jake61

Since when is knowing the truth being paranoiad?

The real reason for the terrorist has reared its ugly head. It was just reported the federal treasury gave a blank check to fannie mae and freddie mack on xmas eve. I might add this was out of the news cycle when no one was supposed to be paying attention.

Do you know how congress has been passing bills without reading them? Bills that include ####### not related to the main purpose of the bill is often included. After the financial crisis congress passed some bills that included broader powers for the treasury and federal reserve.

This has now paved the way for the treasury to be able to give a blank check to fannie mae and freddie mac without congress having to approve it. Congress can not even stop it.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/economy/...9-80055842.html

American taxpayers are still getting screwed.

If people would look past their next meal they would see how these things add up and are implemented over time.

What are the odds of 2 airline terrorists with bombs and the bombs not going off? Especially when they are supposed to be connected to a group that brought down the twin towers in what looked like a controlled demolition? And are experts at bombing every other place on earth without problems?

Think people!

Who is congress really working for when they pass bills the public does not want, like national healthcare?

What is that saying? ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’

Naqishkaw, I know people like you are to lazy to look it up yourself so here are quotes from David Rocefeller himself, in his own words.

For more than a century, ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American Political and economic institutions.

Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty and I am proud of it.

David Rockefeller, from his autobiography “Memoirs”

"We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years." It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries."

David Rockefeller - Bilderberger Meeting, Baden, Germany

Now, look up the word "incrementalism" and you may get the idea of how change is implemented right in front of your nose without you realizing it until it is to late.

After 9/11 there was a citizens committee that gave a lot of info on all the backdoor illegal ####### and government involvement of 9/11.

One of the people that testified was a US govt visa person stationed in the middle east. He said that the embassy would approve questionable people over his objections.

A person has to remember that when JFK was murdered someone in the government or military had to tell the military that was assigned to the president to stand down that day. The same thing happened on 9/11.

A person should also remember that presidents are not above bombing or killing to divert attention, stay out of jail or use the military for corporate benefit. Do a search for "school of the americas". The US military was used to subvert governments or kill leaders in South Amreica for decades.

Remember Clinton and the asprin factory he bombed during the sex scandel.

Most people do not realize what is going on in the US. National healthcare is not about healthcare or saving money, it is about control. If you do not believe the government actually works against the american people, you just have to take a minute and really think about the financial crisis. While people are losing their jobs, homes and other property, the government is giving trillions of dollars to the very same international bankers that caused the crisis.

If you think the bankers did not know they were screwing both the home buyers and the investors with all the bad mortgage loans I have a bridge to sell you! They knew all to well that it would crash the economy.

The american people are stupid. They are conned into believing that corporations like competition. Nothing could be further than the truth. They hate competition. Why do you think they buy out as many competitors as possible?

What do you think the bankers did with the bailout money. They orginated and sold bad loans to banks and investor they wanted to take over or run out of business. Then, with bailout money they bought out who they did not crush. B of A has bought half a dozen banks and other businesses with bailout money.

The americans and other peoples of the world need to wake up and get rid of these people once and for all.

Do you really think the liberals in congress are so stupid that they would take us down the road of communism so blindly when it has failed everywhere but china?

The elitists of the world that actually run the governments and the world would have us all like china. If you do not believe it, look up the quotes from David Rockefeller. In his book he even admits treason.

If you want access to over 15,000 files, go to http://www.stopnwo.com

jake

It also could be to take the attention away from the damn national healthcare.

An interesting fact is he supposedly got the visa straight from the US. And the first comments on the event were only coming out of the whitehouse.

Jake

Now they are saying his father warned the US he was a terrorist! He also was flying in from Amsterdam. Don't people have to have visas before they board a plane? They are now reporting that he got a visa directly from the US after being turned down in Yemen.

Jake

This latest terrorist on xmas has me ticked off! Everyone here knows how hard the visa process is and how hard it is to get a visa for visiting or vactions in the US by people from other countries.

