J1 visas
I'm nosy to a point. In our travels around this amazing country, we often interact with folks that have noticeable accents. Doesn't matter where we are. You hear the accented English. As someone that spent half a decade living overseas, I can relate to being a straniero in a strange country.
Here in Bar Harbor, Maine there seems to be a disproportionate seasonal workers. Chatted up 1 gal and this is her 3rd summer in Bar Harbor. Rosalie's pizzeria, which makes a respectable tomato pie, also employs quite a few J1 hires. The pizza guy told me that his crew is Serbian, Romanian and some other eastern country guy.
Even Wall drug out in Wall, South Dakota had Jamaicans, Poles and who knows what else on the payroll. My summer spent in Yellowstone National Park had me interacting with Mongolians, Russians, Ecuadorians, China, Argentines, Italians, a guy from Ghana, Indonesians, Romanians and a few other places. Many of these groups have commonalities that are clearly noticeable to a Yank. 2 that I noticed was their shyness in interacting with anyone outside of their nationality. The other was their own personal judgement of their English proficiency. They spoke English well and as someone bi-lingual I get the idea that you speak well but have a hard time on the listening part. Native speakers have to modify their language to eliminate any colloquialisms and slang speech. Getting back to the fear of intermingling, I often sat with a different group when eating in the employee dining room so I could ask them about their impression of America.
The J1 program allows for 90 days employment with an additional 30 days to travel anywhere in the US. When I would inquire as to their follow up travel plans. The list of US cities was endless. These kids are intrepid travelers. The list included San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, New York and a few other exciting US cities. I followed a few on Facebook and was delighted seeing their travel pictures. I gave some destination tips for the cites I visited.
Now back to Maine. In our short time here we've met a few and it seems disproportionate to the number of jobs available. Heck even the 2 lifeguards at the apartment complex in California, MD were Romanians over for the summer season. So what is it that makes Eastern Maine so desireable for foreigners? It's not particularly warm. It is quite picturesque in a woodsy sort of way.
Tonight we chatted up our bar tender. The ice breaker question was are you from here. Then we inquired about the winter as she said she now lives here year round. Turns out she didn't mind the weather. But she said she's originally from Buffalo, NY. If you ask me she upgraded, winterwise.
So I'm glad we have a program that allows young foreigners to come to the US for 4 months and experience living & working in the US and improving their English skills. I have no doubt that many return with a positive view of us. I find it incredulous that these foreigners are more adventuresome than our home grown youths. I think the locals have gotten fat & lazy. We need to step up our game. We have an incredible country that is worth the visit. Get out and engage. The worst that happens is you hate the job but knowing it will end in 3 months has to be encouraging.
A few pictures of the foreign hires from Yellowstone NP.