Gap years are very common in europe. Rather than just limiting
yourself to USA, you can even try for a working holiday visa to
countries in Europe and in Australia.
Working holidays are basically what a gap year is like; you are
granted entry for up to a year and you can work in any job, do
anything you like and leave after a year. I remember working in
many parts of Australia doing a variety of jobs; picking fruits,
mending fences, crewing a boat, cooking and cleaning, and you
travel with the money you make. It would have been much better than
army lol; but i consider my ns life a double gap year. Pay was
decent and enough to live, depending on your jobs. YOu basically
get a taste of what life is like on your own and you get a lot of
freedom.
Anyway. There is the US work and travel programme, search that
and find out what you can do. But i am not sure if they restrict
your jobs to "window cleaners" and other non-Asian-Friendly jobs
(you guys dont like those sort of jobs right?), or it may be a sort
of "do whatever job you like" kind of things. I never went to USA.
But i have heard of a very old programme i want to apply for, its
the camp instructor programme, you basically spend a summer in the
countryside in some state in US as a camp instructor, they get a
lot of europeans involved but its open to all states (i guess
unless your from afghanistan or iraq). My friends say its really
cool to work and travel after you're a camp instructor.
This sort of things has been going on for ages, all part of
liberal economic interdependence bonding stuff so we won't go to
war in future =). But don't restrict yourself to USA, there's the
EU and Australia. [One day ASEAN will want it once they
successfully resolve their differences and seek to be more like us
;) ]