So how do terrorists get visas???????

jake

"never returning to Ukraine because of the "inconvenience" portraits that you are intolerant to the reality other people around the world live."

That is not what I meant. My health is not good enough for that amount of traveling any more. It is just to hard on me physically. I have been to other third world countries, but in my youth. Mainly in the Navy. I do not have anything against any peoples or any country.

I guess so many people said they liked it over there that it built up my expectations of Ukraine. I anticapated they had made more advances since Russian communism, kind of more like Warsaw, Poland which has made advances. But Ukraine itself gives the false impression when it always provides the new section of Odessa as poster material. With Ukraine being part of the EU, a person would expect more of some sort of economic leveling between the countries.

I assume it has to do with the leaders of a country and what the people will put up with. I met some other Americans on my return trip that had been over to visit their Ukrainian women. One was a Fedex pilot that had been there seven times. He said the mafia was in charge of Ukraine. I do not know, but the leadership there has something to be desired.

As far as people from Ukraine wanting to leave there for the US all one has to do is look at the people from Mexico coming here illegally in droves. My son used to work with a young man from the Ukraine. Even though he says west of Kiev is better than southern Ukraine, he still says he will not leave the US and go back there.

Let me explain it another way. She has had baked potatoes before, but when I fixed her a baked potato with it slit with butter and sour cream she could not get enough because she had not had them that way before. When I introduced her to several things like that it would be like us wanting to return to Disneyland. I do not know anyone that does not like Disneyland.

It just makes me sad to see people so conditioned and not do anything about it.

Jake

Well, I made it there and back in one piece. That is about the best thing I can say about the entire trip.

I know most people think of themselves differently than people actually perceive them. People are always kindest to themselves. This can manifest itself as a person not being who they really are in real life. In other words people can be different than they really are when it comes to meeting other people, especially when it comes to getting the companionship they want.

First thing I must say is cameras are kind to her. She does not look anything close to her pictures.

Second, although we had exchanged over 2,500 emails and discussed everything under the sun in depth, it turns out I do not know her at all. It is almost like she just agreed with me, rather than expressing her own viewpoints on subjects.

Third, her attitude was surprisingly different than her emails. There was no desire to learn any more English, and as it turns out, no desire to come to America. Since I have been back, the last email I received from her she stated she loved her life in the Ukraine and speaking her native language!

Fourth, I think she is not at all together. She does not know herself. Since I have been there she has outwardly shown contradictions in what she says. Either that or it is the softest scam on earth.

I think that when I arrived it started to hit her that this was real. She was going to have to make decisions and was not prepared for it. She reacted by slowly withdrawing after I was there about a week. I now think she became afraid and instead of saying anything, she withdrew.

I also think she was either sexually abused or raped at some time. I will not go into details but after the first couple of times we made love I had to ask her about it. She was contradictory within herself during love making. She replied that when she was 25 she was on a train by herself and an old man had tried to rape her but she got away. I do not believe it. She behaves like she was raped and her mind has tried to block it out. I told her I would get her some help with it in America.

After about a week she cooled and I asked her about being cool towards me for the last couple of days, she implied she could not go through with the relationship. Actually this was great for me because I was thinking the same about her. She was not the woman I had come to know in emails.

This brought up an interesting situation. She originally wanted me to stay with her, in her apartment, for 6 weeks. I managed to make it a month. But after 2 weeks she informs me of her decision. I tried to arrange to leave earlier through my son in Chicago, but everything was booked up solid. I also had my son get a hold of my travel agent first thing Monday morning.

Now it gets stranger. She has a weird concept of Christianity. Every once in a while she would go into the bedroom and close the door saying she was going to meditate and pray. It was a combination of lighting a candle and doing the Catholic "sign of the cross". She listens to music on CD that seems to be a combination of many different lands. What she is doing is parts of about 5 or 6 religions, including Buddhism. She says she is a Christian but has never heard of or seen a bible!

