Odessa Kherson 2004

[stoichman]

I decided to repost this trip report for a few reasons.

1. I originally posted it on the old forum format so it can not be found by doing a search.
2. The old forum format did not allow you to read the days back to back, you had to search for them.
3. As of right now I plan on doing another trip report for this summer's trip and I may be referring back to this one. People, places, and things.

So I hope this is OK, enjoy.
Scott
______________________________________________

Odessa-Kherson

Hello there from Kiev. I had to overnight on my way to Odessa. Well I thought I should let you know where I am at. The saga so far.
Trip One- July 2001. I went with AFA to Yalta with the first tour there ever. I made the mistake of dating only one lady, Anya, for the entire trip. I decided to do a visa for her. Trip length 12 days cost $4000.
Trip Two- August 2001. I went back to see only Anya. Stayed in Sevastopol. Stayed in Hotel Yard, only one there with AC. Trip length 2 weeks. Cost $2000.
Did visa for Anya, she never used it. She got cold feet. Lesson learned= girl should speak English and take your time
Trip Three- July 2002. Did the Yalta tour again, with AFA. Dated 3 ladies. The trip was to be only 12 days. I stayed 5 weeks. I met Lena and decided to see her again. Cost $5000
Trip Four- October 2002. Went back to see Lena and did paperwork for visa. Sevastopol again. Stayed 10 days. Cost $2000.
Lena came to America, stayed 2 months. She was homesick and afraid of the war with Iraq. Lesson learned= Make sure you have free time for lady when she arrives.
Trip Five- July 2003. Decided to go non-tour, non-social. Went to Odessa for one month. Stayed with agency called Adam and Eva in their flat. Used Adam and Eva, Athena, and Ukrainebride.net for meetings with ladies. I met 10 girls. Dated four of them more than once. No visa this time. But I love Odessa. Cost $3750.
Trip Six- April 2004. I did 10 days in Kherson. I used Khersongirls for the flat. I used Khersongirls, Athena, and Eleo for meetings with ladies. I meet 12 girls. Dated four more than once. I still write to two of them. Cost $2500.

Now we are in present time so this is trip seven. I decided to do 21 days in Odessa and 19 in Kherson. I flew with KLM. I am staying with Adam and Eva in Odessa and Khersongirls in Kherson for the flats. The prep was like this.
1) Airline ticket- I used a travel agent, he buys tickets from a broker in bulk, the cost was $1100 for the ticket- Miami to Amsterdam to Kiev. For the Kiev-Odessa I got lucky. In the states it would have cost $240, but I bought the ticket while I was in Kherson in April. Cost $70. I may try this again and buy the ticket at the Kiev airport.
2) Visa- Did a double entry with the April trip, cost $180, company Scopetravel. No invitation needed, they do it all. I used them before, highly recommended.
3) Odessa flat- 21 nights cost $1260 with Adam and Eva. Icredible flat, right on the main strip, AC, everything you need including laudry. Stayed there last year.
4) Kherson flat- 19 nights cost $855 with Khersongirls. Awesome location, stayed there in April.
5) Overnight in Kiev- If you ever have to overnight in Kiev and don't wish to see Kiev, stay in the Boryspil hotel since it is 200 meters from the airport. I usually walk there, but my check in bag was 55 pounds and I had a carry on too. Aboout $52 a night, I will stay here on the way back too. Breakfast is included, booked with ukrainehotels.com.
6) Writing ladies- I decided not to write any. I feel it is a waste of time. This is only my opinion. I think most of the scamming happens in the letter writing. And only about 10% of the men that write actually make the trip, and the ladies know this. Getting over here shows you are serious. I send the agency photos, a letter of introduction, and a list of the ladies. They make the arrangements from there. Cost -$0.

Looking out the window it is raining right now. I hope it warms up. I paked no jacket and no long sleeves. It is about 65 out there. My flight for Odessa leaves in about 5 hours. I think I slept off most of the jet lag already. I spent about 15 yesterday in the hotel sleeping and watching BBC or videos on TV. Once I get to Odessa I will check in first, and then I will attempt to buy a cell phone and get set up at the gym. I know where it is since I used it last year, but I want to settle price with an interpreter. I will keep you guys informed.

[stoichman]

Odessa day one and day two Odessa Day One I made it to Odessa OK. The flight was uneventful, other than getting our baggage. There was some kind of military exercise going on. They almost did not let us in the terminal. It was weird because the army men were in full gear, full metal helmets and such. I never saw that one before. And for the baggage, since they made us go in the wrong door we actually had to go in back, the cargo area, to get our bags. Back where they put them on the belt. I met a guy on the flight that was on the tour with Anastasia, back in April. He was coming back to see one girl he met on that trip. I told him I was sorry that he had to deal with Anastasia, but I wished him well with his chosen one. The driver from Adam and Eva was there to pick me up, same driver as last year. A really nice guy, married with two kids, one new since last year. Odessa is much wamer than Kiev was, and no rain. So far I like the June weather more than last year when I was here in July, a little cooler, and more of a breeze. You can wear pants during the day and not sweat to death. he took me to the office, and I put my bags in the flat. If you look on Adam and Eva's web site you can see my flat. It is the Eygptian one. A great place right across the street from an Irish Pub. I found out in the office from Natasha (owner) that out of the four girls I picked all are too busy right now, until the weekend. One refuesd to meet me, this would not be too sad, but for the reason why. She liked my profile and photos, but she said she would not meet a teacher, since we are poor. Gentlemen, the ladies there will be just like Americans soon, I give it 3 to 5 years tops. I did not want to wait that long so I picked a few more to meet from their site. I also got an interpreter to help me at the gym and to get a cell phone. We went to the same gym I used last year. Very nice, and it was 360 grevna (ukraine dollars) for one month. American style gym, top notch. I will get the name if anyone wants it. I gave up on the cell phone for now, I will regret this later. Too many choices. By now it is 7pm. So I bid the interpreter goodbye and returned to my flat. I dressed for the gym and went back there to get in a late work out. On the way back I stopped and got groceries for the falt. I noticed my first new thing I did not see last year. In the grocery store they now have the electronic scanners, not there last time. There are beautiful women shopping here and I get easily distracted. They wanted me to check my bag in at the door, the one I carried to the gym, next time I will know better. On the way home I noticed another new thing. They now have a huge outdoor TV on the main strip. Billboard size, with 7 built in speakers. A sign that this town is changing fast. I call it an early night. Had trouble sleeping, I thought I had the jet lag kicked, I was wrong. I could not sleep until 2am and slept to 11am. Odessa Day Two I went to the office to get my schedule and I have a meeting for tonight at 7pm. Then Natasha asks me to be in a TV commericail for the agency to help recruit more ladies. This would be the second time I did this. I was on TV for AFA while on my Yalta 2002 trip. A programm on BBC. I said OK, (maybe this is why I had no meeetings today) I went to gym before the commercial. The TV thing was fun. Natasha interpreted for me while the hostess of the show asked me questions. It is a local TV show for young adults, at first I thought it was a commerical. The two girls from the show were so hot, but spoke zero English. I hope I get to see the program while I am here. I went to my favorite place to eat while alone here. I would never take a date here, but it is perfect when alone. I will try to get you guys the name in English for next time. It is cafeteria style, and the food is there all already. I got two pieces of chicken, boiled potatoes, borsch, cake, 2 cokes, and bread for less than $2. I went home to get ready for the first meeting. On the way home I saw another familiar face "Beer bottle man", a Ukranian icon. This guy has a collection of beer bottles. And he uses a long threaded screw or file to play it like a violin. he scratches out melodies and songs. he has a grey Rollie Fingers mustache and while he playes he makes facial expressions and movements like Joe Cocker. A real treat. I had an hour to kill before my meeting so I went to Athena to get my schedule from them. Their office moved since last year and it took me a while to find it. I will meet six of their girls. So now between Adam and Eva and Athena I now have 2 meetings a day from Friday to Monday. Both companies cost $20 a meeting. I was all excited for my first meeting, but she was a no show. I hope this is not an omen for my entire trip. I went for a walk along the main strip Derybassivska and to the Potemkin steps. went back to the flat and met another American guy I will call B. We decided to hit the discos. the main strip for discos in the summer is called Arkadia right on the beaches. the discos are open air, so only in the summer are they open. We went to Luxor, it has an Eygtian theme sorta. They had a concert that night so it seemed like the place to be on a Thursday. B is not shy at all and had us talking to two young ladies within 10 minutes, both tiny little spinner types. We will call them A and A2. Blondes, A with incredible green eyes and A2 with blue. We danced all night. B gave them his cell number, We will have to wait and see if they call. This is why I regetted not buying the cell phone yet. I could not remember my flat number to give it to her. Oh well, I got home at 3am, and off to bed.

[stoichman]

odessa day 3 and 4 Odessa Day 3Well the disco took its toll on me. I slept to 11am. I went to the gym and got back quickly since my first meeting is at 2pm. I met her at the agency. We will call her O. We did not need a translator since she is a level 2 English (from one to 5) and I speak some Russian also. We went for a walk on the main strip and down to the Balck Sea also. Then I suggested ice cream. She did not want to get it at the fancy places. She insisted on Mc Donald's. It is always a good sign when they want to save you money. We spent 3 hours together. I always bring a small photo album with me. Including pictures of my family, dog, house, and even pictures of myslef as a kid. I also bring post cards of my home town. They always enjoy looking at them. And since I am shy at first, it is a great conversasion starter. I recommend it. She is new in the agency and I was the first man she has met. I really liked her smile, but there was no chemistry between us. I did ask for her phone number and she gave it to me. I had another meeting at 6pm and I also met her at the agency. We will call her N. She spoke better English so no interpreter again, bonus day I guess. N has a music degree and we mostly talked about music. I suggested getting dinner so we went to a Ukranian place. Remember how I told you I ate for $2 the other day, well this was 15 times as much for two. I guess this is what happens when they pick the place) The food was great, they do amazing things with pork here. I do not even eat it at home, but here it is awesome. I noticed that our waitress is very cute. HHMMMM.....We have dinner and then walk again, the sea breeze is blowing and it is a nice night for a walk We walk to the sea and I hear a band that sounds like bad 60's music. I get really upset when I realize they are doing an "elavator version" of an Offspring song I like. Not good. I say good night to N and also get her phone number. I go back to my flat but I see my American friend B at the pub, he is watching soccer with a German guy, looks like rain so we deicde to go to an indoor disco. We grab a taxi and head off. Now I am used to the taxi drivers here. They only know one speed - "warp speed". they drive so fast, and it freaks you out at first. But the pros slow down for only two things, and they know where these two things are at all times. Pot holes and police. And there are alot of both. they avoid every pot hole like they have them on internal radar. And they know where every police man is. More on police later. Well this disco is called "night of Odessa" translated but it is full of couples and there were more men than women. But this does not stop B and the German guy. The German guy finds a girl and we never see him again. B shows his skills again and starts talking to two girls. I tried to tell him they were too young, but he does not listen to me. They decide they want to go to Arkadia and they wants us along. I try telling B they only want us along to foot the bill. He does not listen again. So to be good wingman I go along. And I was correct of course, we paid for the taxi, and then they take us to a new disco, under new management. All they did was paint a brown building white and gave it a new name, Stereo. Over here expensive means good. So since this was the most expensive disco, the ladies say it is the best. I wonder .....two girls take us to Arkadia, and bring us to the highest cover charge disco, coincidence, I think not! I explain this to B, but to no avail. We go in, no different from the rest. I am tired at this point and we leave at 3am. I have another 2 meetings tomorrow. So B gives them his cell phone number and we are off. He asks me if I think they will call him. He only has one more night here. I say of course, they are Ukranian girls, you are an American, tomorrow is Saturday, and they will want to go to another disco. I get a dirty look.Odessa Day 4I wake up late again. I am not sleepy at night for some reason. I quickly go the gym, my first meeting is at 2pm. On the way there I stop for a Red Bull, boy those things are quite a jolt, first one I tried. I walk to the gym, it is 15-20 minutes to walk. Now the police. Over here the traffic cops hold this little 2 foot wand or stick. and they stand where ever they wish. On the street, in the street, on the side anywhere. And if they point that little wand at you, you must stop and pull yout car over. What is in that little stick, that makes people stop? Why do the people fear that wand? I get home and shower up and meet my 2pm date. We will call her N2. Well guess what, remember the cute waitress from last night, served N and I at the Ukranian place? She was my 2pm date. What are the chances? N2 stated she did recognize me from my photo. We both laughed alot over that one. I thought she looked cute and familiar) We had a great deal of chemistry between us. Right off the bat. We walked to the sea, but she suggested we take a boat to the beach at Arkadia. I never did this so I said yes. it was nice, the breeze was kicking and the sun was out. I think this boat ride would be even more incredible at night on a date. But we had to wait, why you ask? Ukranian business that's why. We had to wait until the boat had 25 people. It would not budge an inch until then. so we sat on a rocking boat for 50 minutes. The captain counted and waited until he had 25 paying customers. Now I warned her I get sea sick, but I made it OK. You get sea sick once you worry every time after. Once we got to Arkadia I told her I was hungry. I told her I wanted pluf, rice with meat. N2 said she knew a place right up the street. I know I will spell it wrong, but it was an Uzbacastanian place. We walked there. It was very good, she had fish, i had pork grilled, and these little biscuits with mutton and onions in them, very good. N2 said they were "seesa", I am sure I got it wrong. N2 did not like the silence, she kept saying "Speak me" but I am a little shy myself, but at dinner we talked alot. She said she wanted to see me again. She may be at the disco tonight. N2 also works out and is healthy like me. We exchanged phone numbers. She walked home, she lives near Arkadia and I grabbed a taxi. This taxi was not a fulll timer, if you hold your hand out low and stand on the edge of the street people will stop and ask where you need to go. If it works for them, they will take you. So he stopped and I told him and he said "Devi" = Let's go! Much cheaper than normal taxis. I had to stop at the flat, I needed a credit card since this was my first Athena date. I needed to pay them using their web site. So he took me there, and waited to take me to Athena. By the way Athena is only $15 per arranged meeting. Adam and Eva is $20. I had it wrong before. He talked to me in Russian and I did the best I could we talked about cars, girls, and President Bush, very funny. My first Athena date we will call V. She is the youngest on my list of ladies to meet. But I liked her so I thought I would try. Still no interpreter needed) so we were off. V is very honest we had the most in depth talk of any lady so far. V asked very serious questions. About girls here, American men, marriage, love, but then she did it. She asked if she could smoke, I knew she would even if I said no, so I said yes. We sat at a cafe, and she had 5 within the hour. To me kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray. Now, I have never actually licked an ashtray, but I imagine it to be just as bad. So for me V is a no go, it did not say that she smokes in her profile. There was a little attraction, but N2 looks like the one I will see again so far. I am at the Irish pub right now, across from my flat. B and the other guys are watching soccer and watching the "working ladies". I would never do such a thing myself, but I get a kick out of watching them work. I always make them laugh because I go up to their table and give them my rates in case they want me for the evening) We are off to the disco, B's last night in town and my last disco night for a week.

[stoichman]

odessa day 5 This day needs to start where I left off. B, German guy, and I are on our way to the disco again, Arkadia. We walk down to the taxi stop. Now the taxis here do not have meters, so you have to bargin the price before getting in. They see us coming and they approach us. (we must have American stamped on our forehead) "Taxi?" he asked. I say "Da, Arkadia, skolka eta stoy et?" (yes, arkadia, how much is it?) He looks puzzled, I am speaking Russian. He says 40 grevna, and I respond "ochen doraga." (too expensive) Now he does not want to loose the fare and he sees us walk away to more taxis. Now the price goes down to 30. I say 25 and he says OK. It is fun to go through this ritual every time with them. but you have to speak the Russian or you will pay too much every time. You can get it even cheaper using the locals, with the low hand thing, but this is faster.We go to Arkadia, and the place is packed. Saturday night is the best here. B has received about 3 phone calls from ladies waiting for him, he gave his number to about 7 girls. and sure enough they are waiting for him outside the discos, not inside, as I told him. They want thim to pay to get inside. He decides to go it alone, but only after speaking to one of them. We go to Itoka, my favorite place here. This one has an ancient Roman motiff going on. We walk inside the the two of my buddies need to hold onto their jaws. There is nothing like Itoka on a Saturday night in the summer. The place is packed the dance floor if full . Now remember this place is an open air outdoor disco. No roof on the dance floor and it is on the beach. You can not even find a spot to dance right now. The girls are incredible. The only things the ladies know how to wear are short, tight, see through, and/or tiny. The other great thing about the discos here is that you can find a table also. It has two levels. All open air with some roofs, but no walls other than the employee and bathrooms areas. We get a great table near the dance floor, just lucky I guess. I suggest (and later regret) we get a bottle of vodka and a 2 liter of Coke. so we do. My job tonight is wingman again, I want to make sure that they enjoy the last night of their first visit to Odessa. The bottle of vodka (one liter) and Coke is gone 2 hours later after many toasts. So now I send them off in search of a lady to dance with. They both make their way to separate ladies. I keep an eye on them since there are some guys around them. B sits down at the table by 3 girls and one guy. He stays there for about an hour and German guy talks to a girl at the bar. I soon realize that B is really wasted and German guy is doing OK. I start to buy us bottles water for the rest of the night. The waitress is funny and flirts a little, teasing me that I am playing "mother" to the two of them. I spent almost $30 that night on water trying to get us back to normal. I turn around and B is slow dancing with a different lady, I guess the other one left already, but of course he has her number. German guy is easy to find, he must be 6'5", I spot him on the dance not dancing with anyone in particular, just dancing. I make my way over to the steps near the ampitheatre seating. I dance there watching the people on the floor. This dance floor must be about the size of a basketball court all together, and not a bare spot. I talk to a lady standing behind me. Perfect English, from Kiev. I soon realize she is alone too. We will call her A3. Her friends have left already. I asked her why she stayed, she just smiled. and said "I have been behind you for one hour." A3 also laughs about how I am playing "mother" tonight, keeping an eye in the boys. They play an Ukranian ethnic sounding song, and the place goes nuts, even the people in their seats are doing a little dance in their chairs, although must of them just jumped out of their seats. It is nice to see how proud of their heritage they are. A3 has a little sad story to tell. She is here trying to have fun since her boyfriend decided to marry someone else, not much of a boyfriend, I think. I spend the rest of the night talking to her and we have fun.Soon I see it getting light out. It is 4:30am, The sun comes up around 5am. I grab everyone and take us to the balcony that over looks the beach. We watch the sun come up. This has been a great night, and even if you do not do the disco thing (I myself do not in America) you have to do this here. Watching the sun come up over the Black Sea at a disco with the music pumping and many dancing still, it was a awesome moment. On the beach I saw many young kids posing for pictures. They are alll dressed up. The parents are there as well. They took an all boy picture, then all girls, then one group one only kids, and then the parents got in one too. A3 told me it is graduation day for school, like high school. so it is tradition to do this. They stay up to see the sunrise together as classmates, even the parents do this. I think this is so cool, I assume it is like watching the first sunrise of their adult lives together since they attended school togeher. B is with a new third girl, I have no idea where he found her. So we walk out to get a taxi. Now the taxi ritual again, but this time it is a little different. They always want to charge more to get home. they figure you took a taxi here, and well, you gotta get home, so why not? They want 45, I say "Dun nyet" This is how you contradict something in Russian and proceed to tell him that last night it was 30, all in Russian and begin to walk away. He knows that the farther we walk away the cheaper it will be so he agrees to 30 grevna. B goes with his lady and A3, German guy and I leave together. We take A3 to her hotel and I get her phone number and email. Then I get dropped off in front of the Irish Pub by my flat, and German guy leaves for his hotel. I get home at 6:15am and try to get to sleep, I have a meeting at 2pm.The curse of Vodka ensues. I wake up a few times while trying to sleep. The last time is around noon and I give up and try to wake up instead. Did I mention I hate vodka? Then I figure that this is OK since the weekend is over and B is gone, no more disco for a while. Three nights in a roll is enough for me. That is 3 more times than I have gone in America for the whole year. My 2pm is at Athena with a girl we will call E. I skip the gym, for obvious reasons, And take a taxi to Athena. E is very nice but we need an interpreter. She is 25 but looks 30. I am noticing this more and more. They look 5 to 7 years older than they should. Makes me worry even more about the ones in the discos. E asks some very serious questions, the most serious is about wanting my wife to work or stay home. that is a serious question for date one I think. I tell her that I think kids need someone home, but it does not have to be the woman. She agrees but states she can not stay at home all the time. The interpreter tells me about this later also, this is important to E. E thinks I want a stay at home wife. I think someone should be there until they are in school I think, just my opinion. The interpreter leaves and we try it alone for a while, but it is impossible, She knows very little English. We walk for a while by the sea and then up to my flat and I say goodbye. I still have a 6pm meeting and I feel like a turd. I go to my flat and Natasha is in the hallway and tells me my 6pm has cancelled. This lady signed a K1 visa yesterday for a guy she met 2 weeks ago. Natasha tells me more of the story, and I find it a little scary that they only spent 2 days together and they are doing a visa. It may work, but this would scare me to death. This girl was the best looking on my list too, lucky guy. Well, I go for a very short walk, just to eat at the cafeteria place. As I walk I am thinking that so far only N2 looks like one I will call for a second date. I have two meetings tomorrow again. I come home and crawl into bed at 6:30 pm. Did I mention I hate vodka?

