Day 4: The Plot Thickens.
Today I was scheduled to meet some more new girls that I had been interested in, as well as Zhanna, one of the top girls from my 1st trip that I was really excited to see. After only a couple of days, I was starting to see that now that my approach was better and my head "was in the game" I was having much better success. I was going to be meeting a 32 year old woman and a few younger women, including Zhanna and Valeria today. I thought that this would be a crucial day because I was down to about 4 - 5 new girls from my list. I was determined not to go looking through the books again to find more women. I believed that my list was good, and I already had an inkling that one of the ladies from this trip would become my fiance. Which one it would be I was not sure, but I was feeling confident.
My 1st date of the day, Ekaterina, was a no-show, so there is not much to say about her other than I was not that disapponted and had already made the decision that any girl that was a no-show would not be rescheduled.
My 2nd date of the day, Dina, was an interesting woman that I wanted to meet because she was not only very beautiful, but also had a young daughter and had also been to America before on a K-1 Fiancee Visa. I knew that she would be extremely motivated in the program, especially because she had gone through the process once before to come to America, and her seriousness was evident from her letters to me. Dina showed up to the office at 12:00 and we chose to go for a walk then have some lunch across the street at Fortuna. You may have noticed that I went to Fortuna a lot. The main reason is because it is directly across the street from the office and is convenient when you want to get away from the office. Because I was insistent on trying to limit the time spent in the Interview Room at the office, and I was hungry anyway, so I figured some dumplings, caviar and a salad sounded good.
Talking to Dina, I quickly realized that this woman was just about everything I would want in a wife. She was sweet, caring, very intelligent, could hold a conversation with me (not an easy task, mind you), not to mention very beautiful. I asked her many important questions because I wanted to learn more about her daughter's experience in America and how she liked it. I also wanted to know from her what her expectations were for a life together in America if we were to match. She told me that basically she was looking for a nice man to share her life with who would be a good husband and father, would not cheat on her, and would be there for her as her "wall" as she called it. I learned that many Russian women want their husbands to be their protection and source of strength (their wall), and Dina was no different in wanting a strong man who was decisive and knew what he wanted. Here was a woman who was telling me that she wanted me to be the "Man" in the marriage and believed that her role was to support me while I was the strong person in the relationship. You have no idea how good this made me feel to realize that a woman as beautiful as her thought that I should be the source of strength in the marriage and that she wanted no competition in the marriage. She knew that she wanted to stay at home and raise her duaghter, and that her husband should be a man that could be relied upon to take care of her and her daughter. This was a woman who definitely knew what she wanted and was in no hurry to say "yes" to the next man who asked her to come to the States. Believe me, this was very refreshing to hear, and I figured that since she was my same age (32), women around this age would maybe feel this same way. I already had met Olga, Natalia and now Dina (all women 28 or older) and noticed the huge maturity difference between them and the younger girls that I was also dating. I think others would agree on this board that there is a world of difference between a 20 year old woman and a 25 year old woman.
I really, really liked Dina very much and immediately told Natasha that I wanted to see her again tomorrow. Although I had met other wonderful women so far on my trip, this was the 1st woman who genuinely wanted me to be the strong one in the marriage and showed an interest in me as her support. We scheduled another date for the next day and I told Dina that I would see her again tomorrow.
My next date was at 4:00 with Alina, a new girl to the program who was very beautiful and a singer. I liked her profile and wanted to meet her. When she arrived at the office, we went to have tea and talk. She was a very fascinating woman. mainly because she was Jewish and had lived for several years in Israel. As my father is Estonian and is Jewish, I thought that we would have many interesting things to talk about. My general impression of her however was that she was a nice girl but that I was not the man she was looking for in the program. We had a nice time but I decided that we would not see each other again. When I asked my interpreter about her, Natasha mentioned that she thought I made a good choice.
I am a firm believe that a client in LTP should really listen to their interpreters when asking for advice about a girl. Remember, many of these interpreters have been with the agency for a long time, know how the program works, and also know how to be successful in finding a nice woman to marry. Many of the interpreters also have personal knowledge of some of the girls, and thus, can give the guy an unbiased opinion about a girl. I was going to listen to Helen and Natasha and take their advice as much as possible.