Anyway, the calls to my son were on Saturday and it is now Sunday. She says she is going to church. I am at the apartment trying to get my ticket changed. She knows and is aware I am doing this. We had discussed it. 6 hours later she comes back to her apartment from church, a little tipsy and being very nice and friendly. She says she is going to bed because she had seen a girlfriend at church which invited her back to her place after church for some homemade wine. The wine was very strong and she apologized profusely for being gone so long and tipsy. She was overly nice hugging me and kissing me on the neck. I got the impression she wanted me to go to bed with her. I ignored it. I think the girlfriend said something to her about our relationship that made her rethink her position.

My son got a hold of my agent Monday morning. The agent worked on the problem all day and was able to get my return exactly the same as before, but for the next day. It is supposed to cost me $220 more to have the ticket changed, but I would have spent more in the additional 2 weeks I was supposed to stay.

Now it gets kind of sad. Monday morning she is still very friendly and she returns from work on Monday evening still friendly. I inform her of the ticket change which has me leaving the next morning from Odessa. I am in Nikolaev which means I have to catch an early bus to Odessa.

Now she tells me she wants me to stay! I explained I could not change my ticket again and made my way home.

Like I said, in the last email from her she said she loved her life in Ukraine. I think this is more her trying to justify her actions and decision. Because I was born in the USA and I visited the Ukraine. I asked a lot of questions about Ukraine and was observant while I was there.

Anybody that would rather live in the Ukraine than the US is nuts. Everything I saw in the Ukraine looked like it was built before World War I and no maintenance has been done since. If there is a paved street it is broken up and needs repair. The curbs are all cracked and broken. You can be walking on a cracked and broken sidewalk and fall in an open manhole that has no barrier around it and has weeds growing out of it. There are no child custody laws. If you are a pedestrian and are hit by a car, it is just too bad. The driver is not liable to you in any way!

I specifically asked her if all of Nikolaev was like this and she said yes. When you take the bus from Nikolaev to Odessa you get to see a lot of Nikolaev and Odessa. Both cities are like that.

It is as though Russia pulled out of the Ukraine, and in the 20 years since, the Ukraine has not enacted any laws to support their new democracy. Or done anything to improve the economy.

But the worst part is the minds of most of the people. They have not gotten anything in their minds yet of what a democracy is or what it takes to maintain it. They have no concept of free enterprise or working harder to increase their product output which increases revenues which increases their income. For the most part, they still have the communistic system in their minds.

Communism would have never survived as long as it has except for the west supporting it. Russia still owes the US for grain during WW II.

I am from the Midwest. Here everyone waves at everyone else, even if you do not know them. Everyone smiles and says good morning, afternoon or evening as the case may be.

In the Ukraine everyone looks sad and if you pass them on the sidewalk they will not even look at you, let alone say good day. I discussed this with my oldest son which has spent time in England and Europe. He describes it perfectly. He calls it “accepted misery”.

Needless to say I will not be making any more trips to Ukraine. If I do get involved with an eastern European woman she will have to be already in the US. The trip alone was pretty hard on me. The bus ride between Nikolaev and Odessa is like trying to ride a paint shaker. I lost 12 pounds while on the trip.

I am not bitter, but I could have spent the last 3 months and over 2,500 dollars more satisfyingly.

Jake

I would not dream of lying. That is a sure way to get in to trouble.

Is it important how much cash you have? How much is enough?

I will not be bringing any jewerly, but maybe a sweater and a coat. Is there any problem with that?

I will not risk my prescriptions in the checked baggage. I would have to be hospitalized in 24 hours with out it. I can put it in with my notebook bag as a carry on. Of course I carry a pill container with me that has a 12 hour countdown timer. I have to take pills every 6 hours. It is a real drag.

My private doctor also gave me half a dozen Lorazepam to take for the flight over and back. One person said it made a 12 hour flight seem like 30 minutes. I hope they work well because with chronic pain it is hard to sit still for long.

I also just got a Bupropion prescription to help me stop smoking.