[stoichman]

odessa day 6 and day 7 Odessa day 6Today is Monday and I have two meetings at Athena. One at noon and one at 5pm. I go the gym and have a real treat. The gym name is Strezoza by the way. This place has the weights and aerobics all in one rectangular room, so we get to watch the aerobics class as we lift weights. Today is my favorite class, salsa-ramba. The instructor insists that the ladies do one of two things at all times while doing the movements. Either shake their butt, or swivel their hips. How dare she!!!! She yells if they do not. In any event my workout always takes 15 to 20 minutes longer when this class is offered. I go home, shower and decide to walk to Athena today. The weather has gotten hotter, and today and yesterday were the only beach days so far on my trip, but I have not made it there yet. My noon meeting is a lady we will call A4. She is very pretty, but not quite my body type. She is nice but a little stand offish. She promtly states she only has one hour since she is meeting her friends at the beach. OK, so we go to Mc Donalds for ice cream, there is one right down the street from the office. The she insists on paying for her own ice cream. OK, so we sit and begin to talk and I show her my pictures. Next she proudly states she is having a house built ouside of Odessa, she owns her own business. The meeting is going horrible until we discuss movies. She like movies, and many of the same I like, science fiction and fantasy. Now A4 perks up a bit. We talk about Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, cool!!!!!! I make her late for the beach by about a half hour. The manager of Athena takes me back to the office and we begin to look at more profiles. I show her 3 other ladies I REALLY like but I ruled out for different reasons. I show her two that stated they wanted their man to be "well off". I explained to her that his has a bad meaning in America when a girl says this, to me it means she wants a rich man only, and may only love money. She say no, no, it means they do not want a poor man. I said well if a guy can make it over here for a trip, it shows he is serious, and not poor. So why should they state this, maybe "financialy secure" is ok to state, but do not say "well off". I think this turns some guys off, it does me. The third had an age cap of 27. I showed her and she said, she does not understand the men that come here, I will call her, she will like you. So I will meet one Wednesday and hope to schedule the other two soon. I go to my 5pm and we will call her V2. Off to Mc donalds again, and I show her my pictures too, V2 has incredible light blue eyes and long blonde hair. She works with horses in the forest 40 minutes outside of the city. She lives there too. I think she was very interested because she made several offers to come back and see me again. I always ask the question if they prefer living in big cities or little cities, and she had the perfect answer. V2 has a dream to live on an island. I want to move to the Florida Keys someday. I found a girl with the same dream, cool. I went home after about 2 hours of talking with V2, she went to meet her cousin. I needed an interpreter for both meetings today. The interpreter said that she thought V2 wanted me to come with her to wait for her cousin, but she said this a little too late to go back. I got home and saw that my American friend arrived. We will call hiim K, I met him on my 2001 Yalta trip, and he was there in Yalta for my 2002 also. We have kept in touch since. K plans to stay here for a week, and then maybe Yalta again or Kherson with me. He has a meeting tomorrow set up already. We chat for 3 hours then off to bed. He is staying in the flat across the hallway.Odessa day 7Only one meeting today. I was called down to the office by Natasha in Adam and Eva on Sunday. She has a brand new girl she wanted me to see. She is doing her profile and I say hello. I agreed to meet her so today is the day. Before I went to the gym I stopped by the office to remind Natasha that I have not met my #1 and #2 pretrip chocie yet due to one bing sick, and one with a bad cell phone. She calls both and I will meet them the next two days, awesome!!!! Off to the gym and guess who I see walking to the agency on the way back, my only meeting today, we will call her N3. So I see her, and she recognizes me too. We chat in Russian a little before we hit the office. I am worried I got the time wrong. I am all sweaty from the gym and need a shower. Natasha says, no, I got the time correct and leave to shower. I am a little worried because I know I like her already, but she does not speak any English, and she has a daughter. I was right we hit it off well, we chatted in the Irish Pub and we had lunch. This girl is the most feminine lady I have ever met, anywhere. She charmed me, and I was able to make her laugh, making little jokes in Russian. I saw pictures of her little girl, a real beauty. N3 was married at 16, and a child at 17. We left the Irish Pub, and I told the interpreter that we would walk alone a little while. We walked down to the Sea, and then it looked like rain. We heard the thunder. We went back to my flat and wached TV for an hour, laughing at a few funny shows. I tried to make a second date, but we needed the office girls to do this. Natasha told me N3 has no phone and I would have to make arrangements now. So we will have a second date on Friday. This will be my first second date. I walk her to the bus stop and say "Paka".So I am asking for a little input on this one. Anyone successful with both dynamics I have here? No English and a child. One of them alone is tuff, but has anyone overcome both? I go up to the flat and see K, and I take him to Athena. He has not been there yet. We have fun chatting with the office girls and manage to arrange a few meeting for K. We also discuss maybe going to Nikolaev if things get bad here in Odessa. The manager at Athena tells me A4 called and asked about me today, the lady from yesterday. I thought she did not like me at all. K and I return to the Irish Pub and he has dinner and I have ice cream while we watch the super model ladies walk by. There has to be something in the water here

[stoichman]

weekly wrap up report week one Well I thought I would do a little weekly wrap up, I hope you enjoy.First two things I forgot in my daily reports. 1) Back on day 4 when I was with V at an outdoor cafe I had an International Incident. One of the many street people/beggars was standing next to us very close to our table, only a railing of a gate separated us. A lady was eating sunflower seeds and shouting in Russian. I asked V what she was doing and V said that she thinks she is talking to God, and is a little upset with him. She stayed there for a long time and we locked eyes a few times, scary. All of a sudden she took a sunflower seed and threw it at me. It was streamimg right towards my forehead. Now, mind you, I say a sunflower seed, not a handfull, she only needed one. With such deadly accuracy it came at my head. I lowered my head to try and avoid it, but to no avail. My hair is spiked in the front and it lodged itself in my hair. I was outraged, where is the embassy? This is an attack with an deadly sunflower seed with intent to embarase me on a first date. I want to file a complaint. But really... V and I laughed alot at this, and the woman with a direct line to God walked away, quietly, with a smug look on her face. And perhaps, but I am not sure, she may have turned and pointed at me, before she blended into the crowd.2) Back on day 6 after my two meetings with Athena I returned to the office with Oksana (manager/interpreter). While walking I explained that I liked their new intern we will call C. I asked if I could have a meeting with her. Oksana said she is not a client and I would have to ask myself. But, but.... I can not ask out girls, that is why I am using your agency. So when we returned C was there and she asked me if she could be my interpreter for my next date. I saw an opening, could I take it? I was so scared. I said that I could not use her as an interpreter because she is too cute and I want to date her. I stumbled a bit as I said it, and I had to explain a little, but she aggreed and asked when. I said how about now? And we were off to a restaurant. C speaks perfect English, it was my best date so far, but she explained that she is not looking to marry for another 4 or 5 years. We talked for nearly 3 hours. maybe she just wanted to chat with an American. She stated some disturbing things, like that many of the girls in the Ukraine also only love money, and that many others only want to get to America. A few statistics for week oneNumber of first dates = 8 (nine if you count C)Number of second dates = 0Cost of meetings at Athena = 4 x $15 = $60Cost of meetings at Adam and Eva = 4 x $20 = $80Number of no shows = 1shortest date = 1.5 hourlongest date= 3 hoursNumber of girls needing interpreter = 4Cost on interpreters = $50 about 7 hours worthSpending money so far= $400 This includes only food, taxi, internet, disco, and gym fee for one month. This would be $57 a day.Number of disco nights = 3Number of Alka Seltzer used = 10All of you that commented on the trip report, Thanks!!!!! I hope it makes for a good read.On another forum I was called a "playboy" ..... I hope meeting many girls does not make me a "playboy". I have not even tried to kiss a single girl I have met yet. I have two failed fiancee visas so far and with both I did very little looking. I did one visa after meeting only one girl, and the second after only meeting 3. In both cases I though I met the "one". So for me, meeting a few did not work, so I will be much more picky this time. I think both the lady and man in this quest should be picky, marriage is to be forever. I hope they were just kidding, I am serious about my search.

[stoichman]

Odessa day 8 and day 9 Odessa day 8So today is the day I finally get to meet my #1 pretrip choice and we will call her A5. It is a 10 am meeting so I can not get to the gym before so I will try to go later. A5 is just as lovely as her photos, even better in person. She speaks enough English so we are off to the streets. We stop at a cafe for fruit salads and drinks. I show her my photos and we have some great conversasion. She tells me of at least two other men that offered her visas already. I understand why and how. One was with another agency and the guy asked her on the first date, and then when she said no, he went back to the owner and tried to get her removed. She does not use this agency anymore, she never liked it anyway. Then he had a guy see her in January and in June, but she also told him no. She explained why using little stories, like he would eat a candy bar in front of her and not offer her any, not open doors, just plain old bad manners. I guess no one would blame her. This date ends up being my longest first date, 4.5 hours. After the salads we walk for 2 more hours and then we decide to have lunch. I will have to find out the name again because it was awesome. Stuffed pork, with cheese and mushrooms inside, and mashed potatoes. Yummy!!!!! After lunch we walk again and she stops to read a sign for another marriage agency, call romanticstars.com, I make a mental note. At the end we exchange phone numbers, and I ask her to go to a concert tomorrow night. She says yes, if it is warm. It is a very popular group, and I understand that she just got over being sick, but to say the least I am a little disappointed. I tell her I will call or she can call me. I really want to have a second date with her. Today is cold again, not a beach day. So I go back to the flat. I chat with K about the girl with a child and no English, N3. K brings up a good point, one I already knew, that if I do a visa for N3 the father has to sign papers to the child to leave. Then he also states that sometimes the fathers insist on being PAID to sign the papers. Like they refuse to unless you pay them off. Now for my situation, this could be wicked. N3 mentioned that her exhusband was a gambler, and after they divorced he lost the house and car to a card game. Not the kind of guy I want to ask to sign papers for his daughter to leave the country. This thought stays with me all day. I tell K about the new agency and we will check it out tomorrow. I get a phone call from Athena, my 7pm meeting wants to reschedule, she can not meet tonight. But I am already busy the next day with 2 new meetings. I forget about my 7pm and ask Oksana if she talked to the young lady I really want to meet, the one that had a 27 year old cap. Oksana said she wants to meet tomorrow. Once again I already have 2 meetings. So I decide to ask this girl, we will call her L, to go to the concert tomorrow night. My buddy K already has a date, and I would like to have one. Oksana says she will call her and ask. One hour later I get a phone call and L has agreed to meet me for the concert tomorrow. So I now have 3 first meetings for tomorrow. I go down to the Adam and Eva office and Natasha has a surprise for me. Remember the commercial I made for Adam and Eva? Well it is working I guess, some ladies came to the office to sign up. One though came to meet me. She left her photo, and wants to meet me soon. Her sister saw me on TV, and told her she must meet me. She is a cutie, so I agree to meet her Friday at 11am. So back to the flat and I go to the gym, it is late now maybe 6pm. After the gym I am off to bed. I manage to avoid the discos for one more night.Odessa day 9I wake up in time to go the gym before my noon meeting. Today is warmer, and if I had time it would be a beach day. My noon meeting is with a girl we will call E2. And she was my #2 pretrip choice, and I like her right off. E2 has a great personality, and is very attractive to me. She is a teacher also. She has to be somewhere soon, it was only a two hour date. But she wants to see me on Saturday. I plan to see her then. I wish I had met my #1 and #2 a week ago, I knew they would be the ones for me. I go back to the flat and K and I decide to check out the new place romanticstars.com, and it was an adventure. It is in the same building as the Turkish Embassy, and the guard stopped us to look at our passports. Well I may be an idiot, but I never carry it. I explain this to him, and maybe I did a poor job, because he just shook his head. So we call the office on K's cell phone, and the manager comes down to the street to get us. She is a nice girl, and she explains that it is a new place, since January. I knew it wasn't here last year. We look at the photos, and K is like a kid in a candy store. The photos are the most professional ones I have ever seen at an agency. Now, this can be a bad thing, since the girls may look nothing like their pictures. Also interesting is the agency numbers the girls have. They all include little nicknames like "sun" or "sweet" or "pretty" with their number. K quickly begins making a list of girls to meet, but I have to be off to my 4pm at Athena. I draw K a map to get back to the flat and I am off on my own again. Now it is really hot, and I, like an idiot, decide to walk 30 minutes to Athena in long pants. Keep in mind I am a Florida boy, air conditioned cars, air conditioned buildings. I am a sweaty mess by the time I get there. I am lucky, I guess, to have C as my interpreter for a lovely girl called M. Once again, I am the first American M has met. I woud say this is tue with almost half of the girls I met. M is very sweet, the prettiest blue eyes, and so nervous. I quickly suggest anywhere near with air conditioning. So we find a little place so I can cool down. We stay in this place for at least 2 hours, and I stop sweating. I was so embarased. Then we decide to walk back to the main strip, Derybasivska, where my flat is. It is cool now, thank God. We decide to eat at Estrilita, they have never had such food (Tex-Mex), both C and M. since it is their first time here, I suggest that I order three different things and we can share, trying all three. I order soft tacos, quesidias, and a burrito. M liked the soft taco the most, and C the quesidia. But they said they like Ukranian food better, they are proud people. but I enjoyed the taste of home for a change. We have a long talk about the street people, mainly the kids, since I was hit up for money twice here. C says that many of them actually work for someone older, like a little gang. They have quite a little scam going. They find a store or magazine stand that has free newspapers, with advertising, and maybe coupons. When the worker is not looking they take all of them. Then they distribute the papers to the workers. The workers then sell the free papers to people on the street. Not a bad racket. I ask if the kids are really homeless, and she says yes. They do most likely have no home, and do use the money for food, maybe beer sometimes, but they must eat C says. I say goodbye to C and M, and I take off to the concert. I go to my flat and take a shower and meet K with his date and interpreter outside. Boy, this interpreter is making out tonight. She is getting paid to go to a very popular concert.My date is a little late so I send the three on them early to get tickets. My date, L, shows up with Oksana (from Athena), since she requested this so we would make sure to recognize each other, since we left from the Irish pub. I normally would not like a concert to be a first date, but I had no choice this time. It is a much better 3rd date or later I think. L is incredible, I am smitten big time. I was waiting for someone to make me feel like Anya and Lena (my first two visas) but I worry about L's age. And she looks even younger. We get a taxi and we are off. Now let me explain the concert. This is a pop group consisitng of three girls. They wear next to nothing on stage and in their videos. They are very sexy and dance, well I am sure you can guess. And the name of this group?????? It translates Vi-agra. Could it be a mistake? Nope. Not a chance. Coincidence? I think not. I asked the interpreter, and she said the name Viagra. She asked me "do you know what that is?" I said I am not sure. She begins to explain "Old men...." I stopped her, that is all I needed to hear. Only in the Ukraine, three beautiful barely dressed girls, on stage, dancing like strippers, singing about who knows what, and the only name they could come up with would be to name it after a little pill that makes old men just a little happier. So the concert is late of course, just like you would expect here, over an hour actually. The tickets were about $24 a piece for us to have a table, expensive for here. But the seat prices went up to $75 at least for the best tables. It is in Itoka, the Roman place and of course our table has ancient Roman columns in our way. But we wiggle a view around them. Since the start was late L and I get to chat. In fact we have a great talk. She loves to tell stories, and I just love to listen to her. She is only 5'1" and adorable with a sweet voice to boot. Did I mention I am smitten? The only red flag I see is the fact that she mentioned that it was her Mom's idea to join the agency, but she said that after dating the men here in the Ukraine for a few years she agrees it is best if she wants a serious husband. I worry about this because Anya (visa 1) had this situation, with Mom, also. The concert is fun, but K did not enjoy his date too much. We leave right after the concert. L has an exam tomorrow, she said she must study. I get her phone number and give her mine. I ask if she wants to see me again, and she says "why, not?" I hate that answer, almost as much as "maybe, and you?" Can't they say "yes, with no reservations?" It would sure help me alot. We go in two taxis again. And I get to bed around 2am.

