In September my lady is going to be here in East Texas. I have tried to exsplaine that the out doors here is much different than the forrest in Belarus. She's always talking about walks in the forrest and picking mushrooms and berries. I keep telling her the forrests here have Rattlesnakes, water moccasins, coral snakes, scorpians, black widows, brown recluse, and the mushrooms are deadly or halucinagenic. Excuse the spelling guys.
I was thinking about the same thing lastnight
Why would any Lady want to move to The Duluth Superior
Area?? If there are guys here from small towns that could
help us that would be great. OR ANY FOR THAT MATTER Please
calm us small town boy's down :)
I only live two hours from Minneapolis and all.
I will get to spend alot of time with who I choose
But not everyday is a picnic here thats for sure.
Yes, its a tricky one UB. Really none of us know for sure how things will pan out. You will know how she thinks and what she likes etc, by now, but something’s you wont know until they see it face - face or day - day.
I look at the decor of their homes. It’s like stepping back into the 1960's. I don’t want my home decorated in Dark Browns and rugs on walls etc. But there has to be a compromise. The Russian women dress 1 year ahead of women here with their fashions, so I hope they can come up to date with other fads and fashion.
I live in the country, in fact I do not even have a road outside my door. I get here by boat. Don’t have phone line (not that matters today with Cell & GPRS) and I use a generator for power. The 1st FSU lady I was with, wouldn't have adapted to this way of life, but the lady I am with now will love it. But she spent all her childhood years on a farm 200mile outside Moscow.
Regarding you position, it will depend on her and it will also depend on how accurate you were in your judgement of her before you popped the big question.
Just don't let her loose on those Magic Mushrooms, a Russian Lady on them would be LETHAL !!!
well i can tell you my girl is from a big city and shes having a not so easy time getting adjusted to where i live. i dont live in a very rural area though
I read what you guys have written and I thank God that at least on this score I don't have any worries. My situation is a nice step sideways for Marina.
Ekaterinburg is in the Ural mountains just a spit away from where Siberia starts. The buildings are from the Nouveau Slum period and the winter or something akin to it is 9 months out of the year. However, it is a city, in fact the 3rd biggest in Russia. There is culture, parks and lots to do - if you have the money!! Which most people do not.
I am lucky enough to live somewhere that offers the best of both worlds. I live in Plantation which is a suburb city of Fort Lauderdale in turn part of the gigantic conurbation that runs down the Atlantic coast of South Florida. In many ways it starts in North Palm Beach and ends in Key West taking in Miami on route. The area I live in is central to Broward County and spread out in a way that doesn't even vaguely remind you of London or New York. Those are what I would call real built up cities. It is chock full of trees and parks. And yet we are also up to our ears in malls and shops and anything else you might want. We also have the beach just down the road and the Evergaldes in the opposite direction. We have the lot. Minus the freezing weather.
It will be fun to take Marina and Alina on an airboat out to look at gators and picnic in the Everglades National Park. There is a great bicycle path in Shark Valley where all you have to do is avoid the alligators sprawled across the pathway soaking up the sun. There is the Micosukkee indian village and a ton of things to see and do.
I am fortunate to live where other people from all over the world pay good money to come on vacation.
I don't see any problems with them adapting. It is a city area but in a nice way. There are problems though.
Although the area is nice the people in South Florida are some of the nastiest people in the United States. Anybody who has lived here for a while will tell you this. It seems to have brought out the worst in each culture here. I have no idea why. I have lived in other parts of the States in more rural areas and the people are nice. Not here they suck. Also I have an added problem Spanish is a second language here. Especially in Miami. Without it it is difficult to get a job. Fortunately in Broward, where I live it is easier but it is catching up with Miami every day.
Marina says she wants to learn Spanish but she is going to have her hands full with English. They will have a good time though. We will do something every weekend. It can be expensive but treats like Parrot Jungle or riverboat rides are a now and again thing.
