How much is life in California: the opinion of Russian women who moved 2 year ago

I moved to California from Moscow in 2016 year. My husband and I live in the small town of Salinas in central California. Population - total 160 thousand people. For comparison, about the same number of people live in Northern Tushino.

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When I moved to a provincial town from a metropolis, I thought it would be extremely boring to live here. Fortunately, everything turned out wrong.

I live in California for almost two years. I married a citizen USA and am here on the green card.

Salinas is a small provincial town with quiet streets and low-rise buildings. Here was born the writer John Steinbeck.

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Salinas is the largest city in Monterey County in California. To San Francisco to go 2,5 hours, to Los Angeles about 5. The climate here is beautiful, especially after Moscow: neither hot nor cold, in winter, on average, + 12 ° C, in summer up to + 30 ° C. Near the Pacific Ocean, national parks, reserves and vineyards.

Transport

The first thing to do is to adapt in a provincial town in USA - Get a local driver's license. It's almost impossible to live here without a car. There are several bus routes in the city, but buses are not accepted.

A bus ticket in the city costs 2,5 $. Long-distance rates depend on the distance of the trip. 35 km from Salinas to Monterey can be reached by bus for 6 $.

There are practically no pedestrians in the city: these are either homeless or schoolchildren who have just disembarked from the school bus and are going home. All the others move by cars.

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Driver's license

You can get a driver's license in California from 16 years. To take a knowledge test SDA and driving, you need to pay a 35 $ duty. Driving courses are optional, no information about the training completed is necessary to provide a test. You need to pass the exam in your own car.

To knowledge test SDA Prepared for the California Driver's Directory. It is distributed free of charge in all offices of the Department of Transport. The booklets are in English and Spanish, and on the site you can find versions in 10 languages, including Russian. There are even video lessons in sign language. Knowledge test SDA I passed the first time with just one mistake.

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I also passed the driving test easily. It was funny at the very beginning: I arrived at the mini-mini-Cooper exam, and my examiner turned out to be a very tall and large inspector. While he was puffing away the seat, I was burning from awkwardness and thought that it was necessary to take my husband's car. With the inspector, we traveled the entire 15 minutes in residential areas of Salinas. The whole trip he made notes in a special form, marking errors. He also checked to see if I knew how to turn on the turn signals, headlights and horn.

On the same day after the exam, I was photographed, my fingerprints taken and a signature sample. In 10 days, the driver’s license was delivered to our mailbox: USA documents, rights and even bank cards are always sent by mail.

We have two cars in the family. Per month we spend about 240 $ for gasoline and 170 $ for insurance.

I have a little mini cooper. Inspector at the exam hardly got into this car

Credit History and Payments

В USA It is very important to have a good credit history. Here it is accepted to buy everything on credit, it is profitable. If you have an ideal credit history, then the interest rate for a purchase on credit can be zero. Everybody buys on credit: houses, equipment, cars and even some everyday purchases, such as gasoline.

Resident credit history USA - pledge of his solvency. By credit history check whether it is possible to deal with this person. When you rent a home, you need to show your credit history to the landlord to make sure that you are a responsible and solvent tenant. Even a potential employer can check a candidate’s credit history.

В USA still everyone uses checkbooks. Some payments, such as fees, can only be paid by check. Such a check is sent by mail. You can write a check in the checkbook or request a check at the bank branch - then there will be a commission of 10 $. We pay with checks for renting an apartment, there is simply no other payment option in our residential complex.

My husband ordered checks with his favorite SF Giants baseball team.

An important part of our monthly expenses is the payment of a loan to my husband’s education. He graduated from the university in the 2011 year, and when he finishes repaying the loan, I cannot even imagine. Education in USA very expensive, everyone takes loans, and then for many years they are paid. The diploma of graduation from a higher educational institution here is made to be framed and hung on the wall. Diplomas on the walls must hang in the waiting rooms or in the offices of doctors and lawyers.

A year of bachelor’s degree at a university that my husband graduated from is worth 32 000 $.

Diploma of my husband. For a loan for education we will pay a few more years.

Profits

In my opinion, the difference is huge.

