Finding some Russian friends for the wife

[roykirk]

My wife has lived here for a year now, and she's finally gotten homesick enough that she's expressed how she wishes she could meet a few Russian people.  Unfortunately it's not an easy proposition for us.  Living in the Midwest in an agricultural town of just 15,000 will do that to you.  She's managed to find and meet just one other Russian girl (not counting the one who lived in our town but then moved back to Russia as quickly as she moved here), and she lives in Minneapolis, which is a 4 hour drive for us.  Needless to say they don't get to see each other often. 

Anyway, I'm wondering if there is some website or resource for finding other Russian women in the U.S. you guys could recommend that I could forward to her.  She found the Twin Cities woman by using some website for Russian women navigating the visa process in the United States, but said that she was the only close one who popped up on a search.  Any help or advice would be appreciated.

[Gylden]

Here is a link to a russian newspaper in Minnesota. Where are you from ? Part of my family is from Avon.

http://www.mnnews.com/newspapers/zerkalo.html

[BillyB]

Anyway, I'm wondering if there is some website or resource for finding other Russian women in the U.S. you guys could recommend that I could forward to her.
 

Singles.ru is not only a place people can find love and prostitutes, but they can find friends. Keep in mind, if your wife uses that site, she will have lots of proposals from men for sex. She can ignore them and find other RW near her to chat with online and potentially meet.

[roykirk]

Thanks, Gylden.  I actually just found that Russian newspaper in Minneapolis and passed it on to my wife.  I'm hoping it will help her.  At least it gives her something of a network to find other Russians in the U.S. 

[Ade]

My wife has lived here for a year now, and she's finally gotten homesick enough that she's expressed how she wishes she could meet a few Russian people.  Unfortunately it's not an easy proposition for us.  Living in the Midwest in an agricultural town of just 15,000 will do that to you.  She's managed to find and meet just one other Russian girl (not counting the one who lived in our town but then moved back to Russia as quickly as she moved here), and she lives in Minneapolis, which is a 4 hour drive for us.  Needless to say they don't get to see each other often. 

Anyway, I'm wondering if there is some website or resource for finding other Russian women in the U.S. you guys could recommend that I could forward to her.  She found the Twin Cities woman by using some website for Russian women navigating the visa process in the United States, but said that she was the only close one who popped up on a search.  Any help or advice would be appreciated.

My wife has been a member of a Russian-Norwegian forum for a while and has several friends here now thanks to that. Your wife may find that US forums such as http://www.russian-fiancee.com/rus/forum/index.php will help her meet friends in your area.

[Gylden]

Another link......and this time with the link....LOL

http://www.studyrussian.org/

[kievstar]

Couple things to try.

Take your wife to an expensive mall and you will find many Russian women working on Saturdays and Sundays.  Visit any FSU store / market in the area and talk with the owner where Russians are located.  Sign her up for ESL even if she has to drive an hour each way she will meet Russian women.  Also look on the internet.

Russian women are all over USA even small towns.  RW come up to my wife all the time introducing themselves no matter the size of the city or where we are at.

[tfcrew]

Take your wife to an expensive mall 

You mean there's one that isn't?
My wife has a friend from her hometown [Odessa] who lives in No. Dakota but I forgot which town.
She was homesick somewhat but her mom immigrated and went to live w/her.

[remiel6]

I am facing similar issues here with my wife. Oddly enough I grew up in Minnesota, there are a lot of Russians/Ukrainians in the Minneapolis area.

[groovlstk]

The good thing is that once your wives meet one or two Russians who've been here a few years, their network will expand exponentially.

You might also want to have them join odnoklassniki.ru as they have meetups throughout the year, I went to one with my wife a year or so ago and there were over 400 Russians packed into a restaurant in Fort Lee, NJ.

[Rutherford]

We added a Russian channel  to Direct TV   and asked the installer   if  he has done any other Russian   installations  and we found one this way   

[kievstar]

Groove, made a very good point.  Find one and that will lead to more.  Very true.