Once we get through the initial peroid and we can travel it will be fun to go to the Bahamas for thr day or take a vaction for a week to Peru and see Machu Pichu.
I am very, very lucky on this angle. I don't have the problems that some of you guys do.
Oh Machu Pichu, I have learned so much about that lost city and have never been there. I am very much into Stuff like that Also a big fan of Howard Carter. I cant wait till I travel to other places and Gain the wisdom
of the world.
Dale
What a tragedy eh? :))
She has already told me that she could care less about the snow. She has been violently sick all week since last Saturday.
Flu.
Again.
Umpteen times since I have known her. That is what a shitty climate, sucky job, overwork, crummy food and generally feeling like the world is on your shoulders will do to you.
I have a different idea :)))
It involves her coming over here, interesting lingerie, a large screen TV, a jar of peanut butter and Dean Martin singing "when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie",
Oh yes I have plans.
Now I have to take my medicine.
I had the same concerns with Larissa. I live in a town of about 14,000 people, small compared to Mariupol. So I brought Madison to her in pictures and also have taken pictures of Indianapolis, Louisville and Cincinnati, which all three are only about an hours drive for me. This has calmed her fears of rural life. Since she knows that everything is close now it doesn't bother her. She wants to live where there are things to do, but she wants to live in a crime free area which I am lucky to live in. Also it fascinates her
that deer walk through my yard almost daily. She likes nature and wooded areas.
Now as for their decorating expertise. Don't for a moment compare how they life now with the dreams they have for what they want their home to look like. I would have never imagined my home to look the way it is going to be when it is finished. A very modern touch in the country. It will be unique for the area I live in. The brown paneling that once covered my walls now are gone and pastels and glass block add a dimension that my early american adolescent decorating would have never conceived. But their is hope for me, My office and shop are my sacred areas so My nascar hereos of the ages will still be on the wall along with Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. My shop will have an older big screen TV with a couch just in case I irritate the Little Ukrainian Angel so I can spend my exile in peace and a refrigerator. I have this giant Oak in my yard and have thought about building a tree house so when she is really mad at me I can scale it like Quasimodo and Scream at her "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!" I guess what I'm saying yes it's a little concern, but what I've learned from Larissa, that if these girls really love you they will go anywhere with you. It's not like here, her belief and love for me has humbled me like no other person has ever done before. Now I don't have the concern but look at it as the greatest adventure I've ever taken in my life.
Thanks a lot guys! I guess I was getting worried over nothing. You know this waiting for the VISA thing can mess with your mind. You read the questions and fill out the forms and start to wonder "Did I tell her abiut this or that?"
Houston is just down the road and city life is available on a take it or leave it basis.
Nas
That sounds like a great situation. Country and city. I am sure everything will be fine.
UB
I had to go through the immigration thing for 10 long years. It is hair raising. That is how long it took from the beginning to the day I was sworn in as a citizen 10 years almost exactly. It really undercut my life in a big way. That is why I have calmed Marina's fears about this process with telling her that I have already blazed a path and know exactly what to do and many of the pitfalls. She comes in with somewhere to live and a whole support system. I had nothing. Just me.
"In case you were wondering the lingerie is not for me"
Darn - you KNEW you left a door there wide open did you? I'm sure Dale spotted it too ;-)
Mike, you're an interesting bloke, music-wise I mean. Keith Emerson you've mentioned, I bet Eno you know too, and I'm sure that The Nice either rings a bell or is to be found in your collection. So, basically your sacred retreat will be something akin Pictures at an Exhibition? Nooooothing wrong with if you ask me :))
If ever you come across Beggars Opera (same era) on CD - BUY!!!, and post it to me!
Izi-I was wondering if maybe the heat just brings out the worst in people. In Phoenix today,we are supposed to break the record of 109 degrees. It is supposed to be 110-113 . I think that people become brain-baked. It is similiar in my hometown of MIssoula,Montana,where in the winter the cold may freeze your brain.