First 10 days

With a room sorted, it was now time to look for a job. It was soon apparent that in Boston, it was no easy task to find a job. I trawled the streets, spent hours filling in application forms, spoke with managers and supervisors, followed up and phoned about positions that sounded promising. But no joy. It was extremely demoralising and as each day went by, the prospect of the seasonal work positions being gone was a stark reality. The problem was fourfold.

1. You were competing for jobs that American's themselves were competing for. College students were returning back home to the Boston area and applying for the same positions we were. With the weakened American economy, there is no doubt that the employers will favour local American students over non-national people.
2. You could work for the season only, many wanted workers who would stay and work on into the fall.
3. The main positions going, were the seasonal staff in Irish and other restaurants in the Boston area. However, these places favoured females. A group of male Irish J1 students asked in "Four Green Fields" if there were any vacant positions. They were promptly told, no and went on their way. The next day, a group of girls from the same hostel went to "Four Green Fields" and were hired within the hour. 
4. The visa is very restrictive. There is a long list of restricted jobs, working in construction, warehouses, landscaping and manual labour are all out. These jobs are typically male orientated jobs.

While searching, I felt it was important to also enjoy myself as it is very demoralizing to be applying for so many jobs and not getting any results. I toured and got myself more familiar with Boston and planned some excursions. I also continued to analyse the american idiosyncrasies and philosophise!

Sport is quite big here. Over many nights I enjoyed the basketball. The Boston Celtics were playing Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA. The teams play a best of 7 series, and it went all the way, providing much excitement over the 10 days. Unfortunately Boston lost the series in the 7th game.

Rajon Rondo

LeBron James

Baseball is also very big here. Boston is home to the Boston Red Sox and they play at the oldest ground in Major League Baseball, Fenway Park. Fenway Park is quite close to Downtown Boston and is conveniently located next to a stop on the underground system. My friend Kelly and myself  went to a game, The Red Sox vs Baltimore Orioles. The Red Sox are not doing well this season and lost the game, 4 runs to 2. I found baseball to be quite boring and difficult to engage in as there is little to no excitement in it.

However the event itself was the most revealing part of American culture. It was a showcase of America. All stood and held their hands to their heart for the anthem which was sang by a very good singer similar to Christina Aguilera. Durimg the game stewards spent their time walking up and down the stand selling everything from Chowder to Pretzels, at extortionate prices. It was akin to a Ryanair flight.

Fenway Park

One incident that made me think was after the 4th Inning, around the half way point in the game. A soldier was paraded to the crowd and he received a standing ovation. It highlighted the paradoxical nature of American people. Here they were saluting and heralding a Captain in the Marine Corps, yet very few of them will give the hundreds of veterans begging outside the stadium as little as a quarter. It made me think and hope that this Captain would not end up like his older generations when he gets a little older.

I also did many other things such as hang out with friends and go to various parks and walk around and see more of the American culture.

In the meantime I was successful in finding a job, albeit being the worst job in the world! Im essentially a Chugger! My job involves going door to door trying to raise awareness and money for Environment Massachussets, who are trying to lobby an upcoming bill about a Solar Power Plant for the Boston area. It is something that will pass the time, allow me to meet many other J1 students and keep CIEE, my sponsor, off my back! I dont think I will stay long at it, but I will see how it goes. I start the job on the 18th June, so one more week free! One thing that stood out to me was how little the people understood about energy production, quoting pseudo-scientific figures to strengthen their flawed arguments about solar and coal and gas power production.

I think a bigger and better avenue for them to pursue is the use of vehicles with humongous engines that are incredibly wasteful of gasoline. Considering the speed limits here are much lower than in Europe, such large engines are not required. It seems to be linked to the national pride that exists here and their emphasis on making money. "I have one because I can" seems to be the answer here. They dont think of the bigger picture, they see everything from one dimension. Perhaps if things were to change and Americans started using cars with smaller, more efficient engines, the demand for oil would drop resulting in lower prices and less wars!

Truck the size of a Toyota Land Cruiser with a 5.7L V8 engine!

   So that was my first ten days in a nutshell. I also managed to apply for a Social Security Number and open a bank account. After this I had a trip to Maine, a state North of Massachussets, to look forward to over the weekend!

Further Ramblings

So after my initial reactions were over, it was time to settle into life here, find accommodation and a job. Neither were plentiful by any means and the morale in the hostel amongst the Irish certainly rebated over the days I was there. Finding a room proved to be very difficult for some. Luckily however, I managed and met an amazing person in the process. Further to being here alone, this meant I didn't have the option of a big group of friends taking their own house and moving 20 people into a 3 bed! I had to sublet a room from someone who resided here and returned home during the summer period.