I hate taking pills.

Jake

Really, how well do they check things like prescriptions? I have been heard to get a letter from the VA hospital for my prescriptions and have them translated into Russian. Another $100. I would really not like to have to spend that money if possible on a certified translator.

When I called Russian embassy they said to just have letter in english. Ukraine embassy said to have letter in english translated in to Russian by a certified translator.

I have faxed them this time to verify given what the Russian Embassy said. Not heard back yet.

VA Hospital prescriptions are for Morphine for chronic pain from nerve damage.

Jake

Good for you. One day I hope to be doing the same.

I have another question. What is best to tell Ukraine government/customs? That I am on vacation or visiting someone?

I checked. It was more to drive round trip as fly to the overseas flight. My daughter can drive me to Cedar Rapids, IA airport which is only 20 miles.

It was $100 more to fly from Cedar Rapaids, IA to Chicago, IL round trip. By the time I drive and pay parking for a month it would be more than the $100.

What people say does not deter her or me. It is just disappointing to me that some people are the way they are. In this day and age of commerence and the internet, to be so closed minded borders barbaric. My lady and I are pretty well set in our path.

I have taken care of the ATM debit card and credit cards. The best exchange rates there will be at banks, which she will take care of.

What is everybodys opinion of travel insurance?

Jake

I had talked to my bank about using my ATM Visa Debit card over in the Ukraine. I know the bank president (not only is he a jerk but unprincipled and unethical as well) and he just called me telling me I was better off using my credit card over there. Not only do I think he is wrong because I have never had a problem with my debit card at an ATM, but have had to replace my credit card twice in the last three months because somebody at someplace I have used it tried to buy ####### with it.

He then proceeded to tell me about how I might get locked out if I try to use the internet overseas to transfer money from my checking to the credit card. All that tells me is they do not have a handle on all this technology yet.

But what I am wanting to rant about is his attitude about going overseas to see a woman.

I am sick of peoples attitudes toward going overseas to see a woman. It just ticks me off when they are so closed minded. You just want to say that kind of attidtude is exactly why there are not any good women available here. I just get so tired of closed mind opinionated small minded people. What is worse is it comes from people that are so jaded themselves they can not see right from wrong or anything but their own wants and needs. They are like a virus that spreads BS ruining everything for everybody.

Jake

I just finished my evening email session with her. She said they are starting to close schools for the flu in western Ukraine.

I asked her about it a month ago and she didn't know anything about it. And I thought our press kept things from us.

She became very worried about closing airports and me not being able to make the trip. I told I would make it any way I could. She wanted me to dig a tunnel if I had to. I think she wants me there now!

I have scheduled this trip to spend 1 month to the day with her.

When I called the state dept of health about any required shots and prescription letter I talked to a woman there that had worked in Ukraine for 3 years. She told me about the bottled water and that she had gotten the intestinal bug twice while there.

All of my flights are 1 hour or more between flights. One on each leg is 1 hour and 55 minutes. I believe it is the warsaw to chicago flight.

Originally my lady wanted me to come on a weekend so she could meet me at the airport. After much debate on flights and when to come, I am getting there on a weekend. She will meet me at the airport. I will make sure she has enough money to take care of everything until I can get to a bank.

Two hours for a meal?!? I will not be able to sit that long. That is a damn long time for food. I would not tolerate that here. There is other things to do.

I have noticed the general tone over there of what I would call lack of exactness. I will ask her about bus schedule times so we can make connections with the buses. She will say they are good on this or that day! I get the impression they are not as multitasking and tight scheduled as we are. And I have lived in some remote places!

But with her meeting me, I will rely on her to get us back to her place. I just can not imagine how I am going to survive the 3 hour bus ride sitting next to her! By the time we get to her place I am sure I will need a hot bath in which to soak.

