Tourist Visa - A miracle

[calmissile]

Larissa has been taking online English classes while I am at work.  She is getting much more fluent in the past week.  Actually stringing sentences together.

As of last night while watching TV, I discovered a problem with this.  How do you get them to wait for a commercial to speak!     

[JayH]

Life is achanging!! Never to be the same again !!

[GQBlues]

Yum!!! Those are very delicious just looking at the photos! Calmissile, you're really a very lucky man! I'm so happy for you....


 

[Anotherkiwi]

Yum!!! Those are very delicious just looking at the photos! Calmissile, you're really a very lucky man! I'm so happy for you....


 

Who the hell are you, and what have you done with GQBlues?    I really CAN'T take too much more of this! 

[calmissile]

Counting down, with one week left before Larissa has to go home to Ukraine.  The honeymoon will have to continue later.

Today was interesting.  We went to the store to pick up a couple of small items.  I left my cellphone at home.  We use it as our lifeline in case we get separated in a supermarket/mall, etc.
We ended up at a large mall shopping for an item we could not find locally.  I decided to take her to Victoria's Secret in the mall after we found the other item we were looking for.  After standing around in the store and watching women hold bras up to themselves, I decided to step outside and wait for Larissa.  Only so much an old man can stand of that stuff you understand.   

I gave her the credit card and told her to buy whatever she wanted.  She is normally a very fast shopper, and I rarely get annoyed waiting for her. After 1/2 hour of waiting outside, I went inside looking for her.  Could not find her anywhere.  Women were going in and out of the fitting rooms and still no Larissa.  What the hell is going on?  Where could she have gone?  Without my phone to call her I finally was getting a little worried.  Could she have slipped past me unnoticed?  The clerks called out for her in the fitting rooms.....no answer!

OMG!  How could a woman spend more than 1/2 hour in a lingere shop?  Finally, one of the clerks came out from the fitting room area and told me that they located her and she was in the fitting room.  OK, relief at last.  Now, I was wondering if giving her the credit card meant to buy out the whole store.   

At the one hour point she emerged with her usual smile.  She explained that in the fitting room she pressed the button for the clerk, but they rarely came.  It wasted a lot of time.  She was carrying only a small bag, so knew that she did not go crazy with purchases (although I would not have minded).  I don't know what she bought, but suspect it is a surprise for tonight.   

On our way out of the mall we stopped at the food court for a bite to eat.  We ordered pizza and lasagna.  The lasagna was perhaps the best I have ever eaten.  She noticed how much I liked it.  At that point I asked her if she knew how to make it.   The look on her face.................like "You think the only thing I can cook is blini and pelmeni?"  I then was given a lecture on all the different nationality dishes she can prepare.   I suspect I will be having home made lasagna before she leaves.

[calmissile]

Today marked the last day of Larissa's one month first visit to the USA.  For her it's back to Ukraine, her family and work, and for me it means going back to work full time.  I was beginning to like working half days after a month of it, not to mention all the coddling, and fantastic cooking.

Much of my career had been centered around Santa Maria and Vandenberg AFB, so we decided to spend last weekend visiting my old friends and colleagues in that area.  My former engineers and managers threw a luncheon for us in Lompoc on Friday.  About a dozen showed up to meet the new Mrs. Wilson.  She was a hit as usual, in spite of her broken English.  Since the office had followed my saga of searching Ukraine for the past few years, they were anxious to see what the results were.

Following lunch, Larissa and I went to Surf Beach which is located West of Lompoc and divides North and South Vandenberg AFB.  There is an Amtrack whistle stop there also.  A few photos are attached.
Later that evening one of my engineers invited us to dinner at the famous Casmalia Hitching Post.  We had a great dinner and Larissa got to sample the BBQ Artichokes I had been bragging about.

It's amazing how many used to say "Your only going to get scammed, etc"  and then after meeting my wife, the conversation changed to "Does she have any sisters?"

I have a long time friend in Santa Barbara that is somewhat of a hermit and lives in the mountains.  He is a genius in electronics and we are both 'ham' operators for many years.  Joe built his own road, cabin, water well and just about everything else himself.  Never married, and shy around women.  I have always teased him about finding him a '"village gal" from Ukraine.  Not sure anyone would want to be holed up in a cabin in the mountains, but we all had a good laugh about it.  As you might expect from a 'ham', Joe has quite an antenna farm and I am jealous that he has the space for it.  Some of the large dishes are for moon bounce experiments on the ham bands.  A few photos of his place are included.

There were not a lot of surprises from Larissa.  The first one was "How many grossly fat women there are in the USA".
Nothing about the geography or culture seemed to shock her and she got along well with everyone she met.

One thing that I will need to train her on, is not being impatient and crowding in lines.  I noticed at the checkout registers, she moves up and puts her purchases on the counter beside the person already checking out.  Very typical of the FSU, in fact annoying to me when I am there.  You can't even go to a bank teller without someone crowding you.  I am sure she will adjust quickly.

As far as the language barrier went, it improved substantially with time.  In fact, the last week she is carrying on conversations and I don't even think about the occasional clarifications we need.  I also discovered that with a shot of tequila or vodka, she opens up and rattles on continuously.  The downside is that she does not know yet to wait for commercials to start a conversation.  On the way to the airport today, she teased me a little about her conversational skills.   She said something to the affect that when nothing to drink, she thinks about everything she is saying.  With a shot, she just rambles on without having to think about it.

She did leave an impression here.  The neighborhood is now in love with borscht, blini, and pelmeni. 

After arriving home from work I noticed that she left a lot of clothes, shoes, and other items here.  I guess that is a good sign since she is not forgetfull. Something about 'nesting' I think.

It is truly a shame that many FSUW are not able to get tourist visas to the US.  IMO this is the perfect way for a couple to get to know each other before making the jump into marriage.  Of course there is the K-1, but it shure is a lot of work, time and expense to allow her to see the country and culture before making the decision.

[calmissile]

.

[JayH]

Nice update ( again !)   
I think Doug is going to chase AJ and Alex for the title of happiest guy on the forum~~!!

Worth noting-- his search has been conducted very much in a public forum and his whole story has a lot of little and large parts to learn from!!

[TheTraveler]

she's beautiful, doug!

thanks for sharing the photos!

[Hammer2722]

Doug, very happy to see that Larissa's visit was a success. Olga and I certainly enjoyed meeting her and look forward to getting together with you guys again in the future. 

[calmissile]

Thanks for the warm comments.   Larissa is safely home in Kiev.
I guess a bottle of perfume broke in her suitcase and made a mess.  Don't have any idea how that happened.  I put it in a zip lock bag for her and don't remember there being anything in the suitcase that would break a glass bottle.

I guess she had a flattering experience in Amsterdam.  Not being able to find the tiny smoking booths we used on the trip to the US, she asked someone where they were located.  She said something to the affect that two guys insisted on personally escourting her around the terminal to find them.  Then she had trouble gettting rid of them.   LOL

I expect it to be fairly quiet for the next six months.  Hopefully she will immigrate sometime this summer.