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Taxes

Many factors affect the exact amount of tax, for example:

• do you have a spouse and children up to 18 years;
• Do you pay for health insurance?
• do contributions to charity;
• whether they bought machinery or equipment for working needs;
• do you have investments, student loans, babysitting expenses, etc.

State site where you can calculate how much tax you should pay and how much you can get a tax deduction

When applying for a job, you need to fill out the form W − 4. The amount of tax that will be deducted from the salary depends on it. With each employee’s salary, the employer deducts state and federal taxes. At the end of the year, each employee is given a W − 2 form. It shows how much you earned in a year, how much taxes you paid, and how much insurance was. With this form, it is customary to contact a tax adviser who helps fill out documents for the return of a part of the tax paid, an analogue of our tax deduction.

After that, the state either returns you a part of the taxes paid, if there was an overpayment, or, conversely, bills for additional payment. At the beginning of 2018, we made a refund, and a large amount was returned to us.

Instead of VAT в USA Sales tax is valid. Each state has its own rate, each city within the state has a local premium. The minimum sales tax in California - in Los Angeles, 6,5%, the maximum - 10,25% in the city of Compton.

We live in a rented apartment in a closed residential complex. We have an apartment "1 BR 1 BR“- so here designate housing with one bedroom and one bathroom. We also have a living area combined with a kitchen and a small patio. Most often apartments are rented without furniture.

For the residents of the complex and their guests there is an outdoor pool, a small gym, a billiard room and a children's playground.

For renting an apartment, we filed a special application and a husband's credit history. When it was approved, we had to conclude an agreement with a company that provides electricity and gas. Still it was necessary to arrange insurance for the apartment. Insurance for this, you can choose at your discretion. The minimum amount of insurance for our apartment is 50 000 $. We could choose the amount of property insurance ourselves.

In a month we spend about housing and communication

Products

We live together and spend about 250 $ for foodstuffs per month. I think that if we ate meat, we would spend much more.

In stores there is always a large selection of fresh vegetables and fruits. In our fridge there is always avocado, asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, sweet potatoes, mango, papaya, guava.

Around Salinas are many fields of strawberries. Most often, the fields are not enclosed by anything, neatly plowed, and there is a film stretched on every garden bed so that the ripe berries do not touch the ground. The strawberry season starts in April and ends in October.

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The stores have a large selection of fresh seafood, because the ocean is close. A net of oysters (12 pieces) can be bought for 7 $. There is also a lot of soy products and drinks from milk substitutes - soy, almond, cashew and coconut. Half a gallon (1,89 l) of such a drink costs 3 — 3,5 $ , and the same bottle of milk - 2,8 $. I stopped drinking milk, because there is a large selection of alternatives, all this is delicious and affordable.

There are many restaurants in Salinas. In network cafes prices are usually lower. On average, snacks cost from 6 $, main courses 12 — 20 $. The average bill for dinner for two - 60 — 70 $ . Portions are usually large.

Drive through is in all fast food restaurants and Starbucks coffee houses. Even banks have drive through ATMs: you can withdraw money without leaving your car.

Medicine

Medicine in USA very expensive. Without insurance can not hurt. Call an ambulance without insurance - about 4000 $. Consultation with a specialist - 200 $. Day in the hospital ward - 2000 $.

There will be exactly as many pills in a jar as the doctor ordered.

We spent about six hours in the emergency room until the husband was better. At discharge, the doctor gave a printout with a diagnosis, detailed recommendations, referral to the necessary procedure and prescribed medication. Admission to the emergency room cost us 200 $.

Recipes and medications. When registering at the clinic, the patient is required to ask for the address and the names of the pharmacies where it would be convenient to pick up the prescribed medication. And you can get it only there and nowhere else. From the pharmacy will call and send reminders.

All prescription drugs here are sold in standard orange jars with a white lid. On a jar - a sticker with the name of the medicine, the name of the patient and the doctor. They will also give instructions and a description of the drug.

There will be exactly as many pills in a jar as the doctor ordered.

Very many medicines I know here are sold only by prescription. The prescription is needed even for contact lenses, so you often have to go to different doctors.

