Arrival at LAX Nov 2014

[calmissile]

That's taking it to an absurd extreme, and it's not a viewpoint to which I would subscribe, even though I would be very thankful if it was my life saved.  However, with the horrendous costs of medical treatment in the USA, surely something which might would help reduce those costs would be worth investigating?

Your right, it is where you draw the line and what the risk analysis shows.  Health costs in the USA is a concern I have and have yet to see an honest analysis of where the money goes.

[Anotherkiwi]

Now - back to our usual programming... 

[calmissile]

This may be only of interest to a few, but thought it might be worth passing on.

My wife has an account at Privat Bank in Ukraine.  Her mother, still living in Kiev also has a debit card on this same account.  Larissa's logic was to bring her card with her to the US so that she could deposit money in the account and allow mama to withdraw money as needed.  It turns out this is much more difficult than we imagined.

Here is what we learned through several hours of effort going to numerous US banks, emails and live chat with Mastercard and Privat Bank.

1.  Using the Ukraine Mastercard in US ATM's....There is no option displayed to make deposits.
2.  You cannot withdraw cash from an ATM
3.  When using at a merchant, it will not work in the Debit mode, but the transaction will work in the 'Credit Card' mode.  You can use the card to make purchases in stores, restaurants, etc.
4.  According to the officer at the bank you cannot make deposits to foreign Mastercard accounts like you can within Mastercards within the US.
5.  The officer indicated that if you plan to bring a foreign Mastercard to the USA, you need to make sure you have already deposited the money you expect to spend while in the USA.

I had heard of SWIFT in the discussions about the economic sanctions threads, but this is the first time it ever came up in my personal experiences.
Last night Larissa received an email from Privat Bank (I think) that provided the details of how to accomplish this task  to make the deposit to her Ukraine account.

Here is a summary of the key items in the email.....

Beneficiary:                 Wifes name
Account:                      Wifes account number at Privat Bank
Bank of Beneficiary:    PRIVATBANK            Swift Code:                 Code number
Intermediary Bank:     JP Morgan Chase Bank      Swift Code:      Code number
Corresondent Account:     10 digit number
IBAN:                           long number preceded by letters UA

The email said to take this info to Chase Bank and they will know how to make the deposit into the UA account.
We are going to try this procedure this morning at Chase Bank and see if it works.

[BillyB]

Here is a summary of the key items in the email.....

Beneficiary:                 Wifes name
Account:                      Wifes account number at Privat Bank
Bank of Beneficiary:    PRIVATBANK            Swift Code:                 Code number
Intermediary Bank:     JP Morgan Chase Bank      Swift Code:      Code number
Corresondent Account:     10 digit number
IBAN:                           long number preceded by letters UA

The email said to take this info to Chase Bank and they will know how to make the deposit into the UA account.
We are going to try this procedure this morning at Chase Bank and see if it works.

You're wiring money from bank to bank. Scammers have been known to use this technique besides Western Union. Nigerian scammers get someone's bank info to wire them a large sum. It's safe since the info the victim is sending can't be used by the scammer to drain their bank account. All the scammer ask for is half the money back that they send. A victim may verify $10,000 was wired into their bank account and think the scammer was honest so the victim wires them back $5000. A week later the bank tells their customer the funds did not clear for use so the $10,000 is pulled out of the victims bank account and the $5000 wired to the scammer comes out of the victim's pocket. You should be fine Doug as long as you don't have a Nigerian helping you on this task.

[calmissile]

Thanks Billy.  The communication was directly between Privat Bank that started in a phone call and then ended up with the email they sent.  I think we are ok.  The first transaction will be limited to a few hundred $$ to try it out.     

[AkMike]

Doug,
 We've taken a debit card from our local CU to UA for our step son to use if needed for emergency funds. We deposit on our end as needed, if ever.  Just make sure the bank on this end has a travel use noted or it'll get shut down after 1 use. There'll  be a few % extra for he conversion to hyrivna,  but not too bad.

 Swift transfers have taken us up to 3 weeks to transfer to UA.

 AND 1 little tid bit to be aware of.. Our bank in UA, Aval has said that our dollar account is no problem and we can withdraw at any time.. Until I needed to withdraw some last week. Then they said that they needed a few days to bring dollars in and then only 12,000 hrn worth of dollars per day. Then about only worth $950.


EDIT TO ADD!!!

 If you wire money to someone else in UA, they can be stuck with something like a 30 % tax on it. This is something that's just happened in the last year or so.

[calmissile]

Doug,
 We've taken a debit card from our local CU to UA for our step son to use if needed for emergency funds. We deposit on our end as needed, if ever.  Just make sure the bank on this end has a travel use noted or it'll get shut down after 1 use. There'll  be a few % extra for he conversion to hyrivna,  but not too bad.

