Wow, you don't check in for awhile and come back to a new website (well done btw), lots of new posters and, well - all the same questions!
Anyway, I'm about to leave for Kiev for the 4-th time tomorrow so I thought I would post this just for the heck of it - it might be of interest some of the truly new people here. I won't bore you with all my history, but I met a terrific UW on EM's a year and half ago, spent 4 months emailing, SKYPE'ng, etc. At the time, I was a huge supporter of the WOVO (Write Few or One and Visit One) because I was so lucky right off the bat. Finally met her in Prague, then again in Antigua, Kiev and finally in her small-ish city in Ukraine. Despite the fact she was (by far) the most intelligent, independent woman (attractive also) I've ever met - in the end, there just wasn't enough "magic" or whatever the appropriate word is for me. <sigh>. It's too bad too, she is an amazing woman and meeting her absolutely validated this whole FSU idea for me - you (or I) would not meet someone like her in the US at least.
Anyway, I digress, the 3rd trip I made, I decided to spend the Holidays in Kiev with a friend of mine (he's 40, I'm 56) who is also looking. We wasted a huge amount of time combing through Agency Profiles and dealing with the various agency protocols / rules / whatever. After hours and hours of work, we each had 12 or 14 "confirmed" appointments w/ women we thought we might like. However, I think I utimately met 4 of my "confirmed" women and my friend met 4 or 5 of his - all the rest cancelled at the last second or maybe the agency didn't really "confirm" as much as we were expecting. These agencies (and the women) don't seem to take you too seriously until you are actually there or about to go. I'm pretty sure about 90% (95%?) of their email traffic is BS and going nowhere - I know the women I went out with had all actually met 12 or fewer men over the months or even years they had been registered with the agency (they were 35-45 years old btw). And they had all been sucked in multiple times by what turned out to be penpals which they don't really have time for - most have very, very busy lives that most AW couldn't even imagine. In fact, I was the FIRST man that 2 of them had ever met via an agency - wow, talk about nervous women!
Anyway, we ended up working with 3 agencies and by working, I mean physically going to the agency, sitting down with the owner or manager and working through their website w/ them. They were very forthcoming and honest with "she only wants millionaires", "she isn't serious, just wants to date", "I think you would like her", "I think she would really like you", "she's new, I know very little about her" etc. We both ended up meeting about 10 women, and almost all were dead on accurate and honest (only thing that's sometimes a little dicey was the level of English, however I believe now that if a UW admits to ANY English you will be able to communicate with her btw). My friend found someone he really liked and went back to see her a month later, but for whatever reason, it didn't work out for them (I think she ditched him, but he wont' admit it!). No love match for me yet - but I did meet several very nice women and had a really good time. It was a great trip.
So, this time my friend and I worked with 3 agencies (2 from the last time and 1 new one), but only for the past couple of weeks. However we sent them OUR profiles and expectations about a month in advance and asked them to contact the women they thought might be interested in us to arrange the appointments. Sort of reverse screening I suppose.
I think they (agency owners) were willing to do this for us since we had met them once before and they realized we were seriously coming back and weren't wasting their time (they charge between $40-65 / meeting btw). We each have 7-8 appointments next week so it will be interesting to see if the "confirmed" ratio improves or if we end up having to improvise again.
One other thing I will comment on just for the heck of it is that some of the posters here say "just go" and meet women on your own. From my experience, this is true if you are searching for 20-something year old women, they are jammed into every bar and restaurant in the city (this is Kiev remember), and like Americans (at least the food and drink you buy them). However, IMHO you would have to be very lucky to meet a 35 year old woman randomly anywhere in the city. They are all working and taking care of thier families - that's why there is a place for these agencies. So sure, "just go", but I would strongly recomment using the agencies (at least in Kiev) for at least some of your time AND make sure you have your profiles electronically available to the agencies so they can show to the women (they are as selective as you are - you know!).
The 2 agencies I would recommend from last time are:
http://www.woman-for-marriage-ukraine.comhttp://www.bridgeoflove.com.ua/ The new one is:
www.eslava.com.ua So again, this is just another way of going about approaching this for someone new here and trying to figure out how to get started and our approach is not really written about too much on this board. Sort of a WNVF (Write None / Visit Few) strategy I suppose. You do have to be a fairly confident person and certainly not afraid of "blind dates" to do this effectively, but for me I would much rather meet someone in person than reading the fluff in profiles and all the wasted time writing emails. I'll report back in a couple of weeks and let you know how it went this time for us.
