Couple of newbie questions

[Cain]

How's it going everybody.  I was wondering, is "A Foreign Affair"(www.loveme.com) a good source of contacts for FSUW?  Also, is it a good idea to address your letters in english?  AFA claims that letters addressed in english arrive at their destination just fine, but it seems to me that that would just be an invitation for Ukranian postal workers to dig through your letter.  I know discussions on this forum are typically about more advanced stages of the persuit, but I figured that you guys would know best.  Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

-cain

p.s. I apologize if this message appears twice, I tried to post it about five minutes ago...it might just be a delay.

[Cain]

... in response to Couple of newbie questions, posted by Cain on Jun 11, 2002

I said n/t

[Ramblin]

... in response to Couple of newbie questions, posted by Cain on Jun 11, 2002

Yes, AFA is as good a source as any.  I met my fiance through AFA and have corresponded with other ladies through them.  However, do not expect 100% success on every address.  Some of them are old and some of them are undeliverable and sent back to you like if the lady moved or something.  Paste the cyrillic under the English if you can, if it is one of the ones that doesn't come with cyrillic when they e-mail you the address then don't worry about it.  What the other poster said about the AFA ladies getting tons of letters is true, so make yours stand out with the two most important ingredients:  sincerity, and a definite timeframe to travel there.  Tell the lady when your next vacation is and that you hope to get to know her better through letter writing until you are able to meet her face to face.  If you don't sound sincere or do not mention plans to travel there, then your letter will go in the circular file with the other hundreds.

[Oscar]

... in response to Couple of newbie questions, posted by Cain on Jun 11, 2002

Cain,

I really have to agree with Rags on the "Personal Ad" thing..  That is also how I found my girl..  I have tried different approaches to all this and it is "my opinion" that the personal ad is the best way to go..  Far fewer scammers, very sincere girls, who often have never set foot in an "agency"..

My 2 cents

[Richard]

... in response to Couple of newbie questions, posted by Cain on Jun 11, 2002

I can't comment on A Foreign Affair (www.loveme.com) because I haven't used them.

I will comment on addressing your letters:  I would address them in cyrillic if at all possible.  While a letter addressed in English *may* get there, it would  get there faster addressed in Cyrillic as all of the postal workers over there will be able to read it.

One hint: write the name of the country that the letter is going to in English so that workers in this country have no problem sorting it and sending it to the proper country.

[Rags]

... in response to Re: Couple of newbie questions, posted by Richard on Jun 11, 2002

Yes you must write it in Cyrllic or it only has maybe a 5% chance to be delivered. Usually it will only make it to Moscow and get turned around (or put in the round file). Don't be too quick to blame dishonest postal workers. How many USPS people do you think can read Cyrillic?

The proper format is:

Country - City code
City name
Street name - street number/apt number
Last name - First name
Country name (in English for USPS)

IMHO, forget writing to ladies from the large companies (EC, AFA, Anastasia). If you're a silver tongued devil who looks like Brad Pitt you may get a 20% response rate of which 80% will be scammers.

I would try doing a personal advertisement and see what comes back if I were you (actually I did do this but found my Love before I had a chance to write these ladies back). Your money will be better spent as the ladies who respond will be interested in you (for good or bad) and you will cut down considerably on the percentage of scammers who reply.

Check out what Jack has written about personal ads on his site firstdreamdotcom.

[BrianN]

... in response to Re: Address format and comment..., posted by Rags on Jun 11, 2002

When you mail to Russia, or the FSU, then write the address in Cyrillic.

You must right "RUSSIA" in english on the bottom of it, so the dumb-azz go postal people know that it's to go somewhere else besides alabama.

Then when it gets to russia, all they have to deal with is their own language, not two versions, and not english.

If your lady addressed a letter to you in Wyoming, written in cyrillic... do you think good old Joe Postal is going to understand it?  (don't even start on the russian english postal worker thing).

ughhh.. Anyway thanks Rags.  I feel like a normal person again.

[MarkInTx]

... in response to Couple of newbie questions, posted by Cain on Jun 11, 2002

Opinions vary on where to get addresses.

My personal opinion is that AFA is too widely circulated, and the women are gettign too many letters from men now.

I liked the way Scanna was laid out (even though they are owned by Anastasia, so many of the women are in both...)

Smaller, boutique shops like Firstdream have a smaller selection of ladies, but they have been screened better that a large site, and they don't have as many men writing them.

Then there are sites like Lifetime Partners, and a Kherson Rose, who sell memberships as opposed to addresses. The advantage with this is that the ladies are not deluged with letters, and when you go there, the agency will help you set up dates with its ladies (many of whom are not on the web...) The disadvantage, of course, is that you have limited your search to one very small geographic region early on...

As for addresses...

There is no way you can avoid having English on your envelope, since it has to get out of the United States first. I was always told to put the address in English and Cyrillic, and that always seemed like a good idea.

Many of the women now have email access which saves you some of this trouble. (I made it a policy after a year of looking to not write to any woman who didn't have Internet access. To each his own... I just couldn't wait two weeks between letters...)

[Richard]

... in response to Re: Couple of newbie questions, posted by MarkInTx on Jun 11, 2002

One comment on limiting yourself to women with internet access:  I met a woman that did not have internet access when I met her but got access as the relationship developed. (She did this on her own initiative.)

Personaly, I wouldn't rule out anyone without access initialy as internet access can be added later as the relationship develops. I should state I hoped on a plane and met her as a result of a personal add; the letters started after we me, not before.

[MarkInTx]

... in response to Re: Re: Couple of newbie questions, posted by Richard on Jun 11, 2002

Yes... and this is an option.

But insisting on a woman with internet access also acted as a bit of a filter: typically, younger, more educated women will have internet access. Also, since the "world-wide web" is dominated by English Language sites, most of them have at least some interest in, or understanding of, English... which is another reason I like the internet access "filter."

But... you are quite right, there are many wonderful women who don't have internet access only because they have never felt the need, and once they meet the man of their dreams, they will get access.

I have said it before, and will keep saying it, I don't have a magic formula. What I did worked for me... and a lot of it was Luck...

I hope everyone finds the way that works for them...