For those that don't know, I am posting my trip report with Lifetimepartners on Spencer's rw forum. I now post the first five chapters here. You can go over to those forums to read the rest, or if enough of you want me to, I will post it here.
Squirecam
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Tver Trek Episode I – The Phantom report
Ok folks. For those three or four of you who would actually read it, this post begins my trip report on lifetime partners in Tver. While the actual report will not begin yet, I wanted to set the stage with some thoughts and ground rules for my report.
First, the rules…
a)With extremely limited exceptions, I will not post names, first or last, of any of the ladies I met while in Tver. Nor will I delve into great detail on many of the dates either. I’m sure most of you don’t actually care one way or the other about this, but for those who do, I’m telling you up front so I don’t get any remarks requesting such information in the future. If, for a good reason you would like to know such information, (such as you are in the program, you are going soon, and want to know if she no-showed me), send me a private email.
b)This report is about my trip, not Greg. Don’t ask questions about his trip, my thoughts on his trip, my thoughts on Thomas or his trip, what Thomas or Greg look like ect. I’m not going to answer them. Just like I am respecting the ladies privacy, I am respecting theirs. If you want to know what Greg did or did not do on his trip, ask him.
c)I am not affiliated with LTP. I am not a relative, friend, drinking buddy, or shill for Doc Woody, and I gain no financial interest for anything positive I say about the program. Similarly, I do not hate or have a vendetta against LTP, I do not own a competing agency, and gain no financial incentive for any negative comments I may make regarding LTP. My comments and experiences are for your (the reader’s) benefit only.
d)My report shall contain my experiences with LTP, thoughts on the program both good and bad, and what I thought I did right and wrong. It will likely contain references to stupid tv shows, WWII, and other crap I seem to like. If you don’t like the way I write it, find another thread. No one has a gun to your head, forcing you to read this anyway.
e)This report will be made in the trip reports area for 2 reasons. First, it belongs there. (duh) Second, though I am a moderator, I do not moderate the trip report forum. Therefore, I will not delete the posts of those who criticize my report. All I ask is that constructive criticism/questions be used. I leave it to B/B to handle the rest.
Initial thoughts prior to going to Tver…
Just so you all know, I am 31, and never married. I was engaged to an AW, but we never did marry. Despite this, I have no “hatred” of AW. I went to Tver because I believed I could find a “soulmate” there. I read up on the program both here and on the site, spoke or emailed some people who had taken the trip ahead of me, and made the decision to go. I paid full price, did not have a cameraman, and had no special help except what any normal joe would get from the program.
I wrote to some of the ladies prior to going to Tver. Some more than others, some not at all. I will give my thoughts on letter writing later on as well.
My “wish list” was 30 or so ladies, give or take. I had a pre-trip “top 5”, and I was hoping I would match with one of these 5. As it turns out, for reasons which will become quite clear later on, this was not to be. My wish list contained ladies from 18-30, with both women with and without children. Though some were “out of my league”, I thought pre-trip that my list was realistic for me. I did not date all 18-19 year old hotties.
This was my first trip to Russia, and first using a marriage agency. I read war and peace (Thomas’ report "TYPE=PICT;ALT=[Razz]"), and other reports prior to going, and I hoped to avoid some mistakes which were made by the veterans ahead of me.. My opinions, thoughts, and the eventual conclusions are not right or wrong. They are just mine. Feel free to disagree.
Squirecam
1.
Tver Trek Episode II – The Wrath of Aeroflot
I used Aeroflot airlines to travel to Tver. The flight left on Wednesday and would return in two weeks on a Saturday, giving me more time than just the standard 7 to 10 day trip. The trip over on Aeroflot was actually not that bad, despite the 13 hours it took. The lines at passport control were horrible however. It took about two hours to get through passport control. Although I had thought of using the “vip” service prior to going, a lot of the people I asked said that it was not needed. I guess it just depends on whether you want to wait or not.
While in line at passport control, I met two other guys who were flying to meet their women. However, both of them were going to visit UW’s instead of RW’s. I mention these two guys, because, as I saw it, they both made the same mistake, and one guy made an additional big mistake.
