Sketches from the adventure of life - Ivonne's American story

My name is Ivona. I am 23 years old, from Ljubuški, and I am a final-year student of a master’s degree in Educational Rehabilitation in Mostar. This summer, I participated in the Work & Travel program in the United States.

For several years, I had wanted to participate in this program, but everything finally fell into place during my final year of studies. My friend Ivana, whom I know from Frame, joined me on this adventure.

We applied for the program through US JIM, an agency from Mostar. Over the course of several months, their team patiently answered our questions, prepared and advised us, and sent us job offers from different parts of the United States.

The past academic year was filled with activities, but also sacrifices, big dreams and plans, trying to make everything fit into my schedule, and a lot of hope. After receiving our J-1 visas, I managed to finish my thesis research, get vaccinated twice, and then recover from COVID just before the exams I had taken in advance. I barely slept for nights, which unintentionally made adjusting to the new time zone a little easier.

When I left for America, all I wanted was to get some sleep and for us to arrive safe and sound. I didn’t have any great expectations when it came to the job, earnings, or the people I would meet. Quite honestly, I simply hadn’t had enough time to imagine that part of the adventure.

Since the program consists of two parts – work and travel – so does my story.

This is how the work part of our experience went.Ivana and I chose a job at a supermarket after hearing positive experiences from students who had worked for the same employer the previous year. The supermarket was located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which had been my most appealing destination for a long time.What was new for us was that none of the students from Mostar had previously gone to the town of Falmouth and had to find accommodation on their own. Our employer did not provide housing, so Ivana and I started looking for accommodation around Christmas, when we made our decision about the job we wanted to take.It all started by joining local Facebook groups for the place we were going to, as well as Work & Travel groups for students from countries across the Balkans, hoping to find someone who could give us some advice.When that didn’t help much, we created a huge list of students from different countries who we discovered had previously worked in Falmouth. We started reaching out to complete strangers, while also emailing hotels and motels with inquiries about accommodation.In the end, one of those strangers connected us with a homeowner who became our host, while two others became our coworkers. 

When we first set foot on American soil, our emotions were mixed – happiness, excitement, exhaustion, a little bit of fear of the unknown, and a prayer on our lips: “God, help us”, and whatever happens, happens.At Boston Airport, we had to catch one of the million buses that seemed to be constantly passing before our eyes. The first person I asked for help turned out to be a fellow Bosnian from Travnik, who happened to be the driver of one of those buses. Boston or Bosnia – it’s all pretty much the same.When we arrived in Falmouth, we took another bus to our new home. Along the way, we chatted with the driver about the beauty of our homeland while he showed us where our future workplace, Shaw’s, was located.Our room was in the basement of a family home, which we shared with an older couple from Jamaica. We also shared a small kitchen and bathroom, along with whatever little bit of fresh air managed to reach the basement.During the first few days, before we had bought bicycles, we walked for about 20 minutes to work. Before each shift, we would spend hours searching for a second, additional job, so by the time our shift actually started, we were already pretty exhausted.Still, our spirits never faded!Our goal was to find a position where we could earn tips, but since we had to work a fixed second shift, it soon became clear that we would have to adjust our plans.After a month of searching for a second job, we finally signed a contract – this time at another supermarket, Stop & Shop. Yes, we worked for the “competition,” and nobody had a problem with it. We actually had a lot of fun joking about it.Our coworkers from Turkey, Serbia, and Montenegro also worked at the two supermarkets, so we shared both the difficult and the funny moments together. Over time, we became close friends and started spending our free time together – going on trips, attending parties, and simply hanging out.And that is where we created some of our most beautiful memories – the kind that stay with you long after all the dollars you earned are gone.