[stoichman]

odessa day 10 and day 11 Odessa day 10I wake up this morning and decide to see the commercial I made for Adam and Eva. It is on at nine am and I have not seen it yet. So I tune in the TV. It turns out to be more like an "info-mercial" like the ones they have all over the USA. The only part they decided to use of me speaking was the part where I told the story on my friend that married a girl from Odessa last summer. I was the bestman/witness for the wedding here in July last year. So I told the story for them. It was very funny to hear my own voice with a Russain man speaking voice over for me. The rest of the info-mercial was showing the office, the workers, an interview with Natasha (owner) and some footage of Natasha showing me photos. It was quite funny. I am meeting the girl that stopped by Adam and Eva to meet me since her sister saw me on TV at 11am today, we will call her A6. A6 was very fun, we went to Fidel for lunch. I asked her if she was with romanticstars.com because I was fairly positive I saw her photo there when I went there with K. She said yes, she was surprised I knew this. I was the first American she met also. She speaks good English and I am sure I will want to see her again. We talk about Odessa. I mention the Catacombs near Odessa and I stated I liked them, I saw them last summer. They are made of sandstone with over 1000 km of tunnels made during the 19th century. They were used by partisans during WWII. I recommend to all history buffs. The coolest part is when we were in the room/tunnel used for funerals. They made us put out all candels, and they did a little prayer there. Talk about total darkness, big chills. Anyways back to the present, she tells me a "funny" story that when she went there it was a school trip, and she was with her boyfriend, well the boyfriend wanted a little alone time so they separated from the group and got lost. They were found two hours later by an angry search group. She told this story while blushing of course. She says she is busy until Monday. I will try to see her then. I talk a little with K after this date and he has met a few girls from romanticstars.com. He says it is a good agency, and he really wants to date the manager, and is trying quite hard to get a date with her. They start at $20 a meeting and then they go down in price if you do more than 3, more than 6, and so on. I trust his opinion, so I may try them if I need to. After my chat with K I am off to meet N3 the lady with a child. It is my first second date. She wants to go the beach even though it is 4pm already. I agree and we are to the beach, my first visist this year. I suggest Riviara, and she perks up. It is the best one here, it is the cleanest. It has cafes there, bars, a little disco at night, waverunners, and all. It cost money to go on it so it is not the most popular. (Arkadia is the most popular) Riviara is a $6 taxi ride there, and then $3 for each person to get on the beach, then $2 for a cushion to use with the lawnchairs. Some of it is a deposit you get back when you give the cushion back. N3 is happy to go there. We lay out a little and do manage to catch some sun and we swim even though the water is freezing at first. The rest of the time was even better. She crawls onto my chair sitting between my legs, and snuggles up to me. She reaches into her bag and pulls out an English gramar book and begins to read to me. Now she knows zero English, so this is quite fun, and she sounds so sweet reading to me, we do this for another 1.5 hour. We return to my flat around 7:30pm and she takes a bus home. I meet K in his flat and I tell him I will return later around 10pm since it is Friday night. I go to the Internet to write you guys and return to K's flat and hear him snoring even though I am in the hallway. I decide no disco tonight and off to bed I go.Odessa day 11I wake up, it is Saturday, and I realize I have nothing planned today. Or any day after today for that matter!! I begin to panic, nothing to do in Odessa??? This is not good, and I panic even more since this means I will have to actually start calling the girls on the phone and ask for dates. I decide to call E2 that I met on day 9. It is 11am and already hot outside. Finally a great beach day!!! She agrees to go to the beach, cool. We will meet at the Irish Pub at 2pm. Off to the gym it is. While walking to the gym, I saw the most incredible site. Now remember, I have been here in the Ukraine 6 times already and this has never happen. And lady readers, please allow me this one moment. Six young ladies are walking towad me, picture if you would (and excuse the spelling) Christina Agulera, Britney Spears, Buffy Summers (year one) , Mary Kate and Ashley, and Jennifer Love-Hewwit walking down the street. They are holding hands and talking a mile a mintue. Wearing spandex, see through pants, 3 in white, one in pink, and one in yellow. Most are wearing some sort of halter top, also tight, see through, and very small. No real sign of undergarments anywhere. I stop dead in my tracks and just admire. I let them walk by, I come to maybe 5 minutes later, shake my head and realize I love this place. My day goes to poop after this moment. I get to the gym and the sun is still shining. I get halfway through my work out and it starts to rain. No problem, I think, it will stop. But no, it does not, it begins to pour. I finish and it is still coming down like crazy, and I have only 40 minutes to walk home and meet E2. I realize that she may not come, or be late, due to the rain, but I did not want to stand her up. so I begin to walk home. 30 seconds from the gym I step in a puddle, no, it was more like a little pond. My feet are soaked. and then I get a first hand look at the sewer system here. The streets are flooded. The cars are in water halfway up the doors. I walk in puddles up to my knees at every street I have to cross. I saw things floating that should be taken to a lab to identify. Any doctors out there that may be able to warn me of the diseases I will come down with? So I get back to the flat and look for E2 in case she is early. I jump in the shower, and guess what? the phone rings. I worry it is E2 so with soap in my hair and other places I jump right out of the shower. Soaking wet, I answer the phone in all my glory. And the little voice says "this is Alena." Now I start to panic. I have no idea who this is. I am trying to have second dates with one Alina, and two Elenas. They all have my phone number, and they all have more than one way to say their name, Alina, Lena, Yelena, Elena, and they all sound the same to me. This is the worst nightmare of any man dating over here, I have no idea who I am talking to. So I do what any normal guy would do, I pretend I can not hear her, like the phome is not working. she says she will call back, I hang up the phone, but then take it off the hook. I want to finish my shower, E2 is to be here soon. I get out of the shower, and hang it back up, and it rings again. I talk to the same voice and I ask if it is the girl I am to meet at 2pm, and of course it is not. Busted. she now knows I have no idea who it is. It is A5 from day 8. she says "Did you give your phone number to every girl in Odessa?" I was a little mad, I only gave it to 4 but 3 have the same name to me. I felt like saying "Do you meet every man that comes in the office?" I know she may, she is the most popular, Natasha told me so. But I must be a gentleman and told her I am meeting someone at 2pm with the same name. She is not happy, but seems to understand. Then to make things better she asked me what I did last night. I went to the concert last night, and she knows this, I asked her to go on Wednesday, but she gave me a maybe answer "if it is warm" so I went with someone else that said yes. Better a sure date, than a maybe. I told her I went, and we talked about it for a while. Then she stated I am never in my flat, she has called many times. Well if you spend your holiday in the flat it is not much of a vacation, right? so I begin to realize that since she is the "crowning jewel" of Adam and Eva she is used to men tripping over themselves to get to her, and I do not do this. I ask if they want to see me , and if they say anything other than yes, I move on. I tell her I want to see her again, but she says she may go to their summer house for the weekend. A5 then states that if she does not go she will call me. Once again assuming I will sit in my flat and wait for her to call????? Um, no, but I do want to see her again. I say goodbye and finish getting ready for E2. 15 minutes later E2 calls and says she is outside. I go out to meet meet her. But my bad luck has one more thing in mind. Part of the roof/ceiling decides to fall exactly when I am on the stairwell. From 7 floors up it falls and hits the steps right in front of me. It must be water damage from the rain. I tell Natasha. She is happy I was ont hurt, it took 3 hours to clean up. It is funny that Natasha had to have someone clean it up, because no one feels they are responsible for the common areas in the buildings. They ony care about their flat. If Natasha did not have a business to run here in this building the mess would have stayed there forever. I see E2 and she is late due to the rain, no problem, no beach today. We deicde to go to eat first. I am really hungry and I am dreaming about the stuffed pork I had the other day. So I try to find the cafe, and I am successful. It is called Faconi cafe, a little place on a street called Ekaterynynska #8/10 a little more than one block north of Derybasivska. The best I have had here. Pork grilled and stuffed with cheese with mushrooms on top, and mashed potatoes on the side. Yummy!!!! I had it twice and I am sure I will again. We have a great chat again, and E2 has a t-shirt on that says "we don't do mornings" She has a great sense of humor. It reminds me of many othe funny t-shirts I have at home like "Mean Aliens Suck". We go to the movies after, a good day for this cool, and rainy. We see Kill Bill #2. I knew that plot would not matter in such a film, the title says it all. I only understand every fifth word, but no biggie. I want to be with her. I have seen films in Sevastopol also. Here in the cinema there is assigned seating, no first come, first sit. They usually have 3 different ticket prices, $2, $4, and $6. You pick your seat when you pay. We get the good ones. No snacks, we are full of good food. I would have to say this films stinks in every language, the locals did not seem to happy with it either. I walk her to the bus stop and ask if she wants to see me again, she says "of course", a good answer for once  I will see her again on Tuesday, she works the next two days. I go to see K at his flat, and promise to wake him up this time for the disco. I go for a long walk. I go down to the famous Potemkin Stepps and then walk along Prymorsky street to the end. At the end there is a bridge with a story, it is called the "mother in law bridge." A lazy man hated visiting his mother in law because he had to walk down one large hill and then up another to see her. He was rich so he had a metal bridge built so he only had to walk a short distance to see her instead of over, up and down large hills. On the other side of this bridge I walked along the cliff embankment by the flats that over look the seaport. I walk until the park hit a dead end. On the way back I saw the "wall-building" It is a building that has a very unique angle on one end. If you stand at one spot in the road it looks like the front of the building is only a wall with fake windows and such, like they use on movie sets. I think it is part of an engineering school, not sure on that one. I walk home and get another funny view. Remember what I said about the roof falling and no one would clean it up except Natasha? Well a tree fell in the rain storm at noon in a park. It is 9pm now and it is still there, no one will touch it until they have to. In fact one woman is using it as a foot rest since it fell right in front of a park bench. In America I think a fallen tree in a city park would be taken care of fast, not here. K and I go to the disco, nothing interesting there. We go to Itoka again, we leave at 2am. I am already a little bored with the discos.

[stoichman]

Odessa day 12 and day 13 Odessa day 12Well I wake up later than I wanted about 11am, but I only have plans for 6pm. Yesterday I did also manage to call L, the girl from the concert, and we are to meet again at 6pm. My third second date, cool. but if I would have met the ladies I wanted in week one, I would be on 4th and 5th dates by now, but no use worrying abut it now. But it just so happens that no one from week one is going to have a second date. I did not meet my #1 and #2 pretrip choices until day 8 and day 9. So off to the gym it is. At the gym I get another laugh. It is my favorite aerobics class again. The one with alot of hip movement. The instructor is different and she uses the first 30 minutes just to show the ladies how to swivel, shake, and pop their hips and midsection. I pay close attention, I may need this in life. Then I notice that something unusual is going on in the lobby, I hear laughter. You see, the weights and aerobic room are in the same place, a rectangular room, with no separation at all. The lobby, however, is on the other side of a glass wall with a double door, also glass mostly. I see all the employess laughing and staring at the aerobics class. Why are they laughing? This is serious, they are making fun of my favorite class!!! But then I see it. A man is doing the class, but not just any man. He looks like the guy from the Visine commericals (get's the red out), I think it is Ben Stein. You know the guy that says "Wow" and made money doing it. Picture him trying to keep up with 15 Ukranian women, that know how to move, really well. He was wearing a white polo shirt buttoned all the way up, and some kind of long blue athletic pants, with bright brand new white tennis shoes. I swear he was going to throw his hip out of place. One hard movement in one direction with his hips, and it threw him off balance and he had to stop to avoid falling every 2 minutes. He tried his heart out, and he was still there when I left, but I think he had no idea the crowd he had watching with pure amusement. Off to the Internet cafe to write you guys, and then to get ready for my 6pm date with L. Well sure enough, if I want anyone to call me on the phone, guess what I do, yep, get in the shower. So I am all soaped up and sure enough it rings. Uncanny, is this place bugged with tiny cameras? I hop out in case it is L, and I hope I can tell if it is, but it is the manager from Athena, Oksana. She has bad news, it appears that Ls parents think I am too old for her her. I am 37, she is 20. L likes me but she feels that her parents may be right, but she wants me to know that she did enjoy being with me. She is not coming. I thought this might happen, and I should know better. I have dated the young ones before, and nothing has become of it, ever. I know big age differences work, but 50 and 30, is quite different than 40 and 20. I know this, so whip me if you must, but perhaps now I have learned. I promise to not date the young ones again. I call A5 to see if she can meet tonight, she is not home. So I meet K, my buddy, in the hallway, and we go to meet Oksana at the Irish Pub. K also had his date cancel on him. Boy, we are batting .000 today. She is to show K a new flat, he has to move out on Monday, which is tomorrow, nothing like waiting til the last minute K!!!!! That would drive me nuts, I have to have all the plans before hand. So we go to see the flat. It is huge, like 5 rooms, but no air conditioning. K is like me, since he is from California, has to have it. The owner promised to put it in for him, months ago, she did not. So he says he will think about it. We step outside and I see a cell phone place. I ask Oksana if she will help me. I should have bought one a week ago. So I get the cheapest new one they have a Motorola, c2000 I believe all together it cost $82 for the phone, charger, chip (phone number), and some minutes ($5 worth). Not bad I think. I have no idea if I will use it, but I have already wished I had one 3 times on this trip. We ask Oksana to join us for dinner, but she must go home, but she wants to do so in the future. I take K to my favorite place (I know I just ate there yesterday) the cafe Fanconi and I tell him to get the stuffed pork steak with cheese and mushrooms. He admits it is the best meal he had here ever, and he has been here 8 times. After this we go for a walk and see fireworks. There is a huge stage set up in front of the city hall at the end of Derybasivska, Samsung is the sponsor of the event. This must be part of the holiday celebration, it is called Constitution Day. The actual holiday is tomorrow, Monday June 28. We watch the firworks and then walk around a little. The number of beer bottles left behind was staggering. We see a few start to collect them for deposit I assume. These guys can drink here. Off to bed. Newbies let this be a lesson to you. I just spent a day in the Ukraine with no date, don't let this happen to you, have a back up plan. It happens to the best of us, but it shouldn't.Odessa day 13OK, no plans today yet, but I was aksed to call A6, from day 10. But she calls me first (and I wasn't in the shower). She says she called me because her cell phone is broken, she dropped it this morning, and that is the number she gave me. So we decide to meet at 2pm for the beach. So off to the gym again. On the way back from the gym I see another thing I have not described yet. The "squat". Guys that have been here know it, I am sure. But I have never seen it in America. When the girls here want to rest, but there is no where to sit, they "squat". Just like on the toilet, and it is a really deep "squat". The butt is only about 1 foot off the ground, and they can hold this position indefinitely. I saw three girls smoking, on the side, but right in the street Derybasivska, all doing the "squat" like it was normal, talking a mile a minute. It took me a while to get used to it, but you see it everywhere. Little girls are taught the "squat" at a young age, it is passed down from generation to generation. So off to take a shower and then to meet A6. We decide to go the beach even though it is a little cloudy. We go to Riviera, like I did last time. A6 gets a better rate on the taxi since she does the local flag down thing with the low hand out method. Only $3 to get there, double that last time with a real taxi. When we get there the guy at the gate asks for $1, I guess it costs that to get past the gate and down the hill to the beach. They charge for everything they can here it seems, even public toilets cost $.20 to use. We have only 45 minutes of sunshine and then it get cold, really cold, no rain but no sun and cold. So we leave. We walk up the hill to get a taxi and this time it is only $2, Boy!!! A6 knows how to flag down a car!!! I guess being blonde, 5'3", 95 pounds with blue eyes helps. I could not get these prices. I call K on the new cell, )at least I used it once) and he has a date at the Irish Pub. We decide to join him. His date is from romanticstar.com and he also has an interpreter. Now another thing I have noticed, also in the past and here now. These girls have never met, but within minutes they are chatting like old friends. At times they seem to not even notice K and I. This happens always, but the girls here can chat with almost any other girl within a few minutes. We decided to leave and go to Fidel for dinner, a Cuban motiff place. The meal is OK, not Faconi. I have chicken with cheese and almonds, and Odessa style potatoes, baked with mushrooms and peppers. After dinner A6 and I go to my flat and watch a little TV. Things are going OK with her, and I will see her again. She wants to see me tomorrow, but I am suppoed to see E2 also. I will have to decide soon, like 10 hours, who to see. A6 wants to know why I did not call her sooner. I aksed why, I remined her that she told me to call on Monday(today), and I would have but she called first to tell me her phone broke. She explained that when a girl says not to call until Monday with a smile, you should call the next day. Oh, I see I think. She continues, ...but if she says not to call until Monday with a serious face, don't call until unitl Monday. And women wonder why we can't figure them out.