I am not worried about anything and plan on just having fun with her. In and out of the apartment. It is really kind of funny. I can always tell when she is about to want to go to bed. We will email back and forth until about 1/2 hour before she wants to go to bed. At about that time she will start playing and throwing hints. Being coy and suggestive at the same time.

At the end, I was playing with her and told her she better back up all this talk. Of course she did not respond to that one.

The women reading this will play dumb, but you guys know what I am talking about.

She thinks it is funny that I keep track. But it has been 6 weeks and 2 days since we met online and we have 2,447 emails so far.

Jake

It is set in stone now! I have talked to the travel agent and paid for my ticket. The total is 1,153 dollars round trip to Odessa. I paid a little more because I do not have more than 2 hours between flights (layovers) coming or going. And I am flying into Odessa where she wanted to meet me. It was only 50 dollars more for Odessa rather than Kiev. It is United out of Iowa and LOT to Poland and Odessa.

I am staying one month. Leaving Nov 7 and returning Dec 6. I have heard that the high taxes and fees are due to health insurance coverage, etc if anything happens to you in the country. Can anyone verify that?

I started off this ticket search with a local agent. I booked with a travel agent because I wanted to keep the busness local. The cheapest airfare was with cheaptickets.com. But it seems they bait and switch. last night I was once again playing with the flight search and noticed the difference between days. So I kept playing with it until I got the best fare. It was 963 dollars round trip to Odessa on the cheapest days. Then I called the agent back and she returned my call this afternoon with 100 dollars higher. I decided to go with cheaptickets.com but when I went to order the ticket I got that it was no longer available. It suggested another flight at 1,173 dollars. So I went back and started over and it gave me 1,483 dollars. It sounded like a scam so I ate another 100 dollars and booked with the agent. It is the exact same flights I was going to take on cheaptickets.com.

So much for online airline tickets.

To bad this forum doesn't let you edit later or delete posts. I probably should have worded my post differently.

Sorry for the confusion.

I know all the visa info. I was looking for some opinions on the K-1 verse K-3 verses CR-1 particulars and why a person would marry there if it takes longer to bring them back to the states.

No, there is no time limit she has placed on anything.

Of course it bothers me we are apart. But it seems to be bothering her more. I was inquiring for peoples ideas on coping with being apart in an effort to help her. How people have devised different methods for coping. Some way to help her feel more secure and confident in this entire process. She has no family alive for support except a niece in distant Moscow, she lives in southern Ukraine.

Jake

Hello:

I am about to make my first trip to Ukraine to see the woman with which I have been communicating. I am 61 and she is 54. We are pretty serious. Depending on when I go over to see here we may also go to her nieces for Xmas. I will be staying with her, in her apartment for 25 days.

I understand the increased total fees for the K-1 and the increased wait time for K-3/Cr-1.

I have heard there is no formal engagement with an engagement ring over there like there is here in the states. Is this true?

If it is true there is no engagement period over there, is there another way to formally commit over there before marriage?

My aim is to make the visa wait time more tolerable for her. That she has some assurance and peace of mind.

Do most eastern european women seem to settle doen after the first meeting?

Say I take the needed documents with me to marry over there. My question is this, if we decide to marry in Ukraine what is the wait time for the local marriage license, etc and process in Nikolaev?

While I was writing this my passport arrived and now she wants me to come over to see here November 6 instead of the Xmas holiday when she would have 10 days off. She is very anxious for us to be together. I have convinced her that we should sleep on it because we do not have to decide today. I think it would be better over the holidays, but I also do not want her to cool off. I have asked her how she will tolerate the 6 months of wait during the visa. She has not answered.

We are giving Skype a try tomorrow evening.

Anybody got any answers, opinions or ideas?

Jake

Where you may be running in to problems is in what you said. There are adapters and there are converters. Adapters just change the plug from theirs to ours. Converters not only change the plug, but also drop the voltage down to our 110v.

Those electric mattress pads can be good for aching joints sometimes.