The first mistake was that they were meeting only one woman, for the first time, and they both had been sending money to their prospective woman prior to meeting them. I was thinking about saying something about this, when I learned of the second mistake. One of the guys had a Russian transit visa. One did not.
From all I know, if you don’t have the visa, you are not getting in. No exceptions. What the second guy had was a ukranian visa, but no Russian visa. He was apparently told that the Russian visa was not necessary because he was just passing through for a later flight. I bit my tongue and hoped for the best for him.
As it turns out, he was ahead of me in line, and as I suspected, passport control sent him upstairs to another area. I told him “good luck”, silently expecting his visit to end very very badly.
The lesson – know the rules before you go. Otherwise, you could fly thousands of miles, only to be sent home. I am not sure, but I don’t believe it is possible to buy a visa there, no matter how much $$$ you have on you. Even if it were, who wants to spend most of their traveling cash to bribe a visa at the last second?
After a long flight and wait at passport and customs, I finally met one of my interpreters for the first time. My trip had actually begun. The next chapter begins with this meeting, and is where the true report finally begins.
Squirecam
Tver Trek - Episode III - And so it begins...
My first glimpse of Moscow was an entire new world to me. It finally dawned on me that I was here in Russia, hopefully to find the person I could share my life with. I was happy to begin the journey, but knew there was a lot of work ahead for me.
As our driver got the car, I took my first opportunity to get to know one of my interpreters. Let me say that I liked both of my interpreters from the beginning. One of the strengths of LTP is the interpreters, and even those who have problems with LTP have nice things to say about them. Over the next few hours, we discussed the next two weeks, and some of the ladies I would be meeting. I was told that we would swing by the office to get my flat keys, and that she would show me how to enter the building and lock my doors. Entering the apartment was somewhat akin to breaking into fort knox. There was one code and three locks. Russians may not always have much, but they protect what they have very securely.
As my flight got in late, I had no dates for that evening. My day started early the next day, so I decided I would just unpack and relax at the flat. My flat actually reminded me of my first apartment, a jr bedroom with a small kitchen and bath. The tv had “7" channels, although 3 of the channels were actually duplicates, reducing my tv viewing options to 4. I left the tv on as I unpacked, getting a glimpse of what programs were offered to Tver residents. I found that even though I could not understand what was said, I was able to get the gist of the movie/show that was on.
My sleep was rather pitiful, as I woke up a few times during the night. I did try to stay up late, but no matter what, my body was wide awake during the middle of the night. Unfortunately, this pattern lasted pretty much my entire trip. With one exception, which will be detailed later, I always seemed to awake when the sun rose, and would have to fight back to sleep, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Some sleeping pills may have been a good idea, although I didnt have any, and thus I just dealt with it.
The office sent the driver, Slava, to pick me up prior to my first scheduled date. Slava is a good driver, which is very necessary in Tver, as there are no regards for safety of pedestrians in Russia. There were also no seat belts, which meant one had to be very careful. I began to warm up to the idea of walking to the office, a practice I used on many mornings, once I learned my way around.
I met my second interpreter, who was going to be with me for the daytime. I did not have much time to get to know her before my first scheduled date. Additionally, I had left at the flat a brochure of my city, which I brought with me to Russia in order to introduce Vegas to the ladies. I would go back for it during the day when I had a break, but I was without it for the first few meetings that day.
My first meeting did not go that well. In truth, she was shy, and that was partly to blame. The other part was that I just sucked. Although I had used an interpreter before in deposing people, never had I used one for dating. There were periods of silence that were just too long, and I instantly realized the value of the crutch the pictures would have provided me. The meeting did end on a nice note, and although I never did “date” her, at least the meeting had introduced me to the process. I considered first meetings as just meetings, and seconds and above as "dates". I was doing better as the day wore on, and after a few days, I could sleepwalk through these first meetings.
Before I continue, I must restate something that Doc had posted during the Thomas thread. Doc wrote:
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You can only do this if you converse in reverse.