[stoichman]

odessa day 14 and weekly wrap up #2 Odessa day 14Well this will be the last day of week two. A6 and I are going to try the beach again. I decide to meet her at Arkadia, and we will go to the beach there. So I go to the gym, to the flat for a shower, and off to find a taxi. I see no real taxis at the place where I usually find them, Derybasivska and Ekaterynynska intersection. So I decide to flag a local down with the low hand out method. I don't like to do this, who knows who will stop, but why not? Locals will stop, you tell them where you need to go, and decide on a price. A car stops in no time, a green Lada, all decked out with nice rims, the stereo is blarring, and I look inside. I say "Arkadia, and $3", in Russian. He say $4, and I say OK. Then I worry, he is dessed a little too well. He knows fashion just a bit too well. I try to get in the back , and he suggests the front seat. He looks like he should be a member of a Russain Backstreet Boys. HMMMM.... but all kidding aside he turns out to be a great guy. He knows a little English and we chat a little. He has a nice stereo in the car, lots of speakers everywhere. He gives me his phone number in case I want a ride again. I may use him for the ride to Kherson. I get to Arkadia and A6 is there maybe 10 minutes later. We walk down to the beaches, and sit for a while on the wall that separates the beach and sidewalk. We talk and once again she brings up that I should have called her sooner. Maybe I am being punished. The sun finally comes out and we decide to lay out for a while so we go down to the beach. It is not sandy, but mostly seashells, not too comfortable. We get a few hours of sun, maybe 2, before the sun starts to fade. Way too cold to swim though, but some brave people are. I have not eaten yet, since breakfast, it is 6pm by now, so I suggest we eat. I want to go to the Uzbakastan place I ate at the other day so we start to walk there. When we get there we see most people are dressed up, and we are in beach clothes. She feels uncomfortable, I can see it. So I suggest she goes home to change, and I will do the same, and we will meet on Derybasivska. I call K, my buddy , on the cell phone, and he wants to go bowling, he has another date from romanticstars.com, and an interpreter with him. A6 says OK, but we will have to eat before, I am starved. We agree to meet at 9pm. I get a taxi home, a real one this time. This driver was a trip. She speaks a little English, looks like a 5' foot verion of Kojak, (old TV show) he is 57 years old, and explains he is a seaman, and that his wife died 5 years ago. He asks, so I tell him I am her to meet girls, and not on business. He tells me in a mix of English and Russian, that the girls here are the best. None better in the world. He continues to tell me every port he has been to , Australia, Japan, Africa, Columbia, and many in USA. Palm Beach, Tampa, were a few he mentioned. With each city he described the girls, and the cost to have them, and he really enjoyed telling me all of this. Back to my flat, I shower and meet A6. We walk to meet K and his girls, at an outdoor cafe, and we decide to go to Fanconi, my favorite place, this is visit #4 for me. I have alot of fun at the cafe, we talk and laugh for about 3 hours here. We buy roses for the ladies, $6 a pop on the street. The girl K is with gets a few phone calls, one was not good news. She has to go out of town for 2 months in two days. I feel sorry for K, this was the first girl he wantred a second date with. It sounds fishy to me, he told me a bit more about her. Like when they had lunch she ordered about 4 different things, veggies, salad, meat, and ice cream. That was lunch, now she is eating again. When he offered her a rose, she had to have 3 of them. And now she has to go away for work, 2 months? Who knows? but I would worry. So we leave Fanconi and go to the bowling club. We are ready to get our shoes, but the girls decide they would rather go to the disco. I don't understand. All 3 of them have never been bowling, I thought it would be fun for a first experience. But they would rather go to a disco I am sure they have been to 100 times. Oh well. So we go to Itoka at Arkadia, and we stay there until about 2am. And yes, the girl with K ate again at the disco. We take separate taxis home, and I saw that A6 lives in a house, not a flat. The roads near the homes are even worse than the ones in the city center, I did not think that was possible. Huge holes, water, and rocks everywhere. I am sure I will see A6 again. Weekly wrap up #2 This includes week one and two in OdessaA few statistics Number of first dates = 12 (13 if you count C)Number of second dates = 3A6 is the only one I have seen more, total dates with her = 4Cost of meetings at Athena = 6 x $15 = $90Cost of meetings at Adam and Eva = 6 x $20 = $120I am not sure if I will be charged to meet A6, (TV date) since she never joined Adam and Eva.Number of no shows = 1Number of dates cancelled = 2shortest date = 1.5 hourlongest date= 5 hoursNumber of girls needing interpreter = 5 out of 13Cost on interpreters = $80 about 9 hours worthSpending money so far= $700 This includes only food, taxi, internet, disco, and gym fee for one month.Cost of cell phone and package= $82Number of disco nights = 5Number of Alka Seltzer used = 18Most expensive date = around $75, the concert with L.Cheapest date =#2 A4 refused to let me buy her ice creamNumber of smokers = only 1 out of 13, I feel lucky.Number of agencies in Odessa actually charging $89 for one meeting = 1Thoughts I am having at end of week two.* Should I stay or should I go? I could cancel the Kherson trip and stay in Odessa. There are many more agencies I have not used. I still have not had a second date with A5 my #1 pretrip girl, but she does not have my cell phone number yet. For some reason I am not going out of my way to see her again. And when she calls me she is upset I am never home. Maybe I should start fresh in Kherson. *Should I schedule new meetings this late? I did this last year at the end of my trip (with 4 days left) and it was a waste. With only 6 days left in Odessa, does it pay to meet someone new?*The girls here, in Odessa, are more American than I would have thought, and even more so than last year. *One big disappointment, the best looking girls are not in the agenices, they are dating the local men. 4 more weeks to go.

[stoichman]

odessa day 15 and day 16 Odessa day 15If you decide to comment on this day please be kind. Well I hit rock bottom this day. All the pressure, thinking, and decisions making did me in. Who to call, who not to call, where to go, when to go, and then I realized that I am just letting things happen on their own and I am not making many decisions at all. I get rather pissed, depressed, and to put it bluntly this is no longer fun. I am sick of first dates, sick of explaining my photos, sick of asking the same questions, sick of answerring the same questions, and doing a poor job of keeping all of their answers straight. I am a teacher so I can only come here in the summer (I hate winters) and I realize that I am wasting my time here, and it is my own fault. But to be honest I am not crazy about anyone (except L, but that is dead) I have met yet either. I have a lot of pressure perhaps because I choose not to date in America, not because I can't, I won't. I have not dated an American women since June of 2001. Many young female teachers at my school try to fix me up all the time, I kindly say no, I find it to be a waste of time. Dating in south Florida is horrible. And now I am finding the same here. I thought most of the games I hate in the dating world woud be removed by coming here, not so true. These are still women, and it is still dating. But let me add, no where near as bad as it is in south Florida. I decide to go for a long walk. The weather sucks again but I walk along the seaside to the right of the Potemkin steps. If you zig zag through the side streets and go over a bridge by the Amsterdam disco (indoor disco) you come to the entrance of a nice walking park Shevchenko Park. It hugs the hill/cliff that overlooks the sea port at first and then later turns into the beaches. In this Park there are several statues, one is for the seamen that went down with their ship and rest in the sea still, and the other is also war related and often I see seamen cadets standing watch there. Many flowers and wreaths are seen at this one. If you continue to walk east the cliff gives way to steps and then you can walk down to beaches. I believe they are Lanzheron, Otrada, Delfin, and then Arkadia beaches, though I have never walked that far. Today it is cold, not may people here but I came to think. I do not come to any great solutions on my walk, but it lasts 3 hours. (I know, I am wasting time) I go to my flat and call A6, we agree to meet at 6pm. No gym today. I meet A6 at the bus stop and we go bowling first. They have American bowling with the automatic scoreboards complete with cartoons dated 1995. All Brunswick stuff, it is a fun date since she has never done it, but she is mad, she broke 3 nails. You pay for bowling by the hour per lane, not the game here, it cost us $22 for two games. and it gets progressively more expensive at night than it is in the daytime. Then we go to Fanconi again after finding the Ukranian place all booked again, and I still want to try Dejavue, a place with Russian history pieces in it. But they both are busy. A6 can tell I am sad and she asks why. So I decide... why not, I will tell her. I list all my thoughs that I stated before. I also told her I am thinking of cutting my trip short, and returing to America as soon as possible. She says she does not want me to leave. I thought she would either walk off, or perhaps ask to leave now. She does just the opposite, she says this is the best talk we had. She is glad I shared this with her. It must be all that sharing emotions stuff. In fact it turned her on, It really turned her on. She came back to my flat and stayed the night.Odessa day 16A6 left about 10am, and I got up to go to the gym at 1pm. I get home around 4pm and I call A6. She wants to go to a concert tonight at Itoka. So she will meet me at Arkadia at 6pm. I call K, my buddy, and he will go also. The girl he is happy with has delayed her business trip to see him more. He is happy, but she is now doing this on a daily basis. Delaying the trip daily, and each time K thinks she is cancelling it all together. I get a taxi and this one is all decked out too. This is a real taxi (light on top) and inside he has a LCD TV screen hooked up between the visors. Taxi drivers do well here I guess. It is tuned into one of the local TV stations. He asks if I like the show, I tell him in Russian I don't understand it, I am American. So he opens the box between the front seats to show a dvd player and puts in a dvd. It is all videos of famous Americans: Madonna, P Diddy, Kid Rock, and such. Then he pulls out a remote and all of a sudden the music comes out from all directions. Surround sound in a taxi, maybe I have the wrong job. I meet A6 and she is dressed really nice for the show. I ask what she did today. She said she cleaned. Her Mom was upset she did not come home, or call. I felt pretty dumb, now. I thought since she was 23, she would know how her family would respond. She laughed while she told the story so I teased her a little. Her Mom made her clean the house and made her carry her cell phone tonight, and she must be home after the show. She teased me back and told me I should have been there to clean also, and so that Mom could yell at me also. She did impressions of her mother yelling at her. I only laugh about this becasue she did, otherwise I would not even share this. We bought tickets for the show. I bought standing tickets so we could stand on the dance floor and actually see this time. After I got the tickets the lady selling them explained that she also gave us a table for the evening, not one we could see from, but it is still a free table. She did this because she recognized me from being there at Itoka many times, I thanked her. We walked to the Uzbakastan cafe down the street and that is where we met K, his date, and a new interpreter. K is paying a bundle on them. The food is great, this is a real Odessa, place. No English menus, and all locals having parties. A few tables are set up for big groups, up to 30 people. The DJ and band start playing and the dance floor is full almost every song, and every song is for a party there, people dedicating songs to each other, for birthdays, engagements, and such. These people love to have fun. We go the concert late, because we know it will not start on time. It starts an hour late. Now, the singer is Bores Moeseev, and this guy is a real flamer. He is gayer than a 2 dollar bill. The first set he comes out in a bright red sweat suit. He looks like a bleach blonde Mickey Rooney. He has 2 back up singers that look like matching Barbie dolls, at least 5'10 each. Then he has 8 guy dancers, and two female. The show is fun, and he is a real showman, reminds me of Philip Kirkoroff, who I saw twice in Yalta. We do leave right after the show. A6 and I take our own taxi home, and K takes his own. I am in bed at 2am. It looks like I will stay with A6 for the rest of my time in Odessa.

[stoichman]

odessa day 17 Odessa day 17This day starts with my phone ringing at 7:45am. Who could this be? I stopped getting out of the shower to answer the phone, (it has happen 3 more times) certainly I will not crawl out of bed to answer it. But this person is persistant and it rings over 15 times. So I get up to answer it. It is E2, my number 2 pretrip choice, I saw her on day 9 and day 11. I was supposed to call her again on day 14, but I decided to be with A6 instead, I felt that A6 was more interested. E2 tells me she has been calling me three days in a roll, day and night. (I am not in my flat unless I am sleeping or taking a shower) E2 does not have my cell phone number, I have not seen her since I bought it. I give it to her now. So she decided to call early in the morning when I would be home, and she was right. She asks why I have not called, I explain that I thought she was not too interested, she said I am crazy. I guess I can not read girls very well. She wants to see me tomorrow, she works today. E2 says she will call me at 11am tomorrow. I say OK. So I will have make a deicison tomorrow, oh poop!!! Today there is another concert, a Polish lady that also sings in Russian and Ukranian, I can't recall her name right now, but she is popular. The concert is to be at Riviera, on the beach. K goes with the interpreter to buy the tickets early in the day. It does not pay off too well, we get a table on the swimming pier, can't see from there, but we got tickets. About $18 a piece. All of us are to go myself, K, his girl and interpreter, and A6. I go to the gym, come home, and I am late to meet A6. I go to meet her before my shower. We go back to my flat and I take a shower. I let her pick out what I am to wear, she enjoys doing this. She picks a white pair of dress pants, and a black short sleeve, collar shirt, a clubbing shirt. A6 says she has to go to her agency to get some photos, so we go there first, romanticstars.com, to get them. On the way there she brings up the topic of me seeing other girls. (how timely) Then she says that she saw me with another girl on day 15, and this is not true. I have seen only her since since day 13, no one else at all. She insists it was me, but no way. I told her I saw her that day, and she says it was before we met that day. This is a little weird for me, so I insisit it was not me, she backs off a little. We go to the office and she gets two photos, one she likes, the other, not so much. We peek inside Dejavu, the place I want to go to. It is at the top of the Potemkin steps, near her agency. This place has a split set up, and it is all retro with stuff dated in the 40s and 50s. One side is American, the other Russian. Lots of props and the staff is dressed retro also. I state I want to go there when I have my camera. A6 says we will go there tomorrow. So we go to check out Kumanetz, this is the Ukranian place that is always booked up, no tables. We get really lucky and one opens up, and we take it. The food is all Ukranian, they even prepare pork fat abut 5 different ways, there are 18 salads on the menu, one dessert is made of pork fat too. Not for me, nope. I get the dumplings with meat inside, potatoes with mushrooms, and a fruit salad for dessert. Good food, good prices, very popular, I recommend. K, my buddy, joins us (alone) since he calls after we order, we both have been trying to get a table here for 3 days. He has the sturgeon, and states it is excellent. K leaves to get a shower and we meet him and his ladies an hour later. We meet him at the Irish pub and another American guy, we will call M, is there. It is his first trip and he has had bad luck. He fell for two scams on bringing two different girls from other towns. I warned him (a week ago) that almost any girl in the Ukraine would accept a free trip to Odessa in the summer, and others will take the travel faire and never come. Sure enough both happen to him. One girl came and showed no interest in him, but enjoyed the hotel room he got for her, he sent her home in 3 days. The other took the airfaire, and never showed. We asked him to join us since we were going to play American billiards. He agree, and now we have 3 teams, 6 people. The pool hall we used is called Oden, after the Norse God and there is a statue of him in front holding a pool cue. it is by the indoor Disco Amsterdam, and across the street from the bolwing place we used. they have 15 Russain tables and 4 American tables shoved in the back. You pay by the hour for the tables. About $5 an hour. M and K go to get the drinks. The girls want fresh carrot juice, and the Russian bartender did not understand. So M makes bunny ears with his first two fingers, sticks out his front teeth, and begins to hop like a rabbit and says in American "Buggs Bunny". The Russain speaking bartender soon understood. Thank goodness for universal sign language. They came back and told us this story, we all laugh, and agree to send one of the girls next time. We soon realize none of this was needed, the waitress brings the drinks and shows us the call button for a waitress near our table. This is beacuse the place is huge. We play for about 2 hours, it was the first time for all 3 girls, and A6 was very good at it. She likes it more than bolwing. We say good bye to M, he does not have a ticket for the show, and we get a taxi to Riviera. Well it has been looking like rain, and sure enough it rains when we get to our outdoor concert. We have a table out on the water on the swimming pier, with no canopy, awesome!!!!! We decide to stand under a canopy, and pretend we belong there. the rain stops and the show starts an hour late, on time for Ukraine, at midnight. We stand off to the side not to block anyone at a table and we can see. The stage is small, and the dancers almost look funny on stage, all cramped compared to the stages at the discos at Arkadia, like Itoka. They open the dance floor in front of the stage after 30 minutes, and we go there. We were freezing standing on the very outside of the sitting area, nothing to block the cold wind, many people have blankets wrapped around themselves. On the dance floor alll the people that bought expensive table were blocking the freezing wind for us, cool!!!! We never sat at our table. The concert was OK, my favorite so far was Bores, he put on a great show. We leave right after the show and have to walk up the stairs to get to the main road to get a taxi. All the cars down the cliff, that got past the gate, are already booked. There is no light at all on this hill/cliff at night. So I pull out my key chain I bought for the trip. it has a LCD light, and I use it so we can see the steps and holes in the pavement. I bought it because at night some of the buildings where the flats are have no outdoor lights, and that is not too safe. I became like a becon and soon we had a goup of 16 peole following my little flashlight. We take separate taxis home, A6 and I, and then the others. I am in bed at 3am. Tomorrow I will have to deicde if I will see E2, or only see A6.

[stoichman]

