Working Life in America

Every one needs to work. Foreign students work very hard in America unless they are from a wealthy family. The American student VISA does not allow students to work if they do not apply for a working VISA (allowing you to work 20 hours off campus per week only) which costs almost USD$200. Despite you have the qualification to apply, you may fail to get the VISA. My friend Ana from Latvia disapproved after waiting for  half year. So far, I have worked in restaurants. I feel fine with it, though I understand I can get a more comfortable and easier job.  
　

Working, training and studying together is not easy to handle. No restaurants want an employee to work only three hours a day and two days per week. The everyday training reduces the chance to work. Every day the training lasts from 3:30pm to 5:00 after school. Returning home and getting changed, it would be around 6pm, so it is impossible to go to work after training. It’s lucky that there are three days in a week that I can go to work: Wednesday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday afternoon. There is supposed to be a self-training session on Wednesday afternoon, but I did not train on all Wednesdays during the Spring Semester due to working. Sometimes I had the training earlier so that I could work for another extra day. It is not easy for athletic students to handle training and working all at the same time. Also, extra-curricular activities are not on the list for athletic students. Training comes first! Sometimes I do feel ‘give me a break, leave me alone please’. 
　

Chinese hard working is well known. In America, Chinese are almost the NO. 1 on the hard working people list. The last two Chinese buffet restaurants I worked in, they opened twelve to thirteen hours a day, seven days a week. You may wonder if they are not tired. They do feel tired. During the day, they take naps in the restaurant. Coming to America, making money is the first priority. I want to remind you, not to eat any Chinese buffet!! 
　

In the third restaurant I am working in now they are a group of people from Fujian. Their age range is from 20s to 40s. There is a 5 year-old girl too. These people live in a house with two bedrooms. You might wonder how they share the facility. A family of three has the biggest room. A lady has a room. Three males live in the second floor which is just two storage rooms. The last one occupies the living room. There is no furniture besides a table and few chairs in the dinner room. There a small TV which they watch all kinds of movies. Sometimes I wonder as they are in a better country, why don’t they treat themselves better. They are all nice people. Whenever I work there, I feel like in a family. This reduces lots of homesickness.