It was a rainy, dark early morning; I was on my way to the airport, looking outside the window and realizing that I was leaving Moscow for a very long period. Now I understand that at the time I did not realize what it meant to live alone in another country without family, friends, anybody and anything that you used to have. I was not able to imagine what I was going to face there, on another continent.

Let us come back to the flight, that early morning I took my first very long flight, a flight into the unknown. Of course, at that moment I already knew some tips about American culture and how things would be. However, when I finally deboarded the plane I saw a completely different world than the one I used to live. I was shocked by huge space everywhere. In Europe, everything is smaller and this new world with enormous cars, corridors and alleys was something strange. I went through the corridor and studied the customs lines. There were very long lines and it hit me “It does not matter whether it's USA, UK, Germany, Russia, every country has these crazy lines.” . However, after several seconds I saw a machine in which I just inserted my passport and it allowed me to go. The customs officer did not even look at my passport he just stamped it and told me, “Have a good one”. It was unbelievably quick; I had never imagined that it could be that fast. I took my luggage and left the building. Something that caught my attention was a Range Rover. I thought to myself "Why is it so small?" when in fact it is not small - it is America that is so big.

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On the way to my new home, I started getting used to huge sizes -roads, buildings and everything else. The taxi driver from Jamaica was describing America and asking about Russia. I understood almost nothing, especially his accent. Nevertheless, it was the first person with whom I had a long conversation. At that moment, I thought too long.

Finally, I arrived at the small town of Thornwood, NY. To me, it looked like a village, a rural area. There was a forest, some houses and a road from nowhere to nowhere. I had never experienced anything similar, but I was much more struck when to my simple question, “How to get to a grocery store and how long will it take?” I received complicated instruction and an estimated time of 25 minutes on foot. Back in Russia, it would take me the same amount of time to reach the center of Moscow. Thinking about it the same idea returned to my mind -  America is so big.