After Alina, the last 2 dates of the day were with Zhanna and Valeria. I was happy to be seeing both of these ladies tonight, because I thought that maybe I would know more about their seriousness about me and whether either of them would be a possible match for me. Zhanna was going to be at the office at 5:00 and Valeria and I had dinner reservations at 8:00. I wanted a lot of time with each girl, and since this was not a 1st date, I wanted to lengthen my dates with girls I already knew.
Zhanna showed up about 5 minutes late but believe me, I didn't mind when she showed up. She looked great and smiled right away when we saw each other. We gave each other a big hug and decided to go for a walk and talk. As an interpreter in the office, we did not need Helen for this date, so it was just Zhanna and I. From a pure looks standpoint, I think that Zhanna, along with Oksana and Natalia, were the prettiest girls I had met so far in the program. Zhanna and I talked about what was happening in our lives, how we felt about each other, and whether I would be wasting my time with her as a possible match. Zhanna told me that she was "not ready" to talk about these things, so we just enjoyed each other's company. Of course I would have liked to know more, but I was not going to push right away. We spent 2 hours together just walking around, stopping to have some tea after about an hour. Zhanna is an absolutely wonderful woman who I know I could match with if I really wanted to pursue her and knew that she was interested in me. I told Zhanna that I wanted to see her again, and that as soon as she was available (she had many exams) so that we could have more fun together. I was not sure just where her head was at, but I wanted to take the time to see because I think that we have many things in common and our personalities are very similar. I was not about to make any major decisions, but I knew that Zhanna was someone that I was serious about as a possible match.
My final date for the evening was with Valeria, one of the main reasons I came back to Tver so soon. Although I had to reschedule our date, I wanted to see her to know definitively whether she was a girl I could see myself marrying. Helen was to be our interpreter, and since Helen and Valeria were comfortable with each other from my 1st trip, this would hopefully be a good night.
Valeria arrived at the office at 8:00 and we left for the Zebra Club to have sushi. I occasionally like Sushi, but since Valeria had never had sushi before, I thought this would be nice. She looked very beautiful and smiled and held my hand often. I wanted to ask Valeria many questions and see just how serious she was about me, so I immediately began asking very important questions. I also wanted to ask her why she thought that I had only come to see her. Helen would be the perfect interpreter for the evening because she was very good at putting women at ease on dates, so I was very happy that she was with Valeria and me.
I learned throughout the evening that she was indeed very serious about me and wanted to get serious with me, as she saw me as her future "second half." I liked Valeria very much but I was not ready to make a decision about who I would match with until at least a few more days. Helen excused herself to the restroom and had Valeria come with her. I knew that this was "girl talk" and I was very interested in learning later just what was said. Our dinner ended around 10:00 and I took Valeria home, and when I walked her to the door of her apartment building, she gave me a big kiss. Unlike Oksana who was a little uncomfortable about affection, for Valeria this was no problem.
When Helen and I were in the cab, I asked her right away what her about they had talked about in the Ladies' room and what she thought of the date. Helen told me that Valeria really, really liked me very much and wanted to match with me, but did not understand why I was seeing other girls. Helen explained to her that because she had cancelled on me a few times, as well as rescheduled a few other dates, I was not sure about how she felt about me. Helen told her that I liked her very much as well, but that I was unsure about her. I think that once Valeria had talked to Helen and she explained everything to her about me, Valeria felt much better and we were able to get over the uneasiness and nervousness that had been part of our evening.
Here I was, with Oksana, Zhanna, Valeria, Dina and Natalia who I really liked, and a few other girls that I still had yet to meet. I wanted to start narrowing down my list, and it was beginning to expand, not get smaller. I had much thinking to do, and I wanted to start thinking about which girl I wanted to be with the rest of my trip.
Now, sure, I still had 4 weeks left, so why start narrowing my list down right now, right? Well, one of the best pieces of advice that I got from Witchdoc and others on this board was that I lacked a sense of urgency on my last trip, and that negatively affected my success in the program. I made up my mind too late and chose the wrong girl for me, and I was determined not to make this same mistake. I wanted to start shortening my list, therefore I would have to start focusing on a couple of girls, with the hope that after 2 weeks, I would know which girl I wanted to be my fiancee.
I got home and went to bed around 12:30 after watching some World Cup replays. I had been following much of the World Cup, and because Russia was in the World Cup, people in Tver were really excited to see how their team would do. I had a full day tomorrow with 5 dates, so I wanted to get a good night's sleep.