This is a cute way of saying, instead of starting with small talk and working your way up the ladder of sensitive and important relationship issues, you start at the top and later on you can do the "small talk". For instance, on the first interview you mention marriage. As I said before, if Thomas had done this initially he would have been down to a select few who verbalized, not just indicated, a sincere desire to get married and move to the US with him and would of had 3 weeks to work on a match or would have gone back the books.
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Let me also say that despite my publicly stated views on “conversing in reverse” as Doc called it, I had decided to ask the ladies, during the first meeting, and early in the meeting, whether they would be able to leave Russia and move to America. Without fail, all of the women I asked this question to said that if they met the right guy, they would move to his country. I never did ask during the first meeting if the “right guy” was me, as I already knew that any sincere lady could not possibly answer this question, as she had just met me. Sometimes, without even asking the question, the ladies indicated that we had just met and it would be hard for them to know their feelings after a brief first meeting. After a first meeting, there is no way that any sincere woman could “indicate a sincere desire to get married and move to the US with [me]”. However, I am not saying don’t ask the question. I’m just saying don’t expect much from the answer.
Whatever else I might say, I remain convinced that even if the question is asked, you won’t get a real answer anyways. Sorry to say this, but the only way your ever going to know the true sincerity and desires of the ladies is the old fashioned way, body language and time. The remaining morning dates went without an interest, either by me or by her. I took the opportunity to grab my brochure, and prepare myself for the later dates. The story picks up from there next time.
Squirecam
Tver Trek - Episode IV - A New Hope
The late afternoon/evening dates provided the first serious opportunities for second dates. As you may recall from the prior report, I can’t say that I was all that comfortable during the morning dates, and there was no chemistry with 2 of the 3 I met. However, beginning with meeting #4, the possibilities started to arrive. For those I had serious interest in, which developed into at least something worth talking about, I will use the politically boring code as RW #__ to identify her.
RW#1 was 26 and never married. She was attractive and had a nice personality with interests similar to my own. Prior to my trip, I believed, and still do, that my best matches would be with those who were “older”. Since I am 31, that was 23 and up. But, I was willing to go the 10 years difference for the right lady. Although I was unsure whether we would have that “chemistry” together, we agreed to meet again, and I had my first scheduled date.
The next meeting, however, totally blew me away. RW #2 was attractive, but her interests better corresponded with mine, and she sounded SO sincere. Unlike RW#1, I had an instant “chemistry” connection with her, and we also scheduled a second date. For the record, a good friend of mine had recommended that she be moved into my upper list, and at this point, I was very glad that I listened to him.
At this point, I was pretty much on top of the world. During my dates, I had told the ladies that I took the program very seriously, that I only wanted to schedule second dates with those who had serious interest in me as well, and that if they did not, then I would not be mad or offended if they did not want to see me again. They would actually be doing me a favor, and not wasting my time. Here it was, on my first day, and I had already found someone I was seriously attracted to and who seemed interested in me as well, plus we had had a great conversation and many mutual interests. My last date was attractive and interesting, but we never had a second date. But I left Day 1 with two possibilities, of which one I felt was a sure “keeper”. My interpreter liked both RW #1 and RW #2 as well, making me much more confident in my choices so far.
SIDENOTE - I never did develop the “chemistry” with RW#1, although she is still a fantastic woman, and I wish her all the best. I always had a great time on our dates, and I wondered “why” I did not feel something more for her. I considered the possibility that #2 had been “so good” in my eyes that I had thus ignored any feelings I could have had for RW#1. And maybe part of this is true. However, I also developed feelings for later women I met, so, to me, RW#2 wasn’t so spectacular that I did not have chemistry with the other girls. However, in retrospect it may have had an influence on the lack of chemistry. I will discuss this issue more in detail later, as the impact and aftermath of RW#2 was a key turning point in my visit.
Jetlag had caught up with me, and I ended the evening early. I was excited about the program now as well, as I could not have asked for day 1 to go any better. I saw no dark clouds on the horizon, and I was so happy and self confident after day 1 that I probably would have ignored any such signals anyway. I went to sleep very happy, and looking forward to day 2.
