Just a year ago, Natasha Alipova and her family moved to the United States, but during this time she managed to understand that an ambulance and a kindergarten are expensive, and it is better to do a manicure on your own than to trust an American master in a beauty salon. A former German teacher told us about this and many other things.
My name is Natasha, I am from Moscow, but for a year now I have been living with my family in New Jersey. How did I get here? My husband was offered a job. We have long wanted to move and even decided to give birth to a son here - that was almost five years ago. And then my husband was offered a position in the company with the subsequent relocation - and here we are.
My childbirth trip was my first trip to America. I was then struck by the difference in the medical approach: if in Russia during pregnancy the doctor constantly found some abnormalities in me, forced me to take tests every week and prescribed a bunch of medications, in the USA they told me that everything was fine with me, all medications were canceled and not strained with analyzes.
The opposite thing happened when my son was born - in the USA he was called perfect boy, and when we returned to Moscow, he received a bunch of diagnoses and prescriptions.
I still cannot understand which of the doctors were right and was the attitude of American doctors a manifestation of indifference? On the other hand, life expectancy is higher in the United States - maybe because people do not drink unnecessary drugs?
We moved almost a year ago. First, my husband moved, he was looking for housing. There are two types of housing in the United States - houses and apartments from private owners and condominiums, where apartments are rented by a developer company.
The latter are convenient in that they have a standard, identical, usually white finish (that is, you will not find black or pink walls and other manifestations of violent master's imagination), and maintenance lies entirely with the company and is included in the rental price - in case of a breakdown or a problem, you just leave an application on the website, specialists come and fix everything - no need to look for masters or wait for the landlord to fix everything.
Also, these condominiums usually have a gym, event hall and swimming pool (however, the pool is usually found in all residential complexes).
A lease agreement is usually concluded for a year, private traders practically do not conclude short-term agreements at all, companies can, but then the monthly rental cost will increase significantly. In many residential complexes (and houses), it is impossible to settle with animals.
In order for our son to study English, we immediately sent him to kindergarten. Gardens here are also divided into two types - private day care, where babies are taken from six months or even earlier, and school gardens - the so-called PreK and Kindergarten (where they are taken from the age of 3). The main difference is that the kindergartens at schools work according to the school schedule - children go home at about 2 pm. We did not know this and we regret a little that we did not send the child to a private kindergarten - they work until 17-18.
However, I have a slightly prejudiced attitude towards private kindergartens - not always qualified personnel are recruited there (very often kindergarten is the first job for migrant women), staff turnover, and there are also many foreign children there.
When I wrote this phrase on my blog, many criticized me because of discrimination, because I myself am a migrant. But we figured that in order to fully immerse ourselves in the environment, we needed something completely authentic, and as a result, we sent our son to a kindergarten at a Catholic school - mostly children of indigenous local residents go there (that is, migrants are not in the first generation). Plus, we really liked how we were received there and how they treat our child.
As for English, so far everything is complicated with it. The son goes to kindergarten for six months (with a break for the summer - in the summer the kindergarten, like the school, rests), but he has not yet spoken English. That is, the opinion that children grab their tongues on the fly, I can refute. Perhaps he began to understand something (he also knows the alphabet, counting to 20, the names of animals), but he refuses to speak so far, claims that he does not like English and that he does not like the garden, because everything is in English. Although he goes there without tears and with pleasure. So we are waiting for the moment when it will finally "break through."
By the way, according to the laws of our state (New Jersey), children attending kindergartens must be vaccinated, including against the flu. But it is not difficult to get vaccinated - vaccinations are free, especially if you have insurance.
It is impossible to live in the United States without health insurance. More precisely, if you have a very small income, you are entitled to free medical care. If the income is above a certain level, you are obliged to purchase insurance, otherwise - a fine (even if you did not see a doctor for a whole year).
The medical insurance system in America is structured as follows. Every month you make a payment - it is different depending on the insurance plan, from $ 500 to $ 1,500 per family (although good companies always pay for their employees' insurance themselves), you also pay for each visit to the doctor, but the amount is fixed - on average $ 10 per trip to a therapist and $ 25 to a specialist. An exception is annual preventive examinations. They are free.
You will never know in advance how much money you will spend - after the completion of the procedures, the doctor asks for insurance coverage, and the insurance company already examines the medical history and decides how much the patient will have to pay.
At the same time, each insurance plan has a maximum amount that you can spend on medical expenses in a year - after passing this limit, you will no longer owe anything. In other words, if you get seriously ill and you need expensive treatment, no one will demand tens of thousands from you - you will pay the maximum amount prescribed in the contract (within $ 10,000) and then you will be treated for free.
It seems to me that this is the logic of the American medical system - it is expensive to treat a runny nose, but then this money will go to the treatment of oncology or heart disease in you or other people.
Yes, all urgent calls are always very expensive - calling an ambulance can cost several thousand. If there is no money, you can always agree on an installment plan.
