Part III of my North Myrtle Beach experience

USA.SC.North Myrtle Beach.Work and Travel Program. 20 y.o. girl.Great experience.(The beginning)

Two weeks after my arrival we were still living in the same house as in the beginning. The owner of the place also owned 10-12 more houses on the same street along the beach. Nothing bad, except that there were plenty of cockroaches and the rent was high ($75 per week was not a good price for those conditions). So Vessi and I decided to look for another place. We cooperated with some of our neighbours and they also told other people and finally we found a new house. It was not far from the previous one, there were 3 big bedrooms,a kitchen and a living room. But it was not furnished at all (only kitchen appliances). Everybody was sleeping in sleeping bags, on inflatable beds, even there were lucky people that found normal beds on a garden sale(or was it just on the garbage?).The new apartment was not so comfortable but it was clean and cheap($ 100 per month).

The party house

Andrew and Victor in Big Tuna

The only problem was that we were living 15 people from Bulgaria, Poland, Belarus and Slovakia. Well, it was not a problem for us but for our neighbours and for our landlord becuase of the parties. Every evening we were standing at the veranda or in the garden drinking beers. It was my favourite part after work - tired but in a good company. Sometimes there were just quiet conversation but other times it was noisy with loud music and more people. I remember once our neighbours called the Police and we had to stop the party. But it was better that way than to let their huge evil dogs in the yard.

We also liked going to the nearest club (The Big Tuna) and playing pool. It was kind of a  problem for me as I didn't have 21 and I was not allowed to drink alcohol in the bars and even I was not allowed to enter in some of them. Luckily most of my friends were not underaged and they could buy me beers. The bar was located at the beach so very often we just sat there enjoying the evenings by the ocean.

Hardee's, photo by: blog.thegourmez.com 

I really felt good living this way - working 4 days a week(only 25 hours), having fun with people, going to the beach but it was time to look for a second job. I had taken a loan from a friend to do this journey and it was time to think of earning enough money to give it back. It was not easy at all, I was going from shop to shop,from hotel to hotel, from restaurant to restaurant hoping to work whatever they had for me. I was filling out applications every day but with no result. Finally, around the beginning of July I started working in Hardee's (a fast food restaurant). My job was to take the sandwiches from the shelves and sell them to the costumers. It was totally not easy as I thought in the beginning. I was standing all day on my feet (from 8.00 to 14.00) but it was not so bad comparing to the mistreatment of my colleagues toward me. I couldn't believe that people could treat me so bad - shouting at me with no reason, being rude. As I told you I had been working in restaurants with people and never  had such situations before.

One morning I woke up at 9.00. We'd had a big party the previous night and I overslept for work. I was so pissed off to myself for not hearing the alarm clock and I had to decide how to excuse for being late. I jumped in some clothes and on my way to the bathroom I said to myself: "Wait a minute, you are already late for more than an hour, so you could be late for 10 more minutes". Then I made a coffee and sat outside in the garden. I thought: "Why should I go there again? They'll always be jerks! I need a better job and this is the perfect moment to quit and start looking for another one". So I called them and told them that I was sorry but my employer wanted me to work in the morning therefore it would be impossible to work for them in the same time. And that was it - I was again with my 25 working hours per week but I didn't feel miserable anymore.

To be continued