The 7 roses I had delivered to her were $59. By the time you paid high prices for the roses there was also a delivery fee, and then some other fee. It was $59. And they were the cheapest ones I could find on the internet! Some of the florists on the internet wanted a couple hundred dollars to deliver a dozen roses.

I am not to sure how far she lives from the bus station. I was hoping to get a cab and have him stop by a florist on the way to her place and by a single rose.

She has told me and hinted at her preferences in men. She does not prefer the laid back man or the aaggressive man. She likes the confident take charge man. She told me one man from England came over and was slow, laid back but deliberate. She said he kissed her on the check and she felt like his daughter even though he was only 2 years older.

At one time before she told me this, I suggested since I was the guest in her country and her apartment I would let her make the first move, being the considerate fellow that I am. I got the distinct impression that did not go over to well. Then this story came out.

I may be a man and an idiot (for the women reading this), but I told her the englishman was an idiot. I told her when I meet her I would take her face in my hands and kiss her on the lips. That she liked.

The englishman was an idiot. Kissing a woman that you are interested in on the check is like the kiss of death in the mafia.

It is amazing how many men do not have the faintist clue of anything about women.

I will tell you something that will shock you. I think men marry for love more than women!

Men are goal minded. Thats also why we are described as narrow minded. We have goals and we take the shortest route toward the goal. We have blinders on until we get to that goal. We tend to not notice things that are not part of the plan to the goal. Sound familar? Now you know why men do not notice things like the wife making a small change to her hair.

Women on the other hand are shorter term thinkers. They think about everything at the same time in the here and now. That is why they are better at multitasking jobs like raising kids or telephone operators (proven fact). They can do more things at once then men.

I have never met a man that got married just to be married or for convience. It has always been love. I have seen men be absolute jerks and run out on women after the woman worked to put him through college. But they were not married. He never loved her.

But I have seen women marry for reasons other than love. It was several years after I was married to my now deceased wife that she told me she thought I was a hunk and liked me when we got married, but didn't love me until after we were married for a while (I told you I had lived it).

A woman weighs the pros and cons and thinks about everything and then comes up with an answer. It may not be love but to them it is just as good a reason. It really gets strange in the really cold climates like Montana or Alaska. I have seen women move in with men that my dog would not sleep with just to have a warm place for the winter.

Now you know why men and women shake their heads at some of the things the other does. We are on two completely different wavelengths.

The reason women can remember, what seems like everything, is they are more emotional than men and tie their memories to their emotions. It has the effect of burning it into their memory.

You have seen people go through a bad experience and do a complete 180 degrees in their tolerance of something or their thinking. Same thing on a much greater scale.

The important thing to all of this is to celebrate the differences between men and women rather than be befuddled by it.

Sorry for all the babbling.

Jake

The train fare to Moscow she got off the internet. She did not say if it was first class or not.

She said she would take care of my Russian visa. If I remember corectly you have to have an invite and they also have to say you will be lodging there.

Of the several pictures I have seen of Ukraine and Russian kitchens not one of them had a microwave or a dishwasher. And very little counter space.

About a week after we first met online I sent here flowers. 7 roses. That fits with your advise. I do not think any of her other past suitors had ever sent her flowers. She was quite surprised even though I had told her. When you order them from the US, Ukrainian flowers are expensive.

I have already sent her a couple of things. One was a 4 CD audio english flashcard course. I also sent her an simple to use inexpensive digital camera. It took 17 days to get there. I was going to send her something else but she said to buy her a coat or sweater instead. I told her it was not an either or thing, she could have both. I am not sure she understood.

I have never seen a woman that did not like flowers or something to make them warmer in bed.

I offered to bring her an electric mattress pad. If you have not used one they are like an electric blanket only the heat is from underneath you. My deceased wife would turn it on in the winter time about 30 minutes before she went to bed, then turn it off when she got into bed. Made the bed toasty for her cold feet.

In the translation she thought it was for me. She said she did not want me to bring thick luggage and she would go to bed first to warm it up for me. That was one nice gesture! Only it was supposed to be for her. We have gotten to the point of just saying "bad translation" and letting it go at that on some things.