 Swift transfers have taken us up to 3 weeks to transfer to UA.

 AND 1 little tid bit to be aware of.. Our bank in UA, Aval has said that our dollar account is no problem and we can withdraw at any time.. Until I needed to withdraw some last week. Then they said that they needed a few days to bring dollars in and then only 12,000 hrn worth of dollars per day. Then about only worth $950.


EDIT TO ADD!!!

 If you wire money to someone else in UA, they can be stuck with something like a 30 % tax on it. This is something that's just happened in the last year or so.

Thanks for the reply Mike.

Well, the plan was to take 1/2 this morning and go to Chase and wire the money directly to Privet bank in Kiev.  I should have known it is never this easy....even with detailed instructions.   

We started at Chase and everything seemed to go well on the wire transfer using the instructions provided by Privet in the email......... until they asked me my account number at Chase!   They will not make any wire transfers unless it is from a qualifying account at Chase.  Since we did not have one, I asked what is the cheapest account I can set up today and make the transfer?  Answer was a checking account with a debit card linked to it.  Unless you keep a $1500 balance the monthly fee is $10 whether you use the account or not.  In addition there is a fee for the wire transfers.  I am beginning to get annoyed at this point.     The banker advised that I can send the wire transfer from Wells Fargo (my bank) also, but it will also go through Chase since they are the Privet intermediate bank partner.

We went back to Wells Fargo and explained everything again and they began the wire transfer.  The only issue is that all international wire transfers are $45.  At least they can do it!  I am getting so frustrated at wasting so much time with this, I decided to bite the bullet and just do it.  We decided to send $500 to granny and hopefully I won't have to go through this often.

Larissa had a brilliant idea (as usual).  When she came to the US last time we set up a new joint account at Wells Fargo.  We got two debit cards.  When she went back to Ukraine last time she used her card on the joint account and it worked well except for the limit she can withdraw at any one time.  Her new idea was to get a duplicate card with her name on it with a different number but on the same joint account.  We can't get another card with grandmas name on it because you have to physically be in the bank to do so.   At least she can prove that Larissa is her daughter and it is legit using her card in case she gets questioned.  In the future she can just get money from the ATM in Ukraine and I won't have to make any more wire transfers.  I will have to remember to call the bank and tell them that the card will be used in Ukriane so the account does not get frozen up.

Hopefully this is going to solve the problems with transferring money.  Considering grandma is living on a pension and is reluctant to ever ask for help when needed, I want to make sure she has quick access to money if she needs it.

I hope this experience might be helpful for others in a similar situation.

Note:  Disregard previous posts I made about using a Walmart pre-paid debit card for transfers.  It worked for about a year and then it was cut off from use in Ukraine and other 'risky' countries.

[AkMike]

The name on the card won't matter unless she goes inside a bank to use it. The ATM's don't check! 

 Just set up an acct with Wells Fargo with a minimum amount and get the card to her. Not thru the mail either.. That's a no no..  If she needs some she'll get in touch and you can add to the account and she can draw that amount. I don't know what the max amount from an ATM is now though. The guys at the EX place will know that number.

[calmissile]

Just a little update from notes I have taken over the past few weeks.  Nothing serious, just the crazy life with a wonderful Ukrainian wife.

Lisa and I try to allow Larissa to sleep in on weekends.  While she was sleeping I was checking emails, forum posts, etc. and Lisa came into the lab with a plate with bread and melted cheese on top.  She said "I cook breakfast for papa."  I assumed that Larissa had got up and allowed Lisa to fix the melted cheese on bread.  NOPE!  While walking to the kitchen I discovered Larissa was still sound asleep.  Naturally, this created fear in my mind that Lisa was using the gas stove and a pan to melt the cheese.   In the kitchen I noticed Larissa's step stool in front of the stove.  OMG, is my daughter going to burn the house down?  After Larissa woke up she explained to me that she showed Lisa how the microwave works.  I did not know it, but Lisa had woke up Larissa to ask what number to put on the control panel to make the cheese on bread.  She told her 10, so I assume Lisa set it for 10 seconds.  I asked her about using the gas stove and she said that Lisa is forbidden to use the stove.

I am left with mixed emotions about Lisa creating future problems, but on the other hand she is so bright I hate to discourage her development.  I think I will just try and monitor things more closely.  Lisa helps mama with almost all the housework including vacuuming, loading and unloading the dishwasher, making great meals together, etc.   We will see how this goes.   

The language barrier..... I am coming more convinced that the language barrier is not as big a problem as many people make it out to be.  Larissa is enrolled in ESL however I am surprised how slowly it is advancing her 'conversational English'.  Looking at her homework, it appears that the ESL classes start from scratch and teach all the details about sentence structure, grammar, language rules, etc.   I don't even remember all this stuff from primary school.   My impression is that ESL does not teach conversational English, instead it is a complete, thorough English language class.