Odessa day 18 and day 19 Odessa day 18I woke up and waited for E2 to call. The plan, if I can pull it off, would be to see E2 during the day and see A6 at night since we have plans for dinner at Dejavu. E2 calls at 11am just like she said she would. But she can not see me during the day, it must be at night. I tell her I already have plans, for the evening. I hate when ladies cancel dates on me, so I would never do that to A6. E2 says she will call me tomorrow again at 11am.I go to the internet cafe, to write you guys, and K comes walking in. I begin to look at Kherson agencies to make sure I am not wasting my time there. I was just there in April for my spring break. I used khersongirls.com, eleo.com, and Athena while I was there. I plan to use khersongirls again, although I am beginning to read some disturbing things about them. I will not use eleo.com again, I get the feeling they only wanted to ring up the bill on me. And Athena is incredible, but lacks the numbers in Kherson. (I have used Athena in Kherson and Odessa, great company, K used them in Sevastopol also) So I need a second agency to use in Kherson. K used khersonrose, and liked them. Any news on Khersonrose out there?I decide if I use Khersonrose and khersongirls the trip to Kherson would be worth it. I am to leave on Wednesday, July 7, for kherson. Today is Saturday July 3. K stilll wants to go to yalta and Sevastopol, I want to go to Sevastopol again also. Both girls I did visas for were from Sevastopol, I know I like the ladies there. K is still trying to get information on a boat that goes from Odessa to Yalta. Maybe I will join him and skip Kherson. If I do so I will lose my deposit for the Kherson flat, and I will have added cost for travel to Yalta and Sevastopol. After the Internet I go with K to see his new flat he rented from Adam and Eva. I have not seen it yet. He got a great monthly rate and is paying only $28 a night. 24 hour water and AC also. He will keep this flat as a base of operations no matter where he goes. It is very small, not quite as safe, and no where near as nice as the deluxe one he had across the hall from me. He also bought a new mattress for the bed ($150), the other was a rock. But a real deal. We chat more about things, and where to go. He is all mixed up about his girl. She changes her mind daily, on her trip for cash. He offered to pay for her rent if she stayed, I told him that is crazy. We talk a bit more, and then I stated, "You know, there are hundreds of guys back home that would love to be where we are right now, and here we sit". So off we go.I go to the gym, get home, and call A6. We will meet at 6pm. I meet her at the bus stop and she looks upset, and sure enough she has done a ton of thinking. We go for a walk and she shares it all. She does not understand why I don't act like I like her more. Why don't I call her more? Why don't we spend more time together? Why am I still thinking about going to Kherson? Why don't I skip the gym when she asks? All valid questions, for which I have no answers. But I do tell her: 1) If it does get more serious, I would still want to do a second trip to see her before any visa. (she did not like this one at all) 2) I do not like that she just broke up a two year relationship with a Ukranian guy 1 month ago (hence I am the rebound guy) and then joined the agency. 3) I think she should meet more American men (she really hated this one, I am the first American she met) I want the girl to like me, not me as a novelty. These ladies should shop around just like we do, and pick the one for them.I finally convince her that she should just have fun with me while I am here. We should have serious talks, but we barely know each other, let that stuff come later. I am not going to make any decision about a fiancee visa after only one trip. I have a K-1 visa kit, and it stayed at home. I did not even bother bringing it.She lightened up a little, perhaps it was only an act. But off to Dejavu, at the top of the Potemkin steps. I had chicken with potatoes and mushrooms, and chicken soup. she had a salad and fish. It was good food. Not the best I had here. K and his girls joined us later. They already ate somewhere else. We took a bunch of pictures in the restaraunt, on both sides, the American and Russian. It was fun, lots of retro stuff. We decided to go to the billiard club again, the same one, Oden. We stayed there for about 2 hours. K drank a few beers and started to win every game, so it was time to stop, A6 hates to lose. A6 and I walk to my flat and we say good night to the others.Odessa day 19 (July 4th- I hope you had a happy 4th everyone)I wait for E2 to call. She calls me always on time, 11am, but there is no call, so I wait until 11:20am and I leave my flat to go to the Internet. I get to the Internet cafe and I realize, I forgot my cell phone, oh well. I stay there for maybe 2 hours, and back to my flat. I look at my cell and see that E2 called at 12:30pm. I call her at home, she has no cell phone, and she is not home. Something is not clicking here with us. So off to the gym I go. It is my favorite class again in the aerobics area. It has more of a belly dancing feel to it today. And yes!!! Ben Stein is there again. (see day 12) Today the instructor is very serious. She wants to see their bellies, to make sure they have the full movement, pop, swivel, and shake all in one. That's right!!!! Make them do it correctly, I think to myself. So the ladies that did not have tops that showed the belly had to lift their shirts. Now Ben, had his own way of doing it. He took his polo shirt and pulled the bottom of it up and through the head opening, pulling down hard then, making a halter top out of his polo. The staff in the lobby was having a field day, and maybe even they are becoming fans. This only satisfied Ben Stein for 30 mintues. Later in the class he took his shirt off all together. I saw the security guard in the lobby almost double over in laughter. But Ben paid no attention, his eyes were glued to the instructor, he was trying very hard. Now some of the girls in the class also started to giggle. Soon I believe this class will have a Ben Stein cheering section. (It may seem like I am making fun of this guy, but it is just a funny situation I saw and wanted to share. If I had half the confidence in myslef, that he has, I would not be where I am today. I applaude him.)That is the funny, but on the way home I saw one of the most touching things ever. Some of the street beggars are very old people. Some look like they can barely walk, and I am told most can not live on their pension, although they are not homeless, from what I hear. I passed one of the ladies, very old, using a cane to stand, and she had a cup for people to put money in. I do not carry money to the gym so I pass by. But in front of me were 4 young boys, maybe age 9 to 11, walking together. They were not street kids, they were clean, and wearing some of the newest sports clothes I see in the shops here. Nike, Addias, and all had on baseball caps, good ones, and had shopping bags. They were looking at cds they had just bought, I guessed. One of the boys held up a finger, telling his buddies, one minute. He ran back to the old lady, dug in his pocket, pulled out all the change and put it in her cup. There was no adult around to tell him to do this, and he did not worry what his friends thought, he just smiled, and ran up to catch his buddies again. I took a shower. And off to meet A6. she was shopping with her Mom today and had on a new hat, old time gangster style, white and it matches her white jacket, black shirt underneath, and jeans, with black heels, cute!!! However, she is not done with me from yesterday. She begins to drill me with the same questions. I tell her that I will go to Kherson or Yalta and Sevastopol. She gets pissed, she wants me to see her only, or go back to America. Direct and to the point. I ask her again, why can't you just have fun? And let things happen natural. I suggest that if she does not like me, or thinks I am a bad man , maybe she should just go home now. I am irritated that she is already trying to train me, into how I should act and feel, and we are not even engaged yet!! She cools down a bit and we go to Fanconi, my favorite place, yep, that will cheer me up. Not so true, I get half way into my stuffed pork to realize that it is not cooked all the way. Some of the cheese on the inside is not even melted. Oh my God!!!!! Uncooked pork, yep, that will help things. I show A6, and she shows the manager. She apologizes and says I will not have to pay for it. She explains that there is a different cook on Sundays and he is new. Well, I hope I have enough Alka Seltzer in the flat.The plan was to go to Dejavu for dessert, they have almost two pages of them in their menu. But to say the least no dessert for me tonight. So we go back to my flat. We are sitting there and the flat phone rings, I do not answer. It might be E2. Then the cell phone rings. A6 looks at it and sees the name, it is E2, and looks at me. I do not answer it. Then the flat phone rings again, and A6 picks it up and hands it to me. I hang it up. Now I am a little pissed too. Then the cell phone rings again, and A6 answers it too. This is not good, she says something in Russian, to E2 and hangs it up. She tells me that she simply said it was the wrong number, but who knows. By now I am on my second delicious glass of lemon flavored Alka Seltzer, and this is not helping. But just to make it end in true fashion the flat phone rings again, boy E2 is persistant. I explain to A6 that E2 called me on Friday, wanted to see me on Saturday and today but I did not see her. I thought about doing it, but it did not happen. I only had two dates with her, a while ago. I once again told A6 she is the only one I have seen all week, and all of this is ture. I went to lay down in the bed, and A6 laid down next to me. She woke me 3 hours later to get her a taxi. Boy is this fun. Tell me guys, Kherson or Sevastopol?

[stoichman]

Odessa day 20Well it is about 11am and I know already it is going to be a beach day, finally. I have been here almost 3 weeks and only 4 beach days total. I was here last year mid July to mid August and all but three days were beach days. The weather is not as nice here in June. I call K and ask him if he wants to walk to the beaches. I meet him at the Irish Pub and we begin the long walk. We walk the same path as I did on day 15, but today the purpose is different. I want to see the ladies on the beach. And there was no disappointment at all. The ladies were all over the beaches. I hate to "lay out" at the beach, I am more of a walk through type of guy. The girls are all over the place and most are wearing next to nothing, only g-string bottoms on most of them, nothing else. This was the walk I did almost every day last summer here. If I could do this trip over I would go to Kherson first, and then come to Odessa, more beach time. Well K is to meet his girl soon, and he is freaking out that he will be late. We are near the end of my path, where I turn around and walk back to Derybasivska. The beaches seem to end for a while and there is a large boat dock area, lots of sailboats and yachts. So we decide to walk up the hill to a main road. Soon we see an overhead, in the air, type of trolley car, like a ski lift. I assume it is for the lazy people so they don't have to walk up and down the hill. As you know, there are not many lazy people over here, so most are empty. I have never seen this ski lift thingy, since I never wanted to leave the sites of the beach. K though was here on a date and recognized it, so we walked to the top of the hill. There was a busy street there. The one that leads to Arkadia and the outdoor discos. I flag down a car for him, about $1 back to Derybasivska for the K man.I decide to walk back, I had not seen enough yet. On the way back, I hear someone calling my name. And I am sure there are not too many people here with my name. A young lady is calling me, she is sitting on the ground near another girl. I have no idea who it is. I am fairly certain it is not a girl I paid to meet. She speaks no english. We have a conversasion in Russian. Now, the best I can make out is that it is a girl from the wedding I was in last year here in Odessa. I have a friend that also lives in Florida that married a girl from Odessa and he had a wedding here for the girl's family last summer. I was here so I was his best man/witness. I ran into a married Ukranian couple, also from the wedding, at the Bores Moeseev concert, but I recognized them right away, and they also recognized me.I get home and call A6 to make plans for tonight, and then I go to the gym. I get back and take a shower, and then I meet A6 for dinner. I got a pretty good sunburn today, a little too much sun for me today. But A6 says I needed it, I was too white. (I know, the Florida boy too white??) The people here do not worry about skin cancer at all. I always tell them it is unhealthy, they don't seem to care. We decide to go to Kumanetz again for dinner. I have to wait 15 minutes for an English menu, there are a lot of American men here. I see three other American/Ukranian couples here. I have the same meal I had last time, but I am really full after this one. We decide to go for a walk after this, and then it happen.My stomach began to revolt. I had a sudden urge, no a need, to find a toilet. I know where one was and I start to walk, much faster, than I was before. I begin to talk to the little muscle that is normally contracted, and try to convince it not to relax quite yet. A6 asked "Why are we walking so fast?" I said as calmly as I could " Ya hachue toylet" (I need a toilet) and the next thought I had was one of the most frightening, scary thoughts I ever had, it was....... I am wearing white pants.It all came out Ok in the end. I am not sure what it was. It could have been the food at Kumanetz, or it could have been the uncooked pork I ate last night. Maybe it decided to lay seige in my stomache until now, and rebelled at this moment. But let this be a lesson to those of you coming over here for the first time. Lesson Number One: If you have the slightest inclination you may have to use the restroom any time soon, do not walk into alien territory, keep the scenery familiar, and always, always, know where the cleanest, closest free bathroom is. Well this was it for me tonight. Back to the flat and Alka Seltzer for me. Not sure what it was. I normally, and do, love the food here, and Fanconi and Kumanetz are great places to eat. And I am sure I will eat there again. A6 and I stay in the rest of the night. Tomorrow should be an adventure. I have to get a haircut, go to the bank and get some money, get a taxi for the Kherson ride on Wednesday. Tomorrow is my last full day in Odessa.Odessa day 21 The phone rings at 6:30 am. Guess who it is? I have no idea, I did not answer it. I would guess it was E2 again. She has called every day since our missed third date.I eat breakfast in the flat and then I walk to the Athena office. It is closed so I call Oksana (manager) on the cell and she comes to meet me. When she gets there she asks me what I need. She forgot that I owe her for a translator ($21) from my last date with M, day nine I believe. I remind her (I am a good Midwest boy) and she thanks me for reminding her. I use their computer to pay, they want it all by credit card at Athena. I ask her to get me a taxi for the Kherson ride, she calls and it will be less than $60. This is good since Adam and Eva said $75. So I take it. I am to leave Odessa tomorrow at noon.I go back to Adam and Eva and ask for a translator to get a haircut and go to the bank. The haircut was the easier of the two, if you can believe it. I get my haircut every 4 weeks at home, so I had to get one here since I will be here 6 weeks. She took me to a cheaper place, less than $3 for the haircut with shampoo. Try getting that in America. The guy who cut it was funny, he kept asking "OK?" I think that was the only English word he knew. It was a great cut, I tipped him $2.Now, the first bank had problems connecting with my bank. And the second one we tried was closed for lunch. So I decided to go to the Internet to write you guys, and then we tried again. It finally worked, and they charged me 3.5% for the transaction. I did not want to carry so much cash into the Ukraine. But Adam and Eva wants it all in cash, no credit cards. Khersongirls use PayPal, but I am at the max limit with them too. I was worried about losing it all at once. I did not want to use a money machine, I heard many horror stories about those. I never tried traveler's checks, I might look into those next time. Off to the gym, and that was a real treat. If you have ever done a chest work out with a bad sunburn, you know the pain I was in. Ben Stein was there, fitting for my last visit to the place. By the way, the name of the gym translates into "dragonfly". the ploy here is if you want to be as thin as a dragonfly, you will come to their gym. Gotta love Ukrainian advertising. Ben had on a new outfit, and it was a normal aerobics class, not the salsa/ramba one. He could not keep up with the girls, he has no rthymn at all. So he did his own thing, doing complete 180 degree turns whenever he wanted. He was doing free-style aerobics.I met A6 around 6pm. K, my buddy, and his group wanted to eat mexican at a place 25 mintues away by car, which also has bowling and pool. Mexican in the Ukraine?? After the last two days I had? Not a good idea. But in normal fashion the girls changed their minds 5 more times, and we went to Dejavu, they had no power, the power was out on that whole block. So we went to the Ukranian place that I ate at before. The one right up the street, I had a date with one of their waitresses. The food is good, and we have fun. But A6 is getting pissy about me leaving tomorrow. I remind her that I will make no decidions until I go home, and then it will be a decision to come back or not. A6 attempts to change her mood, but I know it is hard for her. We go for a walk after, and then back to the flat. We notice on the walk that the power is still out on the city block with Dejavu. They lost a lot of business that day.A6 leaves around 2am. She says she will come back in the morning. Tomorrow is moving day.

[stoichman]

Odessa day 22/Kherson day 1 Moving day Odessa day 22/Kherson day 1 Moving dayA6 calls me at 9am, and she comes to see me at 10am. She is a little sad, and I know I will miss her too. We are siting there in the flat and the phone rings. I answer it since I assume it is Natasha from Adam and Eva calling me to pay the bill. Not a chance, it is E2 again. She asks to see me, but I explain I am leaving in 1 hour. E2 is a little mad that she only saw me twice. I am a little disappointed too, since she has called me every day all week, and I assumed, wrongly, after two dates she was not too interested. She asks for my email address. I give it to her, and A6 appears to be ready to burst into flames at this point.I hang up with E2, wondering if I made a huge mistake with her. But right now I have to play make up with A6. I spend a little quality time with A6 before I go down to pay my Adam and Eva bill.Natasha forgot to charge me to meet A5, and I remind her, the whole office is shocked at my honesty, but that is the way I was raised. They did not charge me to meet A6, since she never joined the agency. I order flowers to be sent to A6 tomorrow. 11 red roses with other flowers, daisies and such, arranged in a nice basket. It cost $40 delivered.Speaking of A6 joining agencies, she told me yesterday that she joined Athena, since K's interpreter recommended it. I told her she should meet more American men, and this was her way of doing so. I think this is a good thing.I get in the taxi at noon. I say goodbye to A6. I know I will miss her, but I need to figure out how much. Then I will decide if I will come back to Odessa.The taxi driver turns out to be another seaman. I guess it is a good combination, seamen/taxi driver. He is Polish, his parents moved to Odessa since his father was a seamen too. We talk about women, he is married with one kid. But he admits the women in Odessa are incredible. He speaks a little English, and I speak to him in Russian. It is always fun to talk as much as possible and see what gets across. He states the economy is bad, and tells me his income is about $600 a year. He asks me for my income and I am a little embarrassed to tell him, he freaks out when I tell him.I am on my way to Kherson, and if you have been following along (I can only wish) you might remember that I was just here in April 2004. (see pretrip report) And some of you might be wondering, "Hey Scott, aren't you going to see any of the girls you saw in April?" Why yes I had planned on it. Let me share this retro moment with you, just to show you how quickly a girl that you label "possible visa girl" can so quickly turn into "a waste of time and money."I planned to see 4 girls from Kherson that I dated in April. Here is what happen1) A girl from eleo.com. Only 18 and no English. I can only hope I learned my lesson about this combination by now. 4 dates in one week. I got home and received one letter from her. I answer it, but not using their letter writing service. I got no response, the office manager said she lost interest, maybe it was because I refused to use their letter writing service. 2) another girl from eleo.com. Spoke good English, 21 years old, 4 dates with her in one week. I set her up with a yahoo account so we could write. The day I left she stated "I want something of you?" I guess that meant she wanted me to buy something for her. I pointed at a flower stand and said "How about some flowers?" She said " No they only die." So now I understand she wants something tangible, sold, lasting. I said good bye, without buying her anything, and I never heard from her.3) A great girl from Khersongirls. Problem is she got a 6 month visa to visit her Mom in England. Her Mom married a guy from there. She is in England now, and I am in Kherson. No chance here, but I do still write her.4) A translator I ran into when I visited the AFA social in Kherson. I did not attend the social, but stopped in to see Ron and Elena, one of the couples that runs/owns AFA. I have seen them in Yalta, 2001 and 2002, and in Odessa, 2003, for the wedding of my friend. She was walking out and we clearly flirted a bit. And then I ran into her and her American client at the Irish Pub in Kherson. She asked me to join them, and I did. I got her email address and we have been writing ever since. Right now she in Kiev working with some clients, I will see her when she returns. I expect a strong attraction to pick up where it left off.So I came back here for four girls, only one remains. How quickly they fall. The taxi took 3.5 hours. He had to stop once to inflate a tire with air. He had a portable pump that plugged into the cigarette lighter. We stopped twice for directions, he knew how to get to Nikolev, but not Kherson. The taxi drivers must have a strong union here. One taxi driver even told him to follow him to the turn for Kherson. He escorted us there and waved goodbye as we turned. I arrive in Kherson and I remembered where the office was for the most part. I get set up in my flat first. I thought I was going to stay in the same flat as in April, but they put me in the better one. So I am right at the start of the main no-car walking strip, Suvorova #1. I am on the fifth floor. You have to go through one gate and three doors to get to the flat, but it is nice. The Odessa flat was $60 a night and this one is $45. I will have to pay for laundry here, and no daily maid service here. The flat is big, and rather nice. 24 hour water and AC, of course. And then I return to the office. You can see both of the flats I rented on the websites, Adam and Eva (egypt one) and Khersongirls, Suvorova #1. I sent Khersongirls 6 girls names to meet, but I only have 2 dates lined up. From the other 4, one is serious about another man, 2 can not be reached, most likely on vacation, and the last one is in Kiev. So I give them 5 more names to call for me, I am trying to avoid the young ones, but it is hard here. Lots of young ones, not so many from 22 to 27, which I want. Then I get some more bad news, Khersonrose is closed, like out of business. The office is empty, cleaned out, and the website is gone from what I hear. I was just on it two days ago. So remember how I said if I use the two, Khersongirls and Khersonrose, I should be OK? Well, there you go, not so true.K, my American buddy, calls me on the cell and I line up a flat for him, and give him the taxi phone number as well. He is coming here, to Kherson, tomorrow. The girl he was with in Odessa asked him for money for her flat, about $800, and if she did not have it she would have to go away for a job in another city. K, thank goodness, put her in taxi and said goodbye. Good boy K man!!!I leave the office, and I have Kevin, the owner of Khersongirls shows me the gym he is using. It is no where near as nice as the one in Odessa, the equipment is very old, and even rusty. But it is OK for now, and one of the only ones here Americans can use. The nicest one here is only for locals. Then I get food for the flat. The usual: cereal, fruit, juice, Coke, milk, water, and Snickers. The food of champions. Then I look for an Internet cafe, but it is not working in one, and the other is closed. I unpack my stuff at 11pm, and off to bed.