Ivana and I worked as cashiers, which was actually the position we were most afraid of. Our responsibilities included scanning groceries, entering discount codes, weighing fruits and vegetables to determine the correct price at the checkout, processing different forms of payment, handling cash and checks, bagging groceries when there were no dedicated baggers available, and helping customers with questions about different products.We were also trained to work as self-checkout assistants, monitoring customers as they scanned their own items and approving the use of coupons. At the end of our shifts, we also handled tasks required before closing, such as returning products to their proper places, cleaning, and organizing the refrigerators.When it came to working as cashiers, at first all the bills and coins seemed to look exactly the same. Keeping track of all the weekly promotions and coupons was challenging, while the fruit and vegetable section seemed to be an endless source of new varieties of the same products.This little girl from Herzegovina had no idea just how many different types of potatoes, onions, apples, lettuce, pears, tomatoes, melons, and peppers existed. Nor did she know that each one had its own special name – names that are almost impossible to translate back home unless they happen to be a color.A million different flavors of water, but nowhere to be found the simple one we were used to. Energy bars and drinks promising to help you sober up if consumed before alcohol. Ready-made meals packed into cans. Spices arranged alphabetically. Dozens of different chip flavors, but nowhere the classic paprika flavor. Hundreds of boxes of cereal. Five different sizes of the same product. Toilet paper ranging from a single-ply roll to ultra-mega-powerful, extra-soft, enormous packages.Food flavors for picky cats and mischievous dogs. Ice cream combinations you wouldn’t even think of in your wildest dreams. Cake mixes that require nothing more than water and one egg. Organic, vegan, gluten-free, high-protein, diet-friendly…All of this is just a small part of what you can find on the shelves of an American supermarket. Furthermore, advocating for customers’ rights, following specific guidelines for bagging groceries, finding discounts, and using digital coupons introduced us to an entirely new dimension of supermarkets and a consumer culture that is quite different from what we are used to in Bosnia and Herzegovina.Still, by the end of the summer, Ivana and I had become some of the most popular cashiers and had mastered the system, the products, and the answers to customers’ questions. Our coworkers often said that we brought joy and positive energy to the workplace, and they could never understand where we found the energy to work all day, every day.Our names sounded almost identical to American ears, which was sometimes confusing for our managers – whenever they called for one of us, both of us would respond. Customers, on the other hand, found it amusing that we had almost the same name, worked the same job, were best friends, and came from the same country.There is an indescribable sense of satisfaction when a customer asks where a particular product is and you can immediately point them in the right direction, while mentally navigating 23 aisles of shelves on one side, eight other departments, and everything in between.And when a customer greets you warmly and says how happy they are that you are there because they really needed some extra help for the summer – and instead got someone cheerful and talkative – it gives you even more motivation to keep doing your best.

At the second supermarket, Ivana got a position in the online shopping department, and I occasionally did the same job at our primary supermarket.For me, this was the most interesting part of the job, and I called it “Pokémon hunting.” Our task was to walk around the store looking for items from customers’ shopping lists, scan them with a special device, and place them into designated boxes. The groceries were later sorted into bags according to their required temperature.At the same time, the job also involved answering phone calls, handling tasks on the computer, and eventually taking the prepared bags out to customers waiting in the parking lot.Toward the end of the summer, when the competition for working hours became increasingly intense, we also started stocking shelves with products from the warehouse. And among our male coworkers, we proved that a girl from Herzegovina knows how to do some serious heavy lifting when necessary.

Ivana and I truly enjoyed our jobs. One of the greatest advantages – and at the same time one of the challenges – of working at the checkout is the constant interaction with people. As the saying goes, “There are all kinds of people.”Although we saw and heard quite a few things, there were countless positive experiences, cheerful faces, interesting conversations, and moments of laughter until tears came to our eyes.Whenever people asked me, “Where are you from?”, I was always happy to answer, “From Bosnia and Herzegovina.” That often led to enthusiastic stories about the delicious food in Mostar, the beauty of Kravica Waterfalls, the hospitality of Sarajevo, and the devotion to Our Lady in Međugorje.There were also those who would respond, “Boston?” and I would emphasize, “Bosnia, Bosnia,” even though it quickly became clear that they probably wouldn’t have been able to find it on a map.Boston or Bosnia – as I said before, it’s all pretty much the same.Others preferred to ask about my nationality. When I told them “Croatian,” they would start talking about cruises along the Adriatic, the beauty of the Croatian coast, or how Croatia was on their list of countries they wanted to visit.This program is, after all, a cultural exchange. While I was learning about America and its people, Americans were also learning from me about my beautiful Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.“In my country…” was probably the most frequently spoken beginning of my sentences.And there is something truly special about the feeling in your heart when you get to talk about your home.

Americans are probably also known for loving parties and all kinds of food. Through this job, I learned that there is no proper American party without hot dogs and hamburgers loaded with plenty of toppings, flavored sparkling water known as seltzer, Coca-Cola with and without sugar, chips, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, red plastic cups, and the famous S’mores.Sometimes the parties are themed, with Asian and Mexican cuisine being among the most popular choices. We experienced and tasted all of this ourselves and thoroughly enjoyed it.Every now and then, though, we would crave mom’s cooking, so we would make stuffed peppers, kalja just like mom makes it, soups, and pura s lučnicom (cornmeal mush with garlic sauce) – without the garlic, of course, because we simply couldn’t afford to smell like garlic for the next two days.There was never a shortage of berries, ice cream, and peanut butter in our basement. Still, most of the time we ate whatever could be prepared the fastest – macaroni, and more macaroni.I also have to mention that from time to time, we treated ourselves to some of the specialties of New England and Cape Cod – lobster rolls with melted butter and crispy fries, or a thick bowl of clam chowder. For anyone who wants to explore the local cuisine a little further: lobster rolls and New England clam chowder.