As far as daily communication, she knows enough English words that we can communicate fairly well, even if the sentence structure isn't always correct.  I will admit, if your wife already is fluent in English it would be much easier but if you are in love with each other it is a minor issue compared to  personality and compatibility.

Last night we went and saw "American Sniper".  I tried to discourage Larissa from going suggesting that she would not like a war movie.  She insisted, so we found a babysitter and saw it together.  She reminded me that it was her first time seeing a movie at an American cinema.  I really liked the movie and found that is was very well done without a lot of blood and guts scenes.  On the way home I asked her what she thought about the movie.  Her reply surprised me.  She said "Why would a man with a beautiful wife and young children go to a foreign country and fight for them?  Why does he not stay home with his family since his country is not being invaded?"

Larissa's mother is much more educated in world affairs as she is a retired professor at a major Kiev university.  Apparently, Larissa never followed international politics, so it is easy to understand her response.  I guess I have to educate her about the West supporting democracies and freedom for nations that cannot defend themselves against much larger aggressors.  Of course, explaining our useless US president's policy and most of Europe not supporting Ukraine will be difficult.

After Lisa's cooking exercise in the kitchen this morning and my concerns expressed, Larissa got into a chatty mood and told a couple stories about her son when he was young.

Apparently after getting their first microwave oven, grandma put two whole eggs in it.  Larissa was in the other room and heard the explosion.  Granny learned a lesson.   

While preparing a cake, apparently her son put a cigarette lighter in the oven earlier and Larissa did not see it.  The lighter exploded and there was a fire!

Her son had a cat and after washing it, he was about to put it in the microwave to dry it.  Larissa caught him at the last minute and saved the cat.

Larissa often comes into the lab and says "Help me".  Today I followed her into the master bedroom and she was complaining that the vacuum cleaner was not working.  It turns out she had somehow found the rug shampooer.  I had to explain that this was not for vacuuming and I asked what happened to the new vacuum I bought.  Apparently it quit working and she found what she thought was a substitute.  She brought me the vacuum.  It is the new Dirt Devil I bought her for a housewarming gift as a joke.  It is one of cyclone type devices and I had never used one, but it works very well and is especially built to accommodate pet hair.  It turns out the dirt collection chamber was fully packed and she did not know how to empty it.  After retrieving the owners manual I managed to show her how to empty and clean it.  Presto, it now works like a champ........  OOOPS.

Next help was to explain why the vacuum cleaner died while she was using it.  There appears to be no thermal reset button on this machine.  The manual says to wait 30 minutes for the motor to cool off.  Trying to get a Ukraine women to wait 30 minutes for anything is a challenge.  She wanted to get the old vacuum out and finish the job.  Oh well, the crazy Wilson house continues with our adventure.

Larissa has a thing about locking the house and turning on the alarm even if we are just going next door for a few minutes.  Almost an obsession about locking the house.  It's not necessary in our neighborhood, but her habit doesn't hurt anything so I just let her do it.

So far there is no homesickness.  Her local Russian speaking friends seem to fulfill her a social calendar.  The physician and Larissa have a 'shopping day' every Friday and Larissa makes Borscht for her every week.  On the weekend, Larissa and Lisa spend a couple hours with grandma on Skype.  Grandma has a strong interest in how Larissa and Lisa are adjusting to life in the USA.   So far so good!

While thinking about Lisa's antics in the kitchen, I remembered an incident when I was raising my daughter many years ago.  MY daughter and her little girlfriend were making flour dough and baking various little items in the oven.  How cute, I thought.   Later I learned that they were making pot pipes.  Here sat dad without a clue what was going on.      This time around I hope to be a little more astute about what the kids are doing.

[calmissile]

Today is a happy day in the Wilson home.

Larissa passed her drivers test after failing the first attempt.

After not taking the advice of other immigrants and neighbors as well, we ignored the advice to not take the driving test in Redlands.  I figured with 20 years of driving experience in Kiev, how could she fail......bad assumption.

This time we went to Riverside to take the test.  She passed and the examiner was pleasant.

For those having wives about to take the driving test in California, I have attached a copy of the worksheet the examiner uses during the driving test.,  It would have been helpful if we had known how the test is scored as well as what needs to be demonstrated in advance.  You will notice she failed to know how to operate the defroster.  My fault for not teaching her and not knowing she would be tested on it.  She is an excellent driver and I am comfortable with her driving anywhere.

Congrats to Larissa.

[JayH]

Congratulations to Larissa!! And you of course.

[ML]

Doug, give our best to Larissa on this achievement.

I never even thought about those operational things being on the test, but . . . I checked out Ochka on pretty much everything and had her demonstrate to me several times that she knew how to operate most everything.