Squirecam
Tver Trek - Episode V - DNP
Day 2 featured two rescheduled meetings (R’s) for later on in the week, and my first cancellation/no-show, which I will refer to as DNP (did not play). I will have a lot more to say about this subject later on, but I’d like to make a few points about this subject here.
As most of you know by now, during Thomas’ thread, there were observations made by members that Thomas seemed to have a “lot” of DNP’s or R’s. Before I left on my trip, I expected that there would inevitably be some of these occurring during my trip. Of course, I was hopeful that this would occur only infrequently.
Much has also been made of Greg’s concerns with LTP in the amount of reschedules or DNP’s that he may or may not have had. I believe that some even questioned whether these were the ladies fault, or his, because of his “personality” or “looks”.
Let me say that there were 6 or so single guys there during my trip. And all of us experienced the DNP factor at one point or another. This is not an attack at LTP or a defense of Greg. Just a statement that if you go, at some point, you will likely, if not almost certianly, have DNP problems. I have spoken with Doc about it, and he is aware of the problem, and he did seem very interested in hearing my views on how to remedy the situation. My concern was not so much the reschedules, but the DNP’s, which I will again address later on in my report. But after day 2, it was 2 R’s and 1 DNP.
I was thus left with 3 morning/afternoon meetings and one dinner (7:00) meeting. RW#3 came out of the day session. She was a nice sincere woman, with an 8 year old daughter. We scheduled a second date, because we only had a limited time for the first meeting (she had to leave early), and I wanted to further explore her views on parenting with a potential AM husband. In retrospect, I had not thought enough about the prospects of bringing a ready-made family to the US, although I believed I had thought it through before I left. Though I have dated AW with children, I learned that I was not ready (at least during this trip) to make such a commitment.
Dinner was with a pre-trip top 5, and pretty much she turned out to be everything I expected she would be. Of course, this meant no second date, but at least I had a nice dinner with one of the best looking women of Tver. Of course, many people could make the same claim, but hey, this is my report, not theirs.
Day 3 began with RW#4. She is 19, and therefore at the “younger” end of who I imagined I would match with. For being 19, she was more mature than most AW 19's, which was very important to me. But in truth, I think you can tell a significant difference between a mature 19 RW and a mature 22+ RW. However, there are 19 year old RW who are more mature than 22+ RW’s as well. We scheduled a second date to visit some museums for early next week.
My next meeting was a reschedule from yesterday. Nice, but she was shortly on her way to the US (student visa) and no second date. I had another R before my evening 6 and 7 dates. My 6:00 date was with a pre-trip top 5.
My 6 did not show until 6:50. She said that she thought the meeting was for 7. She asked if we could meet at 7, but I told her that I had a 7 scheduled. She looked somewhat disappointed (or was that angry?) But she agreed to wait outside in case my 7 did not show. She also stated that she did not have much time this evening, as she also had some other commitments.
As fate would have it, guess what. My 7 DNP, leaving me a 7:20 interview with one of my pre-trip top 5's. As the interview started, she seemed not to recognize exactly who I was. I certianly knew who she was, and I asked her how her niece was doing, which seemed to ring a bell and clue her in as to who I was. To be honest, I was somewhat shocked that she did not already know who it was she was scheduled to meet.
In any event, the early part of the meeting wet very well. I pulled out the trusty Vegas brochure, and she requested that I sit next to her, and explain the sites in the brochure. I was only too happy to oblige. About 15 minutes into the interview, everything seemed to be going well. In fact, things had been going well the entire trip, despite the DNP’s. I was still king of the world, riding high on an unsinkable luxurious liner, destined for eternal happiness.
But, of course, into every life a little rain must fall. Actually, it was not rain, but Hurricane Andrew. And the iceberg that would soon collide with my happy little ship all started so innocently, it was hard to believe that a simple question seemed to mark the change in my fortunes.
Her question : “Would you go with me to Moscow tomorrow?”
Squirecam