[stoichman]

weekly wrap up #3 Odessa wrap up Odessa Wrap Up -Weekly wrap up number 3Weekly wrap up #3 This includes week one, two, and three in Odessa A few statistics Number of first dates = 13 (14 if you count C) Number of second dates = 3 A6 is the only one I have seen more, I spent all of the third week with her Cost of meetings at Athena = 6 x $15 = $90 Cost of meetings at Adam and Eva = 6 x $20 = $120 I was not charged to meet A6, (TV date) since she never joined Adam and Eva. Number of no shows = 1 Number of dates cancelled = 3 shortest date = 1.5 hour longest date= the night A6 stayed with me Number of girls needing interpreter = 6 out of 14 Cost on interpreters = $80 about 9 hours worth Spending money so far= $1000 This includes food, taxi, internet, disco, flowers, 2 cds, concerts, addition cell phone credit, and gym fee for one month. About $47 a day.Cost of cell phone and starter package= $82 Number of disco nights = 8, includes concerts Number of Alka Seltzer used = 24 Most expensive date = around $75, the concert with L. Cheapest date =$2 A4 refused to let me buy her ice cream Number of smokers = only 1 out of 13, I feel lucky. Most expensive meal for two= $36, girl N2 at the Uzbakastani placeNumber of agencies in Odessa actually charging $89 for one meeting = 1Some thoughts I am having and few questions answered.I am posting this story on 3 forums, and few of you have hinted at and some asked for a description of myself. Well here goes. I will be 38 next month. I am told I look younger ( I know, you read this a lot) The ladies here and at home usually guess 27 to 32. I am 6'1.5" and about 215 pounds. I have brown hair, and blue eyes, and since I do work out I have an athletic build. The "look alike" I get a lot is that I look a lot like Henry Rollins, the singer. I have to admit I had no idea who he was, so I looked on the Internet, and yep, he looks like me.On Odessa:*weather is much better in July and August, more beach days*economy is getting better. More kids with bikes and rollarblades, etc.....*very American city, it reminds me a lot of Fort lauderdale.*Athena and Adam and Eva are great agencies*Romanticstars is new, but K and I spent our last week with ladies from their site, worth a look *the beggars even speak English there now, they are diversifying.*better looking girls on the streets than in agencies* this city is great to party in, but the search for a wife here may soon be over, big city girls.On being Realistic:Someone suggested I may be upset because my search for a "pin-up girl, Playboy girl" came to a screeching halt. Now, I really hate when men come over here and date girls way out of their league. I refuse to do so. And if you have been over here, and seen it, you know exactly what I am talking about. If you look like Tom Arnold, and you go to the Ukraine and date Britney Spears, what are you thinking? And even dumber is if you bring Britney Spears to America and expect her to stay with you. She will leave you the first chance she gets, most likely. When I was in Yalta I refused to date the really hot girls, I did not want to be unrealistic. Even though I have been dating only Ukrainian girls since July of 2001, the two best looking girls I have ever dated/been with are American. And no, not when I was 22 years old, but from ages 31 to 34, when I gave up on American dating. If I find myself looking at any girl better looking than these two ladies, I remind myself to be realistic. Just my opinion, and ideology, take it or leave it.Solid plans vs Wing ItI wish sometimes I could be like my buddy K. He did not have a flat lined up until he had to move out of the other one. He is keeping a flat in Odessa but still went to Yalta. I have to have solid plans. If I was more spontaneous, maybe I would be in Sevastopol right now. But I feel more comfortable having all my ducks in a row. If I have to make another trip, maybe I will try the nomad route, it looks like fun!!!!The choice to go to Kherson:I decided to go to Kherson like planned because I would have lost money on the flat deposit, and on my Odessa-Kiev airline ticket. On top of that I still would have to get myself to Sevastopol, which would have been unplanned expenses. So far it appears to be a good idea. I thought I would close my Odessa report with a little anecdote. Some of this is true, some is fiction. I am sure you will have no trouble telling which is which. Here it is:I was walking past the mother in law bridge in Odessa and came upon the strangest site. There was a group of dogs, but something was different about this little group. It appeared to be a little social going on, international dating for dogs. I am curious and I decide to see how this plays out. In the center of the group was, of course, a female Ukrainian dog. The prettiest blonde Lab mix dog. She was being courted by four male dogs. There was a French Poodle, and his angle was to only speak French to her. She giggled when he did so, it appeared he may be in the lead. The German Shepherd came up strong though, he stated that his owner had many German cars, they could go for rides in a Mercedes and pee on the wheels any time. She seemed to like this idea. The Irish Setter had a totally different approach, he said something about "showing her his Lucky Charms". The Boston Terrier simply stated that he was American and he really wanted to have a walk with her down Derybasivska street to a great dumpster he knew of.I had no choice but to cheer for my home team, hoping the Boston Terrier won her heart.The Ukrainian blonde Lab mix dog did pick the Boston Terrier, and they ran off together side by side. I am not sure but I thought I heard the words K1 and visa coming from the girl dog as they went by me. The French Poodle continued to speak only French as he left, but there seemed to be more "poo-poos and wee wees" as he trotted off. The German Shepherd ran off complaining about something that included having to find a Mercedes taxi to go to the disco Itoka. The Irish Setter had other plans. He was very sad and came up to me and asked for directions to the Irish Pub. I told him I was headed that way and that I would buy him a Guinness.

[stoichman]

Kherson Day two Kherson Day Two Total Days in the Ukraine so far this trip = 24I wake up around 8am and my first date is at 11am. So I eat breakfast in the flat, shower, and head off to the office. I will also have a meeting at 2pm, and 7pm.The 11am girl is a no show and they call her at 11:20 and the office reschedules her for 7pm the next day. So it turns out that in both cities my first date is a no show. I decide to use this down time to go to the gym.I can communicate enough with the girl at the gym to work out a price of about $9 for the 17 days I am here. They have no more membership cards. I ask how I will get in, and she says not to worry. The gym is not so nice, rusty equipment, very old, but it will be OK for the time I am here. The preacher curl has been used so much the angle is almost down to 30 degrees only. The gym is on the other side of the Lenin park which is across the street from my flat. The name of the gym is Favorite Gym, go figure.I am back at the flat and just get ready for a shower and the office calls. My 2pm needs to change it to 3:30 pm, she is babysitting. OK, so now I have 2 dates, and both are rescheduled. I am off to a great start here.So I sit around my flat after my shower. I watch a little TV. They have a satellite hook up, and it gets channels from countries I have never heard of. And some are rather funny to watch. Such drama, you would not believe.Well, I get to the officeand my 3:30 calls and she needs to reschedule again. She has to babysit longer. She is rescheduled for another day. So I decide to sit in the office and talk to the staff and Kevin. There is never a dull moment in the Khersongirls office. Some real cuties walk in and they all start to try and fix me up with a date. But then I see a familiar face. We will call this girl K2. I met her in Kherson in April, 2004. I thought she did not like me at all, since I thought she acted bored on our first date. She told the staff that she would like to go out with me again. I was very surprised. You see in the Khersongirls office they post your photo and profile on the wall with your date of arrival. All the girls know you are coming.So K2 and I go out for lunch. I tell her exactly what I just told you guys. I did not ask her for second date in April because I thought she did not like me. She said I was crazy. So there you go guys, when they act not interested, or cold, or bored, it may just be a game, or they are shy, or want to know what you think first. This was just like E2 in Odessa, I thought the same thing about her, just to find out I was wrong. Maybe I need to be more assertive.On our date A6, from Odessa, calls me on the cell. I do not answer, but I am sure she is calling to thank me for the flowers I sent her.K2 and I have a great date. She is a real cutie. She is 5'8", 119 pounds, blonde, blue eyes. She even smiles on this date, and I get her phone number. I will see her for sure again. It was nice to have our second date, even if it was 3 months later.I call A6 after my date with K2. She really liked the flowers, she misses me, and wants me to come back to Odessa. I tell her I will call her every day.K, my American buddy, calls me and says he has changed his mind. He found a taxi to Yalta from Odessa for $140. He will be in the car for nearly 8 hours. He is taking an interpreter with him (I don't blame him, she is great) and he will pay her $10 a day plus her expenses. A paid trip to Yalta, not a bad gig for a girl here. He will go to Sevastopol from there. My 7pm does show up, thank God!!!!! She is very nervous. We will call her N4. I am the first American she has met. No real sparks with this girl, I am sure I will not see her again.Some differences between Odessa and Kherson? It is hard to even compare. But the big difference is the good looking girls you see in the streets in Kherson are in the agencies, unlike in Odessa. I have not been to the beaches yet here in Kherson yet, but I hear there are two of them. I will check them out. I am sure they will not compare to Odessa though. Sea vs River. Another thing is that if you are bored in Odessa you can always find something to do, it is a little harder in Kherson. No bowling in Kherson, they do have billiards. Even with a simple walk, you will have a limited number of choices in Kherson. Another scary thing in Kherson is that because it is so small of a city, you will run into old dates while on new dates. This happen to me 3 times in April. And I have only been here two days and I have already seen two girls I dated in April. There are two main walking streets here and everyone walks them.I spend the rest of the night in the office chatting with Kevin and the staff.

[stoichman]

Kherson day 3 Kherson Day Three Total Days in the Ukraine so far this trip = 25I wake up around 8am and my first date is at noon. So I eat breakfast in the flat, and go to the gym. I will also have a meeting at 4pm, and 7pm.The girl I paid yesterday is not there so I am a little worried. I am given a key for a locker by another worker, no questions asked. She must have told the other employees, that if a strange looking American comes in trying to speak Russian, let him exercise.I return to the flat, shower, and go to my noon date.My noon date we will call J, she wrote me 1 year ago, but I did not make it to Kherson that year, so I did not write her. She remembers writing me. She speaks great English, so we go to Nostalgie for lunch, it is near the Drama theater, just off of Suvorova street. Nostalgie, may be one of the more expensive places to eat, but it is good food. J is a very charming girl. I always ask why they join the agency, and she gave me an answer I have heard many times before so I will share it. In a nutshell it is "Ukrainian men often do not want to work, they want the wife to work at home and in a career, they want to sit at home. If they do work and are the main breadwinners they want to be treated like a King." I exchange phone numbers with J, I want to see her again.I go back to the office and write you guys for a while. My 4pm date calls and cancels, she is going to a dacha "summer home" for a week. At this point I think I need to look at another agency. So I go to Unona.This agency is also in Odessa, the same sign and all. I did not go to check it out there however. The office is on the third floor of a building across the street from the Lenin statue off of Ushakova street. I had a lot of fun in their office. I was making them all laugh by answering them in Russian. I did a search on their computer and I had 43 matches, and then I narrowed it down to 4 girls. I ask if all the girls I picked were serious. Oksana the office manager, then tells me that one is not so serious, she is a model and owns/runs an agency. I love when the managers/owners are honest about their girls. One point for Unona. I ask to meet the other 3.One is unreachable on the phone. One will return to Kherson on Monday, and the last one we got a hold of. She listens to my entire profile but still want to see my photos. Cool!!!!! A picky girl. Most of the girls here in Kherson agreed to see me with out looking at my pics. I download my photos from an email I sent to Athena before the trip. She sent them to the girl, and she agrees to see me. She wants to meet tonight, but I have a meeting tonight at Khersongirls, so I will meet her on Sunday at 5pm. I go back to Khersongirls for my 7pm, and she is a no show again, the second time for the same girl. I am little pissed, I could have seen the girl from Unona tonight. So far one girl from Khersongirls has no showed on me twice, and another rescheduled on me twice, and I had another cancel because she went to a summer home. I also had 6 girls on my list for Khersongirls that were unreachable for one reason or another.I did not want to be alone tonight so I call J, but she has a birthday party tonight. I will see her again tomorrow at 2pm. I call K2 and she can not see me tonight either. But I schedule to see her on Sunday at 9pm.I am alone tonight so I go to the Irish Pub, called John Govard, on Ushakova street. I have Salaynka, meat soup, and then some ice cream with fruit. I watch the ladies walk by since I sit outside. I see N4 on my walk back to my flat. I say hello but do not stop to talk, she does the same. My flat is where Ushakova and Suvorova meet, and so far my life here has revolved around these two streets. Suvorova is the no car street where the Khersongirls office is. If you go down Ushakova towards the river you will find Hotel Fregat and a small walking park there. The disco XXL is also at the Hotel Fregat. If you walk away from the river on Ushakova you will find the Irish Pub, Unona office, and the Lenin statue. There is walking park diagonal across the street from my flat and on the other side of this park is my gym. Kevin from Khersongirls calls and wants to know if I will go to the disco tonight. I decide to call it an early night. I am in bed at 11:30pm.Kherson day 4 Kherson Day 4Total Days in the Ukraine this trip so far = 26I wake up at 5:30am and I can not fall back asleep. I soon give up and just crawl out of bed. I am at the gym by 8:15am. I have the whole place to myself. My 11am shows up in rare form. Gentlemen, I must explain to you the outfit this girl was wearing. But perhaps first, let me describe what was filling the outfit. We will call this beauty, I1. I1 is 20, 5'6", 116 pounds, bleach white hair with some purple and pink streaks in it. Her eyes are the most incredible color I have seen, like a steele grey color. Now the outfit. She had on what appeared to be a swim suit, but it was like a velour fabric, not for swimming. It was dark green in color. Bikini top and bottom. Over the swim suit she has a fishnet dress on, but not like fishnet stockings, the holes were big, like a fish net for medium size fish. The only other thing she had on was a pair of 4 inch heels, and oh yes, a smile.I feel a light tap, a touch from something, on my shoulder. It takes a while for it to register, I am a little distracted, but it is the interpreter. She says I must pay the taxi for her. "Taxi? What taxi?" I exclaim. "That one." She says, and points. Oh yes, there is a car behind I1, I did not notice. It was a great date. We went right up the street to a place called Bashnya, it translates to "tower". The place has a basement room that feels like a cellar, the stairs wind down to it, thus the name. I asked many questions, and she gave all the right answers, like she was reading my mind. I will see her again , I got her phone number. It began to rain and the interpreter ran back to the office to get umbrellas. So with the umbrellas I put I1 and her outfit into a taxi. She drives off and then I realize I just did the dumbest thing ever. I did not get a photo of this beauty, in this outfit. I will never forgive myself, and no one will ever believe me either.It is only day 4 in Kherson but I already will have my first second date. I meet J near my flat, and it is still raining. I borrowed an umbrella from Khersongirls and we walk to a place called Bomond on Ushakova street. I have the pork and some mashed potatoes. J has some fish. It is good, and we eat inside, due to the rain. She brings me some photos to look at, and I find J to be very adorable. She loves to tell stories, and I like to listen to her. She leaves after lunch, we can not walk due to the rain. I hope to see her again.I go back to the office, and write to you guys, and wait for my 7pm. We will call this girl A7. She is very spunky. A7 seems to be to be a little party girl, not quite my type. We go to the same place as I did with I1, and we even had the same waiter. The waiter, finds this quite amusing, I came here with two different girls today. One of the perils of Kherson, you will run into old dates, and you will visit the same places with different dates. I do not think I will see this girl again. So I am very happy now. I have met five girls in Kherson and I want to see 3 of them again. Great percentage. In fact today I managed to have three dates. Not a bad day. I thought about going to the disco tonight since it is Saturday, but I am told it is not the best night. The girls get in free all nights but Friday and Saturday. So tonight is like a date night since the girls have to pay to get in. Mostly couples will be there. So I decide maybe tomorrow.When I leave the office I find out that I have another date lined up for tomorrow. So on Sunday I will have 3 more dates. Two first dates, and one more second date. My first date with Unona will be tomorrow. Things are looking good.

[stoichman]