And for some reason, she had a lot of trouble using the gas pumps initially.  Some of it wasn't her fault as a bunch of screwy things kept happening at various stations.  But now she seems to have it down fairly pat.

[BillyB]

Grats to Larissa! I don't know about you Doug, but I was happy when my wife got her drivers license. I hate shopping and I had to tag along since I had to do all the driving.

[calmissile]

Grats to Larissa! I don't know about you Doug, but I was happy when my wife got her drivers license. I hate shopping and I had to tag along since I had to do all the driving.

Yes Billy, I was happy she got her temporary license a couple months ago.  She can run the Soccer Mom errands and I don't have to run home to do it anymore.  I also don't like shopping, but her and her Ukrainian friend go shopping every Friday while I am at work. 

We still hope to meet up for dinner some time in the future.

[calmissile]

Now that we have been together in the USA for a few months I thought I would provide an update on my opinion about the topic.

Larissa is taking ESL classes at Adult Education two evening a week.  The class is free, but it wasn't quite what I thought it would be.  The teach English grammar from step one and it is thorough.  All of the language rules and definitions that we learned in English class in grade school through High School.  The class is very slow to actually accomplish 'Conversational English'.  No doubt she will end up learning proper English grammar as well as vocabulary which is important for finding a good job, but it is painfully slow.

Our 6 year old daughter started kindergarten a couple months ago and within a couple weeks was coming home using English words to describe things and now at 2 months she is speaking English in complete sentences.  Basically she speaks to me in English and mama in Russian.  It's kind of funny that she now correcting mama and completing sentences for her.

I think it would be ideal for a new wife to take an 'Conversational English' in order to learn to speak and understand more quickly, while in parallel take the formal English class (ESL).  We rarely need to use Skype or translators very often anymore.

Anyway, that's my update on the language barrier topic as it relates to our experience.

I still maintain that finding the right woman is the most important thing, and if you both are in love the language issue is something that can be overcome with a little effort.

[BillyB]

Our 6 year old daughter started kindergarten a couple months ago and within a couple weeks was coming home using English words to describe things and now at 2 months she is speaking English in complete sentences.  Basically she speaks to me in English and mama in Russian.  It's kind of funny that she now correcting mama and completing sentences for her.

The older we get, the harder it is to learn a new language. Kids soak up information like a sponge. Your daughter observed the other kids speaking and quickly picked it up much faster than your wife will pick up the language. I bet your daughter will lose her FSU accent by the time she finishes high school. It's important that she keeps speaking to her mother in her native tongue otherwise she'll lose it.

[AC]

The older we get, the harder it is to learn a new language. Kids soak up information like a sponge. Your daughter observed the other kids speaking and quickly picked it up much faster than your wife will pick up the language. I bet your daughter will lose her FSU accent by the time she finishes high school. It's important that she keeps speaking to her mother in her native tongue otherwise she'll lose it.

Kids learn a lot easier because they don't think too much or over analyze things.  What kids actually do is mimic what they are hearing and soon they are fluent.

[calmissile]

The older we get, the harder it is to learn a new language. Kids soak up information like a sponge. Your daughter observed the other kids speaking and quickly picked it up much faster than your wife will pick up the language. I bet your daughter will lose her FSU accent by the time she finishes high school. It's important that she keeps speaking to her mother in her native tongue otherwise she'll lose it.

It would be my desire for Lisa to speak to her mother in Russian and me in English.  She will remain bilingual that way.  I have no desire for Lisa to loose her Russian and Ukrainian language.

The teenage son of Lisa's music teacher (Belarussian) says he does not use his native language and sees no reason to do so.  His parents have argued with him to stay fluent in it.  His position is that everything in the world is English, so why bother?  Seems he is winning the battle.  I hope I don't have that problem with Lisa.

[KenInUtah]

Absolutely encourage her to keep speaking Russian/Ukrainian.  I am an Executive recruiter and I constantly get requisitions for multilingual professionals.  The kid is right, everything HERE is English but not overseas.  Business is international and companies overseas operate in a native tongue.  There is tall cash to be made here for people that speak multiple languages.  Why would someone give up that skill?

[mendeleyev]

Well done on the Drivers license!

[mendeleyev]

The grammar that she is learning will bring some funny situations to your life as she will begin to catch any mistakes you make. 

Absolutely agree with the others on the importance of remaining multi lingual.

[calmissile]

Photo from a couple weeks ago on our way back home from Phoenix.  We stopped to visit one of my buddies from Seattle that lives in Indio, Ca.

[ML]

Nice pic; thanks for sharing.

[AC]

Great photo Cal, Congratulations.

[onlyFSU4me]

Nice picture Doug, you make a great looking family. Thanks for sharing!