Initially I thought I would be clever and email some prospective rooms before I departed Ireland. I had a viewing lined up for the day after I arrived. I travelled to the house but soon realised this was going to be no easy task. As I was taking a room in a house and would have to live with people I was now meeting, they wanted to let a few people view the property first, then decide on their favourite person. I would have to wait a couple of days in order to find out if I was successful or not. I decided not to dawdle on this and continued searching. I extended my stay in the hostel and settled in to searching craigslist on their patchy internet! I decided my best bet was to email the room owners as soon as they posted the ad, which was invariably early morning. So I emailed rooms as they came up and arranged viewings.

I soon received a reply from a college student living in Malden, just north of Boston, who was returning home for the summer and wanted someone to take his room for him. He informed me I could view the room that evening and asked me to tell him more about myself. He then said;

"Woah, you are a mountaineer?"

My profile picture on my gmail account is me holding an irish flag on the top of a snow covered Ben Nevis. So I replied about myself and told him, yes, I am a mountaineer. I started in College and have since went on to climb in the Alps, Scottish Winter and that I am an avid outdoor person, not thinking a lot of it. He replied and we agreed to meet that evening at 6pm.

The house was very nice from the outside and in a very convenient location - between two stops on the train system into Boston. Knocking on the door I was hoping this would go well. He introduced himself as Ben and lead me up a narrow staircase to the first floor. As my eyes peered over the final step I immediately saw a pair of mountaineering boots and a pair of rock shoes! From then it all fell into place as he showed me his spacious room, two sash windows and walls adorned with interesting photos and maps from all over the world. He was a very interesting and well travelled guy (rare in an American) and had lots of stories to tell about past and future adventures.

He was returning to California for the summer and is completing a 300 mile ridge known as The Sierra Crest Route. I took the room as it was on budget and I even managed to pay less of a security deposit than expected! He was very helpful in follow up emails and I felt very reassured that I wasnt scammed! He sent me an email about his route and sent me a twitter link to follow to see there progress.

When I moved into the room on June 3rd, it was immaculately prepared and had some books and games lined out to for me. Pictures are below!

Initial Thoughts

So America, to many the land of hopes and dreams, a land where many Irish people have come and made very successful lives for themselves. A land of pride, integrity and a nation of leaders. But is America all that it seems? Most peoples ramblings in America consist of a long weekend shopping in Macy’s and trying out a bagel while complaining about having to tip the waitress. Typically, this does not give an accurate reflection of what a country is really like. So for the Summer of 2012, I am here as more than a tourist. I am officially “an alien with permission to work”, or at least, that’s what my Social Security form told me I was. To my friends Im on a J-1 visa program.

America is a very overwhelming place. Everything is big and obnoxious, EVERYTHING! Once you step off the airplane you get a sense of what America is really like. It is an uneasy feeling and a feeling of threat almost. You are assumed that you have the potential to harm America, and they have no problem in letting you know that. Interrogations by Officers from the Department of Homeland Security, body frisks and sniffer dogs are rampant. While picking up my bag, I was shocked to see a sniffer dog standing beside my hand luggage wagging his tail. From watching episodes of Customs I knew this wasn’t good. It transpired to be a sniffer dog trained to sniff for fruit, of which I had some in my bag that morning, a little snippet of information that would come back to haunt me when David Clarke rang me unexpectedly! More on that later.

From there I went through the doors to meet Kelly, who was picking me up from the airport. Or getting a ride as they say here, which means an entirely different thing back home in Ireland! The airport is very industrial and leads straight on to the highway, no welcome to the USA signs to be seen anywhere. Travelling down Route 1 was an amazing culture shock. Large restaurants and other establishments dotted along the road with massive Neon signs and flashing lights set a very manic atmosphere.

For the first couple of days I was a typical tourist. Finding my feet, sampling the fine liquors (getting well hassled for ID might I add) and rambling around were the orders of the day. My good friend David was here too, albeit getting raped by MBTA in the process! David was here for a few days before travelling to New York on business before travelling home, or so I thought.

33,000 flags to honour fallen MA soldiers on Memorial Day

I received a phone call one day whilst walking through CVS, a pharmacy that sells everything here! I was delighted, thinking it must be someone looking to arrange an interview after all the applications I filled in. No, it was a member of the Department of Homeland Security telling me that I was under investigation for attempting to smuggle fruit into the country! I felt wobbly at the knees as I attempted to explain the situation, but it transpired to be David with an American twang on his voice!

As I am here on my J-1 alone, it leaves me with lots of time to think and reflect on my new surroundings. Almost immediately, I managed to see some idiosyncrasies about life as a Resident in America. America most definitely isn’t the 7^th heaven that I saw on TV shows as a kid. It’s more a land of Irony and Paradox than it is of hopes and dreams.