Trip Report pt 2

After running my ad with Jack through First Dream it was not long before the e mails started to come in steadily. All in all I figured I must have gotten about 60+ e mails. many I discarded right away as they were just not what I was looking for. I DID respond to them & let them know though. I don't think it's cool to not respond. I did NOT write any Russians etc. STRICTLY Ukrainians. I had one girl with which it appeared to be "working" out pretty good then one day I got a letter from her saying her ex boyfriend was back & was going to kill himself because she was leaving him for an American. LOL!!! Crazy. All sorts of freaks. However MANY sincere & beautiful ladies. Then one day in late Feb or perhaps early March I went to my postal suite & picked up my FIRST letter via regular snail mail. I opened it & there was a short letter & a picture of what was to be my now wife. She looked beautiful. It was a picture of her from school (college) with 2 guys. She looked beautiful. Like of like Catherine Zeta Jones to me in that pic. I thought very nice but perhaps too young. I liked her letter though. She was VERY straight forward which I REALLY like in a lady & she said "I think we should meet. I think we could be good together." I thought that was funny but I liked it. I responded via an interpretor. I would e mail him my letter & in turn he would mail her the letter. She had no access to internet. She wrote TWO letters within 2 days & included a phone #. I called her immediately & she was stunned & literally at a loss for words when I first called her. However after a couple calls she felt confortable. She is VERY fluent in English & can read it as well. Very much a plus.
We quickly got the the meath & did NOT beat around the bush. She had just come out of a prior marriage & we both discussed our previous marriages, failures, & subsequent divorces. We were both still very much in pain but hoping to find someone.
In this time I received quite a bit more letters via regular mail. None of which I responded to. I also know that Galina/First Dream received several over there as well which I never did get to see.
I had nailed my seach down to about 5 girls. Slowly things worked themselves out. One VERY attractive brunnette could NOT speak English thus we needed a translator. I paid for one months letters but in the end I figured regardless of how beautiful she was & how interesting the seemed the language barrier realistically would be TOO much to overcome.
THen finally on May 8th I purchased my tickets to go to Ukraine. I had 2 girls Diana (my wife) & another lady Katya from Chernigov (24 years old) who were VERY much the front runners. I planned on seeing them both plus whatever others First Dream had that appealed to me from the letters over there. However fate stepped in. The day after, May 9th, I received a call to audition for Jennifer Pena's band. They needed a guitarist ASAP for a tour. I got the call Friday & by Sunday was in Corpus Chrisit auditioning. To make a long story short I nailed the audition & the FOLLOWING week did my debut gig with her in Indiannapolis the weekend of the Indy 500!!! Very fast. I quit my job at the store & informed my students I was leaving on tour. I never told the girls I had purchased my ticket so as to not disappoint. BOTH were very encouraging about my career move. As the date for my departure drew near I was VERY upset with band management. I was NOT getting paid adequately at all. I was supposed to get $450 per week, giggin weekends only which meant I could still teach. However that was NOT the case. IN additon I did NOT get paid $450. in reality I NEVER GOT PAID that!!! I started with $350 & then after a huge gig in Mexico during a tour in Mexico got a check for $300!!? I figured we were going backwards here man. So I gave the band an ultimatum. They responded with having a Mexican guitarist interesting in auditioning & playing for less. I said "go for it! I'm leaving for Ukraine". I guess they did NOT believe me because 2 days before I left they called me if I was ready for Chicago. I aid "I"m outta here I"m going to Ukraine". THey were stunned. I guess they thought I was joking. My tour had left me to NOT purchase a visa as I felt I would NOT be going to Ukraine due to tour schedule. So I had to rush order a visa for a whopping $300. I also missed my departure date but kept the return tickets. In any case I left on a really bad shoestring budget of a whopping $240!! Yes, that's $240 NOT $2,400. Not sure why I did that other than I'm a crazy musician & I was pissed. Diana had offered me to stay at her house as had Katya so I needed not pay any rent. I also figured I would see how they would respond. Would they be happy to see me or would they think I was a leech & a bum?!