it. When I started working at a medical center, I first heard that insurance is also different.

Photo: Instagram / olka_gamolk

For example, social insurance Obamacare does not want to take the majority of doctors, or such patients are recorded for later. Bureaucracy in all its glory: the patient calls you, and you ask what kind of insurance he has. If a self pay (he pays on his own - editor's note), then you write it down right for today, because it's real money. If you have private insurance, then you should make an appointment for today or tomorrow, and if the insurance is simpler, then the nearest date is next month. I'm exaggerating a little, but this is the basic principle. Plus, there are often cases that the cost of treatment with insurance is even more expensive than a person would pay out of pocket. And all because the cost of one procedure differs depending on the insurance policy.

Photo: Instagram / olka_gamolk

6. I associated the States with McDonald's and 200-kilogram people. I don’t argue that most of the dishes here are fatty foods, and the locals are crazy about fried bacon, but there are a lot of healthy girls here who keep themselves in shape. I live by a lake and from time to time I see in the parks: everyone is running, swimming, riding bicycles, I have nowhere to go with my fatty ice cream. There are also fat people, but these are mostly poor people who eat at fast foods.

We should also note the hysteria on organic: This word is everywhere here. Everything is organic, from milk to toothbrushes, and this affects the cost. Although in fact it’s not all “organic”: I suspect that most farms use “organic chemistry” instead of standard chemistry.

Photo: Instagram / olka_gamolk

7. It’s worth remembering the holidays. Ukrainian darling loves the May holidays, when the whole country goes on a binge for a week. When you come here, a different reality awaits you. There are three or four bank holidays here, and the rest is arbeiten, guys. Vacations also need to be agreed upon six months in advance, because Americans are terrible planners: they schedule everything a year in advance.

8. Favorite item - roads. So, Ukrainian roads left an “irreparable mark” on my psyche and I kept dreaming about American space roads. In fact, I have only seen high-quality ideal roads in the south (California and especially Texas). In Chicago there are seasons and there is winter, and this can be seen on the roads. Although our lanes are often closed for repairs, even in downtown there are places where you can leave a tire. One day we left a tire on the highway and had fun until midnight in a tire shop with a Mexican guy who also didn’t speak English. There are many toll highways in Chicago: tolls range from $1 to $2, but there are still some potholes.

Photo: Instagram / olka_gamolk

9. Taxes: Most locals will probably wince at this point. There are taxes in Ukraine, but here everything is special. As a shopaholic, it’s inconvenient for me to see price tags without tax: you take something for 80 dollars, but leave 90 at the checkout. It’s the same with salaries - some employers make contributions themselves, and in some you report at the end of the year and have to pay a good amount to the state. If you have been deducting money all year, then at the end of the year you will receive a bonus: the state returns you a little of the amount of taxes. That’s why jokes in the style of “you’re homeless before” are popular here. tax-season, and then you sit in gold.”

10. And the last thing is measures of measurement. For example, cherries are $2,99. You row more, but at the checkout it turns out that you have added $7. All this is due to the fact that prices are in pounds (in pounds, 1 pound = 0,45 kg - editor's note), but the Ukrainian darling understands in kilograms, so you pay 2 times more. I still haven’t gotten used to Fahrenheit and my weight in three digits in pounds.

In fact, you can talk endlessly and talk about your packs, lapses and unexpected moments. But while ten is enough. I want to emphasize that all observations are subjective, and only from the height of my one-year-old flight across the States.

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