J1 Visa Cultural Experiences
I have spoken about the J1 visa before, and how it is a cultural exchange program. Summer camps are leaders who show participants (that’s you and me) an authentic American experience.
For all of these cultural experiences, I rode a big yellow school bus. My excited English brain could not imagine I was going to ride a yellow school bus, definitely a cultural experience in itself. But after riding in one for hours on end, in the summer heat, sticking to those leather seats, I think I have ridden enough for a lifetime!
I was working at a gymnastics camp in Pennsylvania. This meant I was close to New York City and Philadelphia, so naturally we had day trips there. These were great glimmers into the cities and made me excited to visit them more in depth after camp.
My first day off included a once-in-a-lifetime trip to a Rodeo! This felt like something truly out of any Midwestern movie or TV show. The animals and handlers took pride in what they were doing, and we were sitting on metal bleachers (benches with no backs) trying to figure out who was winning. The excitement of watching the handlers with their animals and seeing who could stay on the longest was thrilling and made great conversation with those around us, who took a liking to trying to help us explain what was happening. While there, you get food truck food, which included eating my first-ever funnel cake. This is stringy dough which kind of looks like spaghetti, deep-fried and then covered in icing sugar. It’s so messy but so good.
Other experiences my camp brought us to were classic sporting events; we attended a local high school American football game, which I am sure was good, but I felt like an out-of-towner in a town that definitely knew everybody. I also went to a NASCAR racetrack at the Pocono Triangle - apparently, this is really unique as the track is a triangle instead of an oval - it was very loud, and the action was all in the final 5 laps.
Another sporting event was a quintessential American experience in my eyes. A baseball game with 4th of July fireworks afterwards. This was a great experience; the baseball was minor league; however, it was a sell-out as a famous baseball player was playing (Jeter, a big deal, like if Wayne Rooney was playing for a non-league small team). The atmosphere was buzzing, and the sun was shining. After the game, a large firework display happened - I am a sucker for fireworks and love them. It was a great experience, and I would say to anyone visiting America over Independence Day that you should find a fireworks display and enjoy the atmosphere!
There were more than sightseeing and sporting events on the cards for me. One weekend, the whole staff was taken to a local Jazz music festival. This is something totally different, and I was happy to experience it. The street was lined with local vendors selling their goods, amazing food and drink trucks, and stages set up all around with great artists playing music throughout the day into the night. This was something I would never have gone to if I was planning my own day off, and very happy to experience it.
Now, with hindsight, I have come to realise that not all camps do this; my first camp was very generous. They were committed to showing all of their international staff members something new and different on our days off. Also, the fact that my camp paid for transportation and entry into these experiences and days out was also very, very generous. I am truly thankful that I could experience all of these things, as most of them I definitely would not have done myself.
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