Of course, when I think about the distance separating me from my family, I feel sad. Ironically, a melancholic mood usually covers me in the evenings - when everyone in Russia is already asleep and it is impossible to call anyone. And at first this was not, but there was delight from being in a new country, but then, after a trip home to visit, I realized what a thrill it is to be with my family and how I miss it. Although, thanks to the fact that part of my family and friends have already left for other countries, I do not feel that much of a renegade and am used to communicating at a distance.
In general, my blog saves me from a lack of communication - I have a huge number of virtual friends and acquaintances, some of whom have become real ones - so I don't feel socially isolated.
As for the new culture, so far I have not yet learned the local culture enough to draw conclusions. In addition, I did not have time to make American friends and mostly communicate with Russians. Of course, I would like to start them, but it turned out to be more difficult than it seems - there is simply nowhere to do it.
The only important aspect that I understood for myself is that racial and national issues are very acute here, more precisely, they cannot be touched in any way: you cannot emphasize the difference between people of different nationalities, even if you do not want to offend or belittle anyone. For carelessly thrown words, one can be accused of intolerance. I faced this personally, although I consider myself a tolerant person. In Russia, things are quite different with this - everything is much simpler there and often, unfortunately, goes to the other extreme. This is perhaps the first main difference.
Well, the talk of the town - the local attitude to services in the field of beauty, more precisely, to their quality - it simply does not exist. Here, even in jewelry advertising, hands can be removed with peeling nail polish. In general, women are extremely unassuming in this regard. In part, however, this is due to the fact that many services are prohibited in our state - you cannot do eyelash lamination, paint eyebrows and eyelashes with paint, trim cuticles, and do permanent makeup.
This is prohibited not only here, but in many other states as well, as it is believed that dyeing, permanent and lamination compounds can be harmful to health. They are not approved by the FDA - the agency responsible for quality control of medicines, cosmetics, which means that there is potentially more harm than good.
By the way, a funny moment for us: here in the salons massage of everything above the knee is prohibited. Since above the knee is already something close to sex, the masseur will be accused of harassment. Therefore, we decided to secure the profession.
Laser hair removal can only be done by specialists with medical education, in specialized beauty centers. You cannot receive clients at home without an equipped office with a separate entrance. Yes, you can work only with a license, for which you need to study for a whole year (and the study costs $ 10,000- $ 15,000).
All this greatly complicates getting into the field of beauty, there are few good (by Russian standards) specialists.
In addition, it seems to me that American women have slightly different values - they have a simpler attitude towards appearance, which also affects the quality of local services. Therefore, Russian girls usually go to Russian specialists.
I also turned my attention to the popularity of second-hand shops, thrift stores, garage sales. If the shopping malls and offline stores we are used to in the United States are dying, then there are always crowds of people in the thrift shops. Everything is on sale - clothes, dishes, furniture, books, toys, household appliances, bicycles, and even cosmetics.
This is partly, of course, from the desire of people to save money, here the whole philosophy of handling money is based on saving, and the word save is one of the most frequently used in advertising campaigns. But I think it's also about smart consumption - people think it's okay to give things a second life.
As for prices, in my opinion, food costs about the same as in Russia - here and there we spend about the same amount on food. True, very expensive restaurants - you don't eat anything normal for less than $ 60 (counting for a family of three).
Renting a three-room apartment costs us $ 1,700. A separate topic is kindergartens - they cost from $ 800 per month. Even in our state there are very high taxes on housing - I heard about the amount of $ 1000 per month for an ordinary house and thousands for mansions.
It goes without saying that salaries here are not like ours - the middle class starts with an income of $ 100,000 (or better, $ 150,000) per year - depending on the state (in California, where everything is much more expensive, everything is $ 200,000).
There are also a lot of hidden costs. For example, to enroll a child in kindergarten, we unexpectedly paid $ 500 in fees alone. They generally like duties here - it is believed that they make up the salaries of people who do paper and operational work. For example, toll roads can be paid on the spot, or later, when you receive a "letter of happiness". So, the amount in this letter is likely to be much higher due to the duty. We drove like that recently, and one dollar turned into 51.
In general, I advise everyone who is going to move to the United States to multiply the estimated costs by at least one and a half times - it will be calmer.
I also completely lost the habit of dirt: we did not wash our white car during the winter even once. And if you step into a snowy slurry and wet your feet, then after drying, there will not be a single stain on your boots or trousers. I spent the whole winter in suede loafers - and they look like new. And this, perhaps, makes me happy almost the most - at home I got tired of washing my children's jacket every night in winter.
Overall, I really like the USA. It's calm here, people don't even lock their cars at night, leaving their keys inside. If you dropped something of value on the street, the likelihood that you will find a loss in the same place is much higher than in Russia. But, of course, it all depends on the area - there are very criminogenic places where it is better not to enter.