[Sailor291]

I live in the Dallas area so cant say about Russian/Ukrainians in your area, but my advice is to find the local Orthodox churches in the area.  We attend one in Dallas and my wife meets RW/UW women there all the time.  That is just one place to look.

[Chicagoguy]

There is a Russian woman member here who does translations and lives in Maple Valley outside of Minneapolis. Regal Translations. Can't remember her name though.

953-220-9627
info@primelanguageservices.com

Also, there is a very nice Russian museum near downtown that almost always has some Russians going through it.

We met 3 very close to us when I asked some Jewish friends to inquire around their Temple.

My wife and I are in Minneapolis at least once a year with a daughter and grandchildren in Plymouth.

Good Luck

[Gator]

RW are everywhere.  Keep looking.  Many good ideas above. 

In the Tampa Bay area my soon ex-wife informs me there is one website with 250 names of FSUW.  A large number of them get together about once a month.  It is described as a trip back to Russia.

Last year I went to their New Year's Eve party.  They cut corners to keep the price low ($10 bottles of wine, two-person "live" band, more beets and potatoes than salty fish, etc. ).  Also, my wife and I had already decided to divorce by that time.  So I found it lacking except for the kids' program.  Its better in Russia.  In fact, it would be better anywhere if you are with a woman you like.

[jj]

http://expatrussian.meetup.com/66/

[SMS60]

If all possible, steer away from looking for RW friends. If not you will have more drama than a high school locker room.

[I/O]

If all possible, steer away from looking for RW friends. If not you will have more drama than a high school locker room.

Wouldn't that depend on the quality of one's wife and the quality of who she'd like to associate with?

[Vaughn]

Wouldn't that depend on the quality of one's wife and the quality of who she'd like to associate with?

Agree totally. Drama results not from associating with RW/UW/Russians in general, but from the character of
individuals regardless of national origin.

[55North]

Wouldn't that depend on the quality of one's wife and the quality of who she'd like to associate with?

 
How right.  

There are significant nos. of RWs in our city, though being in the EU (and not Londongrad), the Baltics are quite a significant source of russian-speaker.  Having said that, Alla does not feel the need to put herself about extensively, and maintains regular contact with only a couple of RWs.  The 2 main semi-public New Years parties this year were not good, and she has no wish to repeat.

In compact UK, even if you're on a remote farm, you're unlikely to be more than 1 hour from a RW, and 2 hours from someone from the same neighbourhood!
 
Off-topic warning
    
Interestingly, we've just come back from a trip to London, to visit the Chelsea Flower Show (a childhood dream of hers now fulfilled).  This a major national event.  Even I was able to identify Russian as the most spoken foreign language there, equal to all others together.  Amazing.

As was the realisation that, as once, decades ago, gay British farmers sons were paid to go to London and never return to the village, I now know where Russian gays go after the the Mayor of Moscow has finished beating them up.

[GregfromGa]

If all possible, steer away from looking for RW friends. If not you will have more drama than a high school locker room.

I really hate to agree here but this is the correct answer. My wife has 1 or 2 friends that she will talk to on the phone if they call her. I tried in the beginning to forge friendships but to no avail and I'm glad it didn't work out. The couple of girls she talks to doesn't work and one doesn't have kids so they really only have a language in common. If I could find a nice Ukrainian girl that had 2 kids, works at home,humble background from a village in Ukraine,lives modestly now, doesn't live in a 6 bedroom mansion overlooking the lake, well then I'd be all up for my wife having a friend like that. My wife talks to her family almost daily and has since she arrived. She seems very content with just doing this. My wife is too busy being a great mother to get involved too much drama about how the other half lives. I can honestly say that not many American women have gone out of their way to be friends with my wife. Well that's their loss because she is truly a wonderful person. Maybe it's because she's thin. Maybe it's because she's pretty. Maybe it's because she's elegant. Maybe it's because she has a great sense of humor. Maybe it's because people think I picked her out of a magazine. The pwrld is full of dumbasses.

[55North]

Maybe it's because she's thin. Maybe it's because she's pretty. Maybe it's because she's elegant. Maybe it's because she has a great sense of humor. Maybe it's because people think I picked her out of a magazine. The pwrld is full of dumbasses.