Stomatology. I recently treated my teeth in conventional Salinas dentistry. I will give prices for services with and without insurance.

How much does dentistry in Salinas

Besides the prices, I liked everything. I went to the dentist in the winter. In the armchair I was covered with a rug, a comfortable pillow was put under my neck and even offered to put any background music at my discretion. The same evening, the doctor called me and asked how I felt.

Shopping

I really like how in USA Return of goods works. If a somethingdid not fit, you can safely return the item with the tag and price tag already cut off. To return, take even used clothes and used cosmetics.

You can usually return a purchase within 14 — 30 days. If you have paid for the purchase by card, a refund can be made even without a check.

Some stores are willing to lower the price if you prove that your competitor has a lower price. Once we bought a TV in the Best-Buy store. On Amazon, this same TV was worth $ 100 cheaper. I showed the consultant a page with the same TV on Amazon, and we were reduced to the price.

Leisure

In Salinas itself, there is little entertainment. Three cinemas, bars and restaurants, bowling, concert hall, famous in USA Rodeo Stadium, a professional racing track and the house-museum of John Steinbeck - that’s all.

There are many parks in the city. They decided to organize barbecues and picnics, to celebrate various events. All parks have tables, benches and bins, often worth grilling.

The house where the writer John Steinbeck was born, the author of the novel “The Grapes of Wrath”. At the end of the 40s, Steinbeck traveled to the post-war USSR and published his travel notes - the Russian Diary book.

From Salinas, you can get to Silicon Valley in an hour San Jose, Palo Alto, Stanford. In 2,5 hours you can reach San Francisco, well, there are already available entertainment for every taste: museums, concerts, exhibitions, sporting events, amusement parks. Before Los Angeles to go 5 hours is long, but we still sometimes go there just for the weekend.

There are a lot of wineries in California. California wine from the Napa Valley is famous all over the world. Going to the winery for tasting is a popular leisure activity.

Some wineries combine and organize the so-called "tasting routes." You pay around 40 $ and drive a special route. It passes through several wineries, everywhere you taste wine. In the first winery, participants are given souvenir glasses. For wine offer snacks. For a driver who will not taste the wine, a special ticket is sold at a reduced price.

National parks

Hiking in national parks and natural areas in California and generally in USA - a separate kind of leisure. All places for hiking there is on the site of national parks service - there you can find information about any park, choose a route by the level of difficulty, find out what the infrastructure is.

Page of the Pinnacles National Park, which is located near Salinas

In all natural areas there are usually several routes of varying difficulty. There are stands with maps on the territory so that visitors are not lost. Another card can be taken at the entrance.

Entrance to national parks is paid. The cost varies depending on where you plan to move. I'll tell you on the example of the park Pinnacles:

• by car - 25 $ for all passengers;
• on a motorcycle - 20 $ for all passengers;
• by bike or on foot - 12 $ for one.

You can buy an annual subscription for 50 $.

In the vicinity of Salinas there are many natural areas without any paid entrance. We love to drive to Big Sur, Carmel, Toro Park, Shark Fin Cove.

Sunsets in Casa Verde, 30 minutes by car from our house

Sport

Most residents of Salinas and California are very fond of sports. Just do not play, and get sick. Everyone here must have a favorite sports team, for which he has been a fan since childhood. Popular baseball, American football, basketball, football and hockey.

It’s not customary to hide your passion: people wear T-shirts, jackets and baseball caps with the symbols of their favorite team, stick stickers on cars.

In my family, everyone is rooting for the SF Giants baseball team.

The cost of tickets for games depends on the season and teams. The games of eternal rivals - SF Giants baseball teams from San Francisco and Dodgers from Los Angeles - the cheapest tickets will cost 70 $. On the game of the same SF Giants and any other team, you can sometimes go for 6 $. The most expensive baseball tickets for the World Series championship season.

Results

Life in California has its downsides and advantages. If it were not for my spouse, I would never have dared to move to Salinas. But thanks to him, I quickly adapted here.

Two years later, I can say that I fell in love with Salinas and my new lifestyle, which is very different from Moscow.

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