I lived in New York for 5,5 months (the max period allowed on one continuous stay on a B1 visa in the USA).
Cons: I wasted ~3000usd on rent
Pros: I, never having been outside former Soviet Union, flew straight to another part of the world, without any connections, without friends, alone, with some money that only appeared to be sufficient to be spent on rent and food. I managed to rent a room (never done so before in my life), I tested if I could find a job in NY (yea, guys, don't be hurt by this, this is illegal, and I never actually worked while staying in the USA, so i didn't breach visa terms, I was only testing the possibility of finding work there - and that was very easy, I found a low-paid position on the second day of looking for it). I was amazed by how much people in America respect your privacy, talked to some people, developed a daily routine - not too sophisticated but still I managed to survive some 7000 or so miles from home, and it wasn't too difficult and I came to one of the main conclusions in my life - the world is much smaller than I thought, and in order to fly anywhere and live anywhere you just need some rather humble amount of money. This 'global thinking' replaced rather depressive 'local thinking' framework I was thinking in previously and in that regard now I am happy that I have realized that.
I lived in New York for 5,5 months (the max period allowed on one continuous stay on a B1 visa in the USA).
Cons: I wasted ~3000usd on rent
Pros: I, never having been outside former Soviet Union, flew straight to another part of the world, without any connections, without friends, alone, with some money that only appeared to be sufficient to be spent on rent and food. I managed to rent a room (never done so before in my life), I tested if I could find a job in NY (yea, guys, don't be hurt by this, this is illegal, and I never actually worked while staying in the USA, so i didn't breach visa terms, I was only testing the possibility of finding work there - and that was very easy, I found a low-paid position on the second day of looking for it). I was amazed by how much people in America respect your privacy, talked to some people, developed a daily routine - not too sophisticated but still I managed to survive some 7000 or so miles from home, and it wasn't too difficult and I came to one of the main conclusions in my life - the world is much smaller than I thought, and in order to fly anywhere and live anywhere you just need some rather humble amount of money. This 'global thinking' replaced rather depressive 'local thinking' framework I was thinking in previously and in that regard now I am happy that I have realized that.