Kherson day 5 Kherson day 5Total days in the Ukraine so far this trip = 27I have a lot to share today so I hope you are prepared. Make yourselves comfortable, and get a beverage ready.I wake up around 8am. Eat breakfast in the flat and I am off to the gym.It is 9am but the door to the gym is locked. It is on the second floor of a building, the door downstaitrs was open, and the Judo place across the hall is open. I ask the guys in the Judo place if the gym is closed today, in Russin. They give me a long answer that included "maybe 10am, and knock on door." as far as I can tell. So I knock on the door. A very sleepy man answers the door. Not good. I woke somone up on a Sunday morning. Once again speaking in the best Russian I can I get the idea that that the gym is closed on Sunday. I did not know that the owners/managers also lived in the same place though. This maybe common over here though, I have seen it before. I apologize to the guy. "Nyet problem." He says.I decide to shop a little on the way home, since I have time to kill. I go to the shop on the first floor of my building. I get in several lines, since everything you need often involves more than one "kasa" or check out line. Each time I do this a policeman gets in line behind me. I begin to worry. I do not carry my passport. I was only asked for it once in seven trips, when I tried to get by the guard at the Romanticstars office in Odessa. But that was only because it was next to the Turkish embassy. I speak in the best Russian I can to the shopkeepers, why is he following me???Then I remembered what my mentor taught me. My mentor was a guy from my 2001 Yalta trip (my first) that had been here many times before. He said to me, "Young grasshopper, if you are in the Ukraine and begin to worry, or are afraid, look around, if you see a babushka (grandma) with a bucket, or broom, nothing bad can happen there." I look around, no babushka, no bucket, no broom. Oh poop!!! But then out of the corner of my eye, could that be???? Coming out of the cafe kitchen, yes, it is......a babsuhka with a broom, and a bucket!!!! Back off Mr. Polceman, and I am on my way home.I shower and I go to my noon appointment. Today I am to have a noon, 5pm, and 9pm meetings. My noon is late and I use this time to call I1. She is disappointed that I will not be ale to see her today. I had a maybe date with her for the beach, but this noon meeting was scheduled for me and I can't now. I will see her at noon tomorrow.My first date today we will call N5. She has the cutest little nose I ever saw, I had no idea that they came that small. We go to a place called Ninel, on Belinskogo street. It has a swimming pool, only as a decoration, in the middle of the place. We went here after finding three other places closed. Closed on a Sunday, you would think they are losing business. It is hard to read N5, like all the others I guess. We make tentative plans to go bowling on Tueasday night. I think she is kinda cute.Back to the office and I call A6 from Odessa like I promised. I am standing outside the office. An office girl comes outsdie and starts talking to me. She is in a hurry because she has a video conference going on inside, (with a little hottie by the way) but K2 is on the her office phone. K2 wants to change my 9pm to 7:30pm. That would be kinda cutting my 5pm a bit short. I never really say yes, but the office girl OKs it. This will come back to haunt me.My 5pm is my first Unona date. She is a cutie 5'5" 112 pounds, blonde hair, and killer green eyes. We will call her A8. She has a real tatoo on the small of her back. We use an interpreter. She holds nothing back, asks all kinds of questions. We got to Troika, good food. Now remember, this is the picky girl, the one that had to see my photos first. We discuss letter writing. I tell her my views on it, lots of scams, better to meet in person, you can tell more in 15 minutes face to face than in 2 months of letter writing, expensive, etc.... A8 asks how may girls I have met, I told her, she was surprised, and thought it was too many. I explain that you should meet many, and be picky, like she is. I found out from the interpreter that I was the first guy she agreed to meet or write in over 6 months. She is asked several times a month too. She is a business women, with a travel agency, she is always busy, I can't see her sitting at home in America.I had a very interesting topic of discussion with A8, and it is not the first time I heard this, so I will share. She kept saying she is independent. Now independent to me means you do not live with Mom and Dad, and you pay your own bills. She however still lives with her parents. I had 4 or 5 of these girls tell me this. They are independent. So I asked, what does that mean. You probably guessed it already. Although they are still leaching off of Mom and Dad, they do not care what their parents opinion is, they will do whatever they please. This is the meaning of independent to a girl over here.We go for a walk. K, my American buddy, calls me on the cell phone just to tell me he is in a room with over 100 girls in Yalta. Thanks for the info K man. He is at the AFA social.I have to leave at 7:15pm to make my rescheduled 7:30pm. A8 is pissed, and she lets me know it. She can not believe I would leave her to see another girl. Just for grins and giggles I ask if she wants to see me again. A8 says again that she can't believe I have to go. She never really answers, she just says that she is honest, and always speaks her mind. Well be honest, and give me an answer, I am thinking. Keep in mind my 7:30pm was supposed to be at 9pm.Now the interpreter is so funny. She stamps her feet at A8 several times. And perhaps she did not translate all that A8 had to say. It seems to me that she can not believe what A8 is saying. Once again I ask, becasue I am late, and this time I ask out of curiousity, "Do you want to see me again?" Her answer, "If you are not too busy, yes."This brings to mind the rules of relationships. Have you heard these? Universal rules to dating and relationships between a man and a woman. In a nutshell here they are.1) The woman makes all of the rules.The man has no input, and the woman does not care what he thinks.2) The woman keeps all the rules secret.She keeps the rules on a mental notepad in her mind, the poor guy guy does not even get a summary memo or nothing. Some rules may leak out, or the man may figure a few out but.........3) The woman may change the rules, without notice, at any time.This is the thought I am having as I walk late to my 7:30pm. It is a third date with K2, I met her in April. I see her walking away from the Irish Pub, to the bus stop. She was going to leave. She sees me, and gives me a very dirty look. She states "you are late, why?" I explain it all to her. The entire "date from hell" I just had. She laughs, but she does disagree with A8, she thinks we should date girls until we find the one.K2 tells me that she is leaving for the seaside on July 15. It is a present from her Dad, and she can not change the reservations. K2 aks if this upsets me. I say yes. She asks me to go with her. I ask her to explain, will I stay with her? Will I have to get my own place? How long? She did not understand at first, but when it registered she began to blush a whole lot at the thought of me staying with her. I try to schedule another date with K2. She is a little upset I may be too busy for her tomorrow. So she agrees to see me tomorrow at 9:30pm, she did not want to one day without seeing me, cool. I say goodnight to K2.I walk down to the riverfront for the first time this trip. The fountain at the Hotel Fregat is working, it is really nice looking all lit up with lights at night. It was not running in April. Off to bed at 11pm with a whole lot of questions.to answer a few issues...side notes I guess I am very gunshy after haing two failed K1 visas. One never came to America, one hated America, both decided to stay in the Ukraine. So this time around I am going to be very picky. I am looking for chemistry that leads me to believe she is the one. I had no real luck in Odessa, but I am having a lot more success in Kherson I feel.Both my failed K1 visas came as a result of dating only one girl, on each trip. So the WOVO ideology did not work for me. It failed for me twice. So I decided to date many and try to narrow it down. I think there is alot to be said for shopping around.Am I serious? I think yes. I have done two K1 visas. I have been here 7 times since 2001. I am learning Russian. I do not date Americans. I think all of this labels me as serious.Am I doing it wrong? Maybe, we will see. But I think there is no right or wrong in this industry. What works for one person, will not work for another.Am I dating girls that are too young? Many say yes. I look for 22-28. But in Kherson there are none I like in this age group. So I had to go down to 19. The oldest girl I have dated anywhere, this includes America, is 29. Why would I come over here and date older girls than I do in America? Have I found anyone I am crazy about since my two failed visas? Yes, but one has a mother that does not approve of my divorce(Odessa 2003), and one has a mother that does not approve of my age(Odessa 2004). Would I have done visas for them? Yes, there was a very good chance. I have several good leads in Kherson right now.I hope this helps. And I hope you are enjoying the story. I am only sharing so that someone may pick up a thing or two. The reports are timely, and take about 2 hours to write. And I do like the advice you guys are giving. I am being more assertive in Kherson. I have had many multiple dates aready. I have a feeling I will have to come back to Kherson

[stoichman]

Kherson day 6 Kherson day 6Total days in the Ukraine this trip so far= 28I go the gym around 9:30am. I think about the two gyms I used on this trip so far. Let's compare.1) the gym in Odessa cost me about $58 for 30 days, and the one in Kherson cost me about $9 for 17 days.2) the gym in Odessa had all brand new equi[pment, the equipment in Kherson is old and rusty.3) the entertainment I had while working out in Odessa was watching 15 to 20 beautiful girls do aerobics in front of me as I lifted weights, the entertainment I have In Kherson is watching the male employee pop zits on his shoulders as I lift weights.I guess this explains the price difference seen in number one.I meet I1 at the office at noon and we go to the beach. This will be my first taxi ride on this trip in Kherson and it is day 6, weird. This is our second date, and we go with no interpreter. We go to a new place (2 months old) called Calipso (spelling may be wrong). It is an Arkadia type place. Right on the water (river) with a sand beach, two cafes, so far, 2 swimming pools, one is open now, the other is empty, and there is a disco at night. It even looks like Itoka in Odessa, the uniforms the employees wear are exactly like the ones in Itoka. They are building more here, as I write, they have big plans for this place.I1 forget here bikini bottom, and comes out of the dressing room, with a swim wrap around her g-string undies. I give her money for a taxi and she goes home to get them. We laugh a lot at this. She tells me how her Mom reacted, it was funny. We talk and she says her Mom wants to meet me already. She is free every day and wants to see me every day. We have snacks at first, but then I get hungry so we have BBQ at the cafe. I know this one likes me, and I think she is serious. We leave the beach around 4pm.]I go to the office for an hour, and watch the ladies as they walk in. Then I go to shower for my 7pm.My 7pm is my second meeting at Unona. She is late, as usual. 40 minutes. I talk to the interpreter I had for the first Unona date, A8. She apologized for her, A8 said she was sorry. A8 was offended and jealous that I left her to meet another girl, and she really wants to see me again. HHMMMM. I asked her about how she stamped her foot at A8 several times. The interpreter said that it was becasue she could not believe A8 was blowing it with me, she thought we were a good pair, and A8 happens to be one of the most popular girls there. We begin to speak about "shop talk", and I tell her about the forums. I show them to her on the Internet. This agency is connected to Anastasia, through socials and such. I tell her this is a mistake. I show her all the bad press about Anastasia on the web. She thanks me for this information, she had no idea, and she will tell the owner about it.My 7pm, we will call V3, 5'4" 110 pounds, brown eyes, blonde and she is 22 years old. I make her laugh a lot. This is fun. She seems interested. V3 is a very busy girl, with work and school. In our talk I explain that since I am a teacher, and I have 2 months free in the summer, my future wife and I will visit her family every summer. She really likes this idea. She states that many men that she has met say that the Ukraine needs to be forgotten after they would marry. Why would guys do this? I think I want to see her again. The last thing she does when I walk away is hold up her cell phone to her ear and whispers "call me". Too cute!!!!I meet K2 at the Irish pub again at 9:30pm. This is our 4th date. Once again I think she is too quiet for her level of English. She is leaving on Friday, and states again that she is serious. In fact this time she says she wants to marry me or do the visa. She does not like the fact that I am seeing other girls, and really wants me to stop, even when she leaves on Friday. I say goodnight, our dates never go beyond 2.5 hours. I try to kiss her again, and all I get is cheek. Wants to marry me, but I am not good enough to kiss? Maybe she does not kiss me because she knows I am seeing other girls. Maybe she only wants to get into America. K2 is young, only 19. Maybe she is a good girl, and only shy.Lots of thoughts after today.Do I need more first dates?Maybe not at this point I have only 2 out of 8 that I know I will not see again. The two that stand out the most are I1 and K2, and I have seen them both more than once already. But both are young.

[stoichman]

Kherson day 7 Kherson Day SevenTotal Days in the Ukraine so far this trip = 29This is the first day I wake up where I have no set plans. No new meetings, no set dates. I eat in the flat again, and go to the gym. On the way back I call I1. She is not home, I talk briefly to her Mom in Russian. She is at aerobics.I call K, my American buddy, he is on the boat coming back from Yalta to Odessa. He does not know what he is going to do yet. He is sounding more and more like he is going to give up on his search over here. We throw around a few ideas. Maybe Nikolev, or he may come to Kherson. He did state the AFA socials were a waste of money. I go to the Khersongirls office after a shower. I buy a cake for the office girls on the way there. Gotta keep them happy. There are a lot of ladies in the office, always a fun place.I step outside to call I1. I will meet her at 2:30pm. I call K2 I will meet her at 7pm.I1 and I go for pizza. It is our third date. We have a lot of fun. I bring a pizza back for the office girls, since one of them mentioned pizza yesterday. My clean laundry is at the office, so I1 and I walk back to my flat with it. At my flat we watch some TV and see also enjoys looking at my Russian language books. She says they look like children's books. She leaves at 6:30pm so I can meet K2.On my way to meet K2 the interpreter I mentioned way back on day one of Kherson (I met her in April) sends me a text message. We will call her N6. I will call her after I meet with K2. K2 talks very serious again. She states, with no confusion, that she wants me, marriage, or K1. K2 tells me she has turned down other men already, when they ask her to do a visa. She also mentions that she gets many letters. "So I ask her, why is it she wants to do a visa but she will not kiss me?" Which is more serious, a kiss or marriage. She says that for her, a passionate kiss is very hard. I also find strange that she has 3 years left of college, and she says that if she had money she could finish it in one year. I ask her if this is a bribe type of thing, she did not understand me. How can you cram 3 years of classes in one year? Change subject, I ask her about her day. She says that she was preparing food for her Mother's birthday, it is today. I ask her what she got her Mother for a gift. She said nothing, she has no money. I suggest we go buy her a gift. She likes this idea. She states she must go soon. I ask why all of our dates seem to last 2 hours, maybe 3 at the most. She says she is busy, babysits her nephew. I say she can bring him with, we will go to the children's park. She smiles, I am scoring some points today I think.We go to the store, right across the street. K2 suggests perfume, OK, no problem. She smells several, and she picks one out, about $60. Then she ask if she can have one. I say I do not have enough money with me today. She says, no, not a big one, only a little one, like one they carry in their purse, about $4, no problem. I get her a taxi.Now for some detective work. This could be a mini scam. Is it her Mother's birthday? I wonder????? I walk back to the office with the idea of having someone there call the home to find out if it is her Mother's birthday.On the walk there I call the interpreter from April on the cell, I will meet her at 9:15pm.I talk to Yana, Kevin's mother in law, and one of the office girls. Yana says she will call the home and do this for me. Cool. So now it is time. Place your bets. Did I get scammed for a bottle of perfume? What are the odds? (Jeopardy theme plays in the back ground, make up you minds............Yana calls the house and it is her Mother's birthday. Yana talks to the mother for about 20 minutes. So all is OK for now.I am to meet N6 at Bomonds a little cafe, I was there with J the other day. I needed to change money, so I call her and ask where I will be able to do it so late. She says she will pick me up at my flat, I need to go there to get the American money. She picks me up, and we go to the train station, because it is the only money exchange open at this time. Then we decide to eat at Nostalgie. We go there and it begins to rain. So we eat inside.We have a great talk, since she speaks perfect English. She is 27 years old. I try to keep it away from "shop talk", since this was a date, but it always came back to the industry. So I explain my problem with K2. The no kiss factor. She says most of these girls have been having sex since 12. I was shocked, both at the age, and at her candor. She tells me all about the guy she was working for in Kiev, he sounds like a real winner. He was asking sex questions on the third date. N6 works a lot of the socials for the Big 3. I also ask her about the finishing 3 years of college in one year, and she said yes, for sure a bribe situation. You pay money to the right people, and they will give you a grade, and/or let you take the exam early. N6 does say she wants to go to America, someday.I get home at midnight, my latest night in Kherson so far. Still no disco nights here. I have lots of thoughts as I get ready for bed.*meet new girls or no?*extend my trip, I could do two more weeks.*give up?*E2, from Odessa, should have dated more, older 23.*A6 from Odessa is not on my mind as much.Kherson Day EightTotal Days in the Ukraine so far this trip = 30Ok, I wake up thinking that I am finished with first dates. Tired of them, done. I decide that I will see only I1 and K2 for the rest of my time in Kherson.I go to the gym, and go home to take a shower. I told I1 to meet me at the statue outside my flat. I can see it from my balcony. She has been late every time so far, so I watch for her. After 20 minutes, I decide to walk down to the street and there she is in a taxi, waiting, not by the statue. She is a little pissed. I try to explain. I think it is OK, she is maybe a level 2 English.We go to a place called Polaris. If you come here I am sure you will get dragged here. I have been taken here at least 5 times already. It is one of the many basement cafes, with fish tanks, and a sea mottif going on. Only 5 tables, and a bar.I1 gets very serious. This is our 4th date. She wants me to meet her Mom on Saturday, OK no problem. I say that I will, and we even pick a place. Next she tells me that she wants to remove her profile from Khersongirls, because she wants only me. I say, no maybe later. I already told her that I am seeing her and one other girl. I1 appears not too happy.I tell her that our next date should include an interpreter, so we can ask serious questions. She agrees. Now she says she wants to see me tonight also. She is meeting some friends at 4pm, but she wants to see me later. I say OK. She mentions, a movie, and I am thinking, the movie theatre, but she says no. I1 wants to rent DVDs and watch them in my flat, cool. We decide on 8pm, at the agency, we will get the movies there.I decide to call K2 now. I actually thought about not calling her. Things are going so well with I1. But I do anyways, and I meet her at 5pm.On the way to meet her I see a cute girl, with a friend, and I make eye contact. She sees me and says "hello" and I say "hello" back. I keep walking though. I look back a few times, and they are watching me. So I stop walking and pretend to be waiting.Eight mintues later they walk up to me. They start talking and I do my best to keep up. Soon I had to say " Iz veneche, Ya ne penymayo." or "Excuse me, I do not understand." And then they realize I am not from here. We have a fun chat, and they bring over a slightly stronger English speaking male friend about 10 mintues into the conversasion. We get a kick out of each other, but I have to go and meet K2 soon.I meet K2 at the Irish pub again. I wait to see how long it will take her to mention the gift. The first thing she staes is that because of me, she will not go to the sea with her friend. K2 says her Dad was mad, but her sister will use the room he already paid for. K2 will go on July 24 instead. I am leaving on the 25th, I think. She asks if this makes me happy, I say yes. I think this is a strong sign that she likes me. Going to the sea is big time for the people here, and it only is good weather two months out of the year. Then she said that her Mom said thank you for the gift. The topic always comes back to the no-kiss factor for us. I guess it is because she always asks if I am seeing other girls. I tell her it is strange (no-kiss) , and that everyone I ask says the same thing. She says it is not strange for her. I ask her what will happen if she gets to America and does not like the way I kiss. Will she want to go back to the Ukraine? She laughs, and then laughs more, because I then do an impersonation of her, in Russian, crying to her mother on the phone that I kiss bad, and she wants to come home. The conversation lightens a little after this.I will see her again tomorrow at 4pm. She asks to meet me at the Khersongirls office because she has to drop off some letters. I do not think this request was just a coincidence, do you? I go to the office to write you guys, and I will meet I1 here so we can pick out videos. And I hope the next thing you read shocks you as much as it did me.I1 was a no show. She did not call or show up. I was very worried, but her home phone was busy, and then later someone answerred, but they did not know where she was. She does not have a cell phone.This is the same girl that at 2pm the same day, stated she wanted to remove her profile from Khersongirls becasue she wanted me. Made a date for me to meet her Mom. And then not to show up at a date she suggested?So many possibilites. But I think the most likely one is that she did not handle it too well when I told her not to remove her profile.I watch the movie Troy, alone.This sucks.I forgot to call A6 from Odessa, she calls me at 11pm.When am I leaving?

[stoichman]

Weekly Wrap up #4 Weekly wrap up #4 This includes week one in Kherson only A few statistics Number of first dates = 9 Number of second dates = 3Number of third dates = 2 K2 I have seen 5 times, our first date was in April Cost of meetings at Khersongirls = 5 x $20 = $100 Cost of meetings at Adam and Eva = 2 x $20 = $40 I was not charged to meet K2 or N6.Number of no shows = 2 (both the same girl) Number of dates cancelled = 1Number of dates needing rescheduling = 3 shortest date = 1.5 hour it was V3 longest date= 4.5 hours beach date with I1 Number of girls needing interpreter = 6 out of 9but I1 only used one on first date, and then never again Cost on interpreters = $77 about 10 hours worth Spending money so far= $350 This includes food, taxi (including the big trip from Odessa), internet, gifts, addition cell phone credit, and gym fee for 17 days. About $50 a day. Number of disco nights = 0 Number of Alka Seltzer used = 0, maybe this is causing all my current problems. Most expensive date = around $24, dinner with N6. Cheapest date =$10 it was V3. Number of smokers = none, I feel very lucky.I guess I have been sharing my thoughts as I go. But here are some of the highlights.*better looking girls in the agencies in Kherson than Odessa.*but they are younger by an average of 4 years in my age range, which takes them out of my target group.*Odessa is more fun, more to do*Calipso is a sign that Kherson is playing catch up.*Unona appears to be a good agency, I would use them again.*the girls do not want you to date other girls, it seems they will put up with it for a while, but not too long. But I knew this already.*I had more girls in Kherson (by percentage) that I wanted second dates with, but only had 3.*I noticed that the girls that need a translator always are the first ones not to get second date with me.The no-kiss factor seems to be a hot topic on all 3 forums I am using. It easily translates into a "a special moment" issue as well. (if you know what I mean)Ok here is my current take on the no-kiss issue..............As you know, I had two visas fail. The first girl made sure we had "a special moment" the very first time we were alone without her sister, who was our translator. (You can read this mini story on one of my other posts.)With the second girl we had "a special moment" on date three.So maybe I am not so dumb to search this out with a girl not willing to kiss me right away. It sure feels funny though.