When I go I am going to take a DVD player with some DVDs so she can hear more english. Her TV will accept an NTSC signal.

Whatever I send or take her I have to be mindful that it will be left behind if she comes to the US.

Jake

Please notice when I was talking about buildings and slave labor I said european buildings, meaning central and western europe where most american tourists go on vacation. I did not say eastern european.

The flights I checked where the ticket had Odessa as the final destination was only $100 more round trip.

If she were to meet at the airport I would end up losing days with her because I would have to arrive on a weekend.

When I checked airfare to go to Moscow (niece fror xmas) from Kiev the train was $110 per person one way. That is $440 for the round trip for both. I checked airfare and it was $320 round trip for both of us.

The suggestions I was looking for was coping when I am here and she is there.

She is anxious for me to go to Ukraine and see her. So anxious she at times wants me to come ASAP instead of the planned holiday trip (I am still waiting for my passport). I think later she would regret it if I came sooner rather than later were I am to meet her niece and family over xmas in Moscow.

If everything goes well, the 6 months will be a long time during the K-1. I will probably have to make at least one more trip. I wish I could stay most of that time, but it is beyond my control to stay more than 25 days at a time.

I have been in a few foreign countries. I do not need to be entertained. Besides she has a small remodel job I might want to get involved in. I also have a notebook with text to speech. Type english and it speaks russian. I am not worried about anything. Any place I go will be by cab. I have heard you have to agree on price before you actually sit in the cab.

Jake

Thanks for the tip on Odessa Executive Suites. I made a note of it.

The biggest problem I have so far is getting used to the time difference. Sometimes I do not know if I am coming or going. What I mean is I have a clock on one of my monitors that shows her time. I go by that a lot so I can greet her in the morning before she goes to work and when he gets home after work. Sometimes we spend anywhere from 2 to 4 hours at a time emailing each evening. So when it is time for to go to work I think I will go do some things in town and I turn around and it is the middle of the night. When she goes to bed it is early afternoon for me. It just gets confusing sometimes. Then there is the constant calculating of when I need to do something and I have to tell her I will not be at home at certain time to talk to her.

When I first get there about the middle of December she will be working during the day. Any sight seeing will probably be done on weekends. It will also be winter there so that limits some things. After new year she has 10 days off.

I think she is pretty tired after a day at work. I do not think we will do a lot at first. She says she has never had Chinese foods so we may just go out to dinner some until her days off.

I am not into seeing big central government buildings or the grand european buildings. Most people want to go see them. But I think back to those days of slave labor and wonder how the workers were treated building those monuments to some dictators ego.

From what I have noticed prices are cheap compared to the states for basic items. Except for imported items, they seem more expensive than here. It seems a lot of the people in Ukraine do not ever have enough money to get past the basics. That is my observations so far. Am I wrong?

Anybody got good ideas on how to cope with the time apart?

I will ask her if she got her webcam going with skype.

Jake

Sorry about the double post earlier. I had my main computer hiccup and it didn't post right away.

I live in rural Iowa (kind of) and word of mouth here can be pretty fast sometimes. I have learned of about two dozen couples living in the area. Also it seems there is a community of about 10,000 Russians in Chicago.

I am getting Skype setup on my end. She has had it, but not setup correctly, so she can communicate with her niece in Moscow.

I think it will help with any home sickness if things progress.

Nikolaev, Ukraine.

It seems strange to me that a city of one half million people does not have an airport.

I am trying to get a decent flight in to Odessa because it is only a 3 hour bus ride to Nikolaev instead of the 6 hour bus or 12 hour train from Kiev.

Jake,

Thanks for the additional information. It looks to me like you are approaching things in a thoughtful, balanced way in spite of the time frame you outlined earlier. If I may ask, what city are you going to visit? Definitely stay in touch.

Nikolaev, Ukraine.

It seems strange to me that cities of a half million people do not have airports.