Yup.  That's Alla's problem! 
 
Greg, you touched upon modest living, or otherwise.  This can certainly be an unsettling factor when an RW is reaching out to new contacts, if one is of modest means.  Alla works, because she knows it will help us do the things to the house she desires, and I cannot afford alone.  Her real friends are full-time mothers, and of more means, but I detect a great respect from them for Alla, maybe because they would never work in hotel hospitality (putting it kindly), or it's that Alla sold her home, and everything she owned upon widowhood, for her sons to start a new life abroad.  So, she also seems to be a roll model/confidant to younger mothers.

[jb]

Having been through this a number of times,,, seeing my wife try to make friends with local RW's and fail more often than not, with no real reason apparent, I have to agree to the potential of drama.  I've analyzed the problem as best I can, and have come to the conclusion it is as simple as how you choose your woman.  If you are of average education and choose a woman with a similar background, go for friends who are like yourself.  Seems simple enough.

If you are university educated and choose a trade school educated girl, don't expect your old college friends to accept her as one of their own.  It's not likely to happen.  Likewise, if your wife is a university educated woman from one of the top schools in the FSU, she will not likely become buddies with a trade school hair dresser from the villages.   Very often your FSU beauty will have nothing in common with the odd RW she happens to meet in the supermarket.  The only thing they will have in common is a language and that is not the basis for a friendship.  I can't tell you how many times that's happened to me,,, I've been stuck in a foreign country, starved for a friendly face and then meet a Yank or a Brit with whom I have nothing in common.  We share a glass or two, yak it up for a few hours, and then go our merry way with no bond forged.  Same thing happens with our FSU gals.

Making real friends is a hard thing.

[GregfromGa]

jb this is all so true. I cant tell you at the times I've met some Yank in Kiev at the pub or wherever and the only thing we have in common is the language. The first time I ever went to Kiev I got hooked up by a mutual friend with a guy from North Carolina. I had talked with this dumbass more than a few times leading up to my trip to Ukraine. He owned some jewelry business in North Carolina. So I had already been in Kiev for about 10 days and opted to extend my trip and stay a few days longer to hook up and run wingman with for new friend. Well when this stupid sonofabitch gets into town I knew he was a real dumbass and couldnt imagine myself hanging out with this assclown for the next 3 days. Anyways we're just kinda hanging out on Khreshatic late in the evening with my other new friend Matt from Great Neck Long Island (RIP my friend, you were the best focking wingman anyone could ever ask for). So this good looking prostitute approaches me and wants to hook up. Thats not my scene so I quickly put her on this dumbass from NC. To make a long story short he falls in love with her in about 2 hours. I go to the internet cafe and get back up to the room about 4 hours after they go up. This focking guy is all in love now and tells me that I will need to go get a hotel because he really likes this girl and he doesnt want her to feel uncomfortable. I'm like WTF? It's 2am AND I aint going anywhere but to sleep. It's a 2 bedroom place, I'm not in your way. This focking guy tells me I have to leave so I just jack his ass upside the wall by his throat, slam his focking head in the wall and tell him I'll leave tomorrow morning but not until I get good and ready. I had already paid half for the next 3 days. So here we are 2 guys from South of the Mason Dixon line into it on the 6th floor of an apartment over looking Khreshatic with a prostitute in the other room. The next morning I just slap the shit out of him for good measure just so he'll remember me and I go get a hotel for the next 2 days. My friend from San Marcus Texas that hooked us up said the guy eventually moved to Russia to play music in some band in the focking subway over there. Oh and he spent his entire trip that trip with that prostitute according to Kevin from Texas. It just goes to show you that you cant forge friendships.

[jb]

Greg;

Interesting story... 

I would encourage your wife to stay curious about meeting her fellow countrymen and women, sooner or later she will meet with someone who matches her personality and she will make a friend.  My wife has found some ladies at the Orthodox Church that she is friendly with.  I'm even kinda friendly with their spouses.  One of them even knows how to fish.

None of this happened over-night, it was a long time in process.

Good luck.