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Title: Sure is quiet -- How about a trip report? Post by: MarkInTx on June 09, 2002, 04:00:00 AM OK... I am still working on my trip report. But I have a few days of it done now, so I will start posting. A warning before I start: I go into tedious detail, and I apologize to anyone who finds that kind of stuff boring. I write this trip report as much for my own benefit as anything. I want to remember the nuances of my trip later... so I record them all. Some of what I focus on I know only interests me, and I ask for your indulgence... Right now the full report is about 35 singlespace pages in Microsoft Word. (and it's not done yet...) I don't know if you guys really want it all. I might just post a few "chapters" and then put the rest on the web somewhere so I don't take a lot of Patrick's bandwidth. Also, I have some more pictures up at: http://communities.msn.com/TogetherinKiev I will be adding some pictures I took of Kiev as well, so if you are looking for some background stuff, please don't forget to check back there over the next couple of days, because I will be adding to the pictures... Anyway... I have posted a lot of my thoughts and preamble... But to fully understand my mindset, you need to know that last year, I travelled to St. Petersburg, and met a pretty young 23 yeard old Phd student named Maria. Everything had seemed promising as I went to meet her, and we did have a good time, but in the end, I had to realize that she was just not the right person for me... The St. Petersburg trip, which started with such promise, ended up being so discouraging that I almost abandoned my search. Maria had seemed perfect. I loved her letters, and I so very much looked forward to meeting her. Even though Jack kept advising me to line up many dates, I wasn’t really listening. I kept hedging my bet. I kept setting aside extra time for Maria. And, when LOT Airlines Chicago Delay ended up costing me a day in St. Petersburg, I ended up only having enough time to meet two women, and, in my mind, I was only really meeting one. Maria was everything I thought I wanted: Young, pretty, extremely intelligent, and she spoke very good English. She was also very much taken with me, and it became obvious that if I had proposed, she would have said yes. But… when I was honest with myself, I knew she just wasn’t the right one. So… when I came back from Russia, I realized that this whole foreign bride thing was very dicey. I had spent quite a lot of money, a lot of energy, and I had found exactly what most men are dreaming about… A beautiful, intelligent, sincere woman… and she wasn’t the right one. I suddenly saw things in a very different light. I suddenly realized that it could take a very long time to find someone this way. Faced with this realization, I gave up. I decided that it was just too difficult, too expensive, and with no guarantee of success. And that's where things stood just six months ago... Title: Sure..Sounds good..I'll start reading :)) n/t Post by: JR on June 09, 2002, 04:00:00 AM |