[stoichman]

Kherson day 9 and 10 Kherson Day NineTotal Days in the Ukraine so far this trip = 31I wake up and still no phone call from I1. I am still worried as well as pissed, at this point. I call the Khersongirls office, at 9am, and ask them to call her home phone until we get an answer, remember she has no cell phone.It is freezing outside, like November in Wisconsin. I have no warm clothes. Why you ask? I packed them for the last 3 summers here, and never used them. The last three summers I only wore pants to the discos. So I did not pack warm cothes (jacket, sweats, long sleeve shirts) for the 4th summer. Result, I am very cold.10am- I call I1s house, and I talk to the brother, she is not home. Well, $93 later I have a new sweat suit, that I am sure I will never wear again, but I am not shaking from the cold. 11am-still no call. I am angry now, and I am not sure if I want to date only K2 for the rest of my trip. Our dates last 3 hours tops, and the no kiss thing, after 6 dates. So I go to Unona first.At Unona I find out that A8 (date from hell) has called every day since our meeting to see if I want to see her again. I quickly change the topic, and ask about my third girl from the list. I ask to see her profile again, she is 20 years old, and cute. But I am not sure anymore. I search again, on their computer, and find one more a little older, 22. But they admit hat they barely know her.They suggest someone that is brand new. A girl that was not sure about signing up, and they said that they showed her my photos, and used them to convince her to sign up. She is kinda cute, but at this point, maybe I should not meet anyone new. Not so much that it is late in my trip, but my attitude sucks at this point.I go to Khersongirls and do a search on their site for like the 8th time this trip. I even dip into the smokers. I realize this is dumb. I would not let anyone smoke in my house, ever. All the girls I like are young.There are two from my original list I still want to meet. One is still on vacation, and the other is serious about one guy that is arriving on July 16. If either of them becomes available I will meet them. Otherwise it seems foolish.I think about going back to Odessa, but I would not get a refund on my flat here in Kherson. That would be dumb to do.Kevin offers a free meeting, a girl that saw me in the office and wants to meet me. They have been pushing her on me for days, since then. She is cute, only 19, and needs an interpreter. Been there, done that. Yes, I really have a bad attitude right now.Go to gym at 1pm, still no phone call. As I walk up to the gym building door from the outside, I see a cute cat. She sees me and runs up to the closed door. She sits, facing the door, turns and looks at me, and meows in Russian, "open door". Then turns back to look at the door. I open the door for her and she runs inside. She wants to sleep under the stairs in the stairwell, it is cold outside. Great, I can figure out the cats in the Ukraine, but not the women.By the way, in the gyms here you can not wear the same shoes you walked in with. In fact all the gyms I have been in freak out if you even step on the gym floor with outside shoes. They have someone in charge of this operation to make sure you change your shoes. Even if you walk in with tennis shoes, you must change them. Can't fool them with that one. Here in the Ukraine they have a little 3 foot strip around the weights area on the perimeter, it is colored black. If you step on the green, where the weights are, an internal alarm sounds on the staff working that day. Then you are punished for walking on the gym floor with street shoes. In Odessa, the staff would put little bags on their shoes to walk on the gym floor.I go back to Khersongirls at 3:30pm to meet K2. K2 is coming at 4pm. Kevin has the office girls call I1 again, and she is home. The excuse is a sick aunt in the hospital. Have we heard this one before? She does not even ask to speak to me. Not sure if she knew I was there.Kevin and I do not like the sound of this. So Kevin tells the office girl to call back and ask for the hospital name and room number so we can send flowers. I1 says no, it would be weird for me to send flowers since I do not know her family. Sounds like an excuse. Wouldn't the brother we talked to yesterday know about the sick aunt? Kevin came to the conclusion that when I told her not to remove her profile, she took it as a rejection, and the girls here do not handle rejection very well. But why did she arrange another date? The DVD date was her idea. Why did she not call? I decided that I will not call her again.K2 shows up and drops off her letters for other men, smooth move. And then we go to Bashnya, the "tower" place right up the street. At this point I need a little entertainment, but first you will need a little background. Yesterday on our date K2 asked all kinds of questions about I1. Age, Eglish level, and other things. So I knew she would ask about my date last night. She always does. K2 knows I am seeing her and I1 only at this point. K2 also knew about the DVD date.So I decide to time her on how long it would take for to ask about my DVD date. When I sat down at the table I started the stopwatch on my cell phone. Place your bets. zero to 10 seconds, maybe. Ten to 20 seconds, strong bet. Over 30 seconds, a long shot.In 14 seconds she asked how my DVD date went.So I told her everything, including the sick aunt, flowers, how I rejected her with the profile thing, the whole ten yards.Her repsonse, priceless. She says I look upset, and mad. I said yes, maybe, but I said I was more confused than anything. Then, she said she was sorry for me, that I was upset.I could not pass this one up, maybe it was a little mean of me. But I said, "If you feel sorry for me, why are you smiling?"The smile faded in an instant.We talk a little and then she mentions a concert at Calipso. You guys know I like concerts, she knows I like them, and I wanted to go anyways. I saw the concert poster at Calipso the day I was there with I1 at the beach. They are rock-rappers, they look like all the white boys in my school that want to be black men, should be a hoot. I say OK. And she wants to go the movie I asked her about a few days ago. I suggested we see Harry Potter, I like the movies and books, and she has not seen it yet. And I want to eat before the move. So we will meet tomorrow at 4pm, dinner, movie, and concert, at a disco. This has never been attempted before, more than 3 hours with K2. Maybe her cancelling the sea trip is a strong sign for me. Maybe she just wants to spend my money, but these are all things I want, and suggested.I also mention bowling in Nikolev, she has never bowled before, that is always fun. We will do that soon. She also mentions again that she wants me to go to the sea with her when she goes, but separate rooms of course. She also mentions Odessa, but that is pushing it.I ask about the old boyfriend, maybe that will shed some light on this situation. It does, she was with him for almost 2 years. Made him wait 2 months before kissing , etc. He was a bad guy, did bad things, but she would not tell me what, maybe later. She joined the agency after leaving him. Heard this one before too.I am beginning to think that K2 was not bored with me in April, I think she is shy. I am having more fun with her, but she is really hard to make open up. I think she is starting to relax with me.She leaves to go to aerobics. She goes three times a week.I go for a walk. My thoughts.*If K2 is honest, if everything is true, I think she would make a great wife.*Why do men not trust girls that will not be intimate right away?*Shouldn't the girls that sleep with us after 2 or 3 dates be the ones we don't trust?*If K2 is scamming me to get into American wouldn't she have slept with me by now?* Can you marry someone you have not slept with?Gentlemen, don't you try on a pair of shoes before buying them?Ladies, don't you take a car for a test drive before buying it?But why do we think this way? Maybe because marriage is to be forever, and we want that security.I forgot to call A6 from Odessa again, she does not call me.Still no call from I1. I do not think she will call again.Kherson day 10 Kherson Day TenTotal Days in the Ukraine so far this trip = 32I sleep very late for some reason, almost 11am. The Khersongirls office calls and they will have a plumber come to look at a pipe. So I crawl out of bed, and eat breakfast.Two men come to look at the plumbing, so I go to the Internet to write you guys. I go back to the flat briefly, and off to the gym.At the gym I realize I will be late in meeting K2, so I call her and tell her 5pm instead of 4pm. No problem.Back for a shower, and then I decide to call A6 in Odessa. I forgot to call her yesterday. I was surprised she was not mad. She told me she misses me very much. She met another American man today. She says she did not like him very much. A6 wants me to come back to see her.*****before we meet K2 today let me state something for the record....There has been a lot of replies on the "no-kiss" issue. And I have read them all, thanks guys!!!!!! I want to make sure you all realize that I have not tried anything either. Because she turns her head for a cheek kiss when I say goodbye, I have not tried anything, not even holding hands, or putting my arm around her, no additional kisses, no touching. I am letting her come around, I am in sense playing her game, waiting to see how long it takes her, who knows where it will lead. I am sure I will hear a lot about this from you guys*********I meet K2 at 5pm. We eat at the Irish pub again. It took her only 22 seconds to ask me if I1 called, and I told her no. K2 also asked if I had other meetings today, I said no. Part of the conversasion is serious. I explain again that most of the people I ask think it is strange that she is not affectionate. I state that I think she may want only to come to America. Her response is that if she only wanted America, she would have had sex with me on date one. As I said, she always has the right answer.I thought we were going to see Harry Potter, but she wants to see a Russian film, no problem, I saw Harry Potter already. She says it is a fantasy, science fiction movie, cool!!!!!Walking from the movie to a taxi she asked about going to Nikolev and Odessa again. She wants to go tomorrow. This bothered me, why do we have to do something? Can't we just spend time together? Besides I would have to pay for two rooms in Odessa, not a chance. I aksed her why we have do something, can't we just be together? and she said "it is more interesting for her." I did not like the answer too much. She could tell, and it upset her. She could tell I was mad. Is she using me for dates she can not afford? But believe me, she could find some rich man here to do the same for her. She reads me well. She knows I am upset. I told her no for Odessa, maybe for Nikolev. I told her I wanted to change clothes before we went to the disco/concert. I want to see if I can get K2 motivated a bit. So we stop by my flat, before the movie, and I put on an outfit that got me alot of attention the night I wore it in Odessa. The last night B and the German guy, were in Odessa. (see Odessa day 5) I don't do the disco scene too much at home but I brought with me a few form fitting clubbing shirts that do not leave too much to the imagination. It this does not get a little attention out of her, I have no cards left to play. When I went back to the taxi, she did notice.So we go to the movie, it is in a place on the other side of the Lenin park. Near the gym. It is a huge old drama theatre converted into a movie theatre. This is the first movie theatre I have been in here in the Ukraine that does not have reserved seating. It is the biggest movie theatre I have been in. The screen is huge.The movie is good, some wizzard and knight type stuff, lots of flashbacks, Matrix type stuff, magic, vampires, and could have been directed by Tarantino. Then the bulk of the movie occurs in modern day Moscow, cool to see the city on screen, I have not been there. Don't like the big cities too much. K2 did not like it too much due to the horror parts, lots of blood. Really wacky stuff, I will try to get the translation of the title.Off to Calipso, for the concert. It cost about $20 for the two tickets, with a table. Big difference from Odessa. The place was very empty, I think the people here can not afford the cost. Only $6 to stand though.It is very obvious that K2 does not like the attention I am getting form the other girls, but not once does she grab my hand or arm.The concert was fun, I tought they would be rappers from the poster, but I guess that was just the style for the poster itself. They were a lot like Sublime, Greenday, and Blink 182 if you know those bands. I liked them. K2 said she was tired, and bored a little, she thought there would be more people. The name of the band is Green Grey.A6 from Odessa calls me twice during the concert. K2 asked who it was, I told her. A6 knew I was going, I told her. Why did she calls now? She knew I was at the concert. I did not answer or talk to her now though.I have another American friend in town now, we will call him T. I met him in Yalta 2002. He is in Kherson and then plans to see a girl in Yalta. I try to, but can not reach him on the phone from the concert, he did arrive today though. I checked with Kevin from Khersongirls. The service was slow and bad, we asked for ice cream and cake but after 40 minutes it was still not there. So we left around 11:30pm after the show. A few girls turned to watch me walk out, and K2 shook her head, and had quite the unhappy look on her face.K2 wants to see me at 2pm tomorrow, no plans on what. The taxi drops me off first. I get out almost forgetting to get my cheek kiss. I crawl back in the taxi and she kisses me on the lipps. Oh glory be........I actually thought about going to XXL, another disoc five minutes from my flat. But as I said I am not much for the disco scene, even more so alone. In bed at midnight.I am a total loss at this point.

[stoichman]

Kherson day 11 Kherson Day 11 Total Days in the Ukraine so far this trip = 33 So I wake up to a phone call from T, my American buddy, at 7:30am, thanks T. He has jet lag, and is sharing it with me.He wants me to take him around and show him stuff, like the gym, cafes, and he wants to get directions for walking around. He got dropped off at night and has no idea where he is. So I tell him I will come over to his flat, and call him when I get there. I need to eat breakfast first.I walk over to his flat, and realize that I have no credit on my cell phone. I go to buy a card for cell phone credit, and of course the directions for entering the code is in Russian, go figure. I figure it out and call T several times and he does not answer.I go to a near by Internet cafe to write you guys and continue to call T, but no answer. So I finish my report to you guys and give up on T, and go to my flat, and then to the gym.At the gym I see the same cat from the other day, and notice that there is a huge box under the stairs. This cat is Mommy and she has 4 kittens in the box. Really cute!!!!! This will turn out to be the highlight of my day.The girl working at the gym asks me about payment. But I paid them already? There was a huge mix up I guess. She shows me the rates on the wall, they are posted. It turns out their monthly rate only includes 12 work outs, like an every other day thing. I come here every day. She only charged me for 7 work outs and I thought it was 17. I owe them 50 more grevna for the rest of my time here. It comes out to like $1.25 a work out.I am at the gym and I realize that I will be late again in meeting K2. So I call her and tell her. I said 4pm, she said 3pm. I tell her I am not sure if I will make it at 3pm. So 4pm it is.At my flat T calls and apologizes, he was a sleep all of those times I called him this morning, no biggie. I know jet lag can be a big pain. I will see him him later in the office.I meet K2 at 4pm, and the date goes like most of the rest. She does mention that her Mom and sister want to meet me on Tuesday. Sounds good. We eat at the Irish pub, and she leaves 2 hours later. This time she says she is going to the gym to lifts weights with a friend at 7pm. She says she wants to go to the disco tonight with me, she says she will call me.I walk over to the office. And Kevin, the owner is there. He asks me if I paid 50 grevna (Ukraine dollars) for a taxi ride last night. I said yes. He says I got scammed.The taxi driver was a friend of Kevin's and called to tell him. The real price was 20 grevna, but K2 asked me for 50. She kept the rest.Now did I question the cost last night? Yes. Right there on the spot I did. But as I said she always has an answer. K2 told me it was because1) it was night2) special event3) concert just finished4) only taxi left5) he heard us speaking EnglishWere all of the above true? Yes.Now you may be wondering, Scott, you speak enough Russian, and you wrote in Odessa you like to argue price with the taxi drivers. This is all true. But this was only when it was 2 to 4 American guys looking for a taxi to the discos. And I knew the real cost to get there. When a Ukrainian girl is present she will always get a lower faire, always.When I am with a date, I stand at least 10 yards from the taxi, and let the girl argue the price. We always get a lower price, especially when the driver does not notice me.So I did this with K2, but it backfired. In fact, I found out that she doubled the taxi price for every meeting. She asked for 20 grevna, for our Irish pub dates, and I thought this was for the ride there and back. But it should have been only 10 grevna. Why did I not question these prices? Because they were lower than Odessa, like they should be, so I thought they were OK. Trouble is they should have been much, much lower.So she managed to scam me for a total of maybe $15. Why did she do this? Who knows. This makes me wonder. I bought two bottles of perfume for K2, one for $60 and one for $4. I wonder which one she gave Mom?She was to go to the sea on Friday, and she stayed to spend my money. She only managed to do this for two days more than I could have been taken for. I feel lucky. I am still in the office, and guess who calls me on the cell? Yep, our taxi lady. K2. Here is a copy of the conversation. Turn up the volume on your computer.K2: Hello, this is K2.Scott: Hello.K2: I can not go to the disco tonight.Scott: No problem.K2: What time do you want to meet me tomorrow?Scott: No, I do not want to see you tomorrow.K2: What, I do not understand?Scott: (tells the whole taxi story)K2: Kevin is not telling the truth, do you not believe me instead of him?Scott: No. I will not see you anymore.Click............................................................................So what do I think of the "no-kiss" factor now? Will I add it to my list of red flags? Yes, no doubt. K2 is the only Ukrainian girl that after 3 dates did not touch me and kiss me with passion. And she is the only girl to ever scam me here. Coincidence? I think not!!!!!T, my American friend walks into the office. He just finished a date. He has another at 8pm. A young lady walks into the office. He has dark hair, hazel eyes, and is very tiny, under 100 pounds. We will call her L2. Before she leaves I have an interpreter ask if she is free tonight. She answers, that maybe she is busy. So I begin to talk to her in Russian. I ask maybe tomorrow. Then she changes her mind and agrees to see me at 9pm, at the cafe she works at.I take T to his flat, he has no idea how to get there. I show him a few places along the way, stores, Internet, and cafes the ladies like. We get to his flat and he realizes he is late for his 8pm. We start to walk back to the office.Guess who I see on the walk back. Yep, our taxi queen. She turns her head away when our eyes meet. K2 is in the same clothes I saw her in earlier. It is 8:10, I guess she had a very short work out at the gym, since it started at 7pm. And put back on the same clothes, and such.T walks off to his date, and I go to my flat. Let's take this moment to recap Kherson so far. I met nine girls, narrowed it down to two. I date only them for a week or so. Both lied to me, and one scammed me for $15. But I have a date in 20 minutes, let's go.L2 turned out to be a real cutie, spunky and fun, and different. It turns out she is a blonde and colored her hair black. Usually it is the other way around. She only eats sweets and put about 10 spoons of sugar in her tea. She does not eat meat, fruits, veggies, kinda weird but refreshing to meet someone original. She is new in the agency, and I am the first American she has met. She was shy and nervous. She has no phone, I give her my number, she says she will come to the agency to set up a date with me again. I put L2 in a taxi, they said she lives far away. Cost? Only 5 grevna. I had to laugh.T said he might want to go to the disco tonight, but he does not answer his flat phone, he has no cell. I am in bed at midnight.Kherson day 12 Kherson day 12 Total days in the Ukraine so far this trip= 34I have been writing to you guys one day after the events happen. So the reports are timely and fresh in my mind. So when I wrote about day 11, it was one day after. And as many of you have noticed, I was in a much better mood. I was back to my old writing style. My sense of humor had returned. To say the least I felt that after getting rid of K2 a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. I was back to my happy self. I can't believe I let her drag me down like that.Kevin removed K2 from the agency, as soon as possible, if you want to take a peak her number is 1082.So when I woke up on Sunday, July 18, it was a good day. The gym is closed today. And I know I have new meetings at Khersongirls, I just don't know what time. So I ate breakfast, took a shower, grabbed my dirty laundry, and headed off to the office. It is around 10am.I discover my first meeting is at 4pm, and another at 7pm. Tomorrow I have one at 7pm.I begin to type you guys about day 11. A cute girl walks in, with a friend, as I am typing you guys. One of the office girls calls me in the back room and tells me that she wants to meet me. I ask her to have lunch, it noon by now, she agrees. Before we leave Yana, Kevin's mother in law, takes some photos of us together. Foreshadowing maybe? When the photo was taken she put one arm around me, and the other hand she rested on my chest. She touched me before any meeting at all. Take that taxi queen!!!!!! I feel attractive again.We needed a translator, so I grab my favorite, Olga, she is the best. We will call this girl I2. And we went to Bashnya, right up the street. The food is good again. I like this girl. Very cute, only 5'1", under 100 pounds. She has all the right answers and she is into me, I can tell. Now this girl does not have a phone at home or a cell phone so I have to make arrangements for another date before I leave her, no problem. I make a date for the beach tomorrow. I will see her at noon.I go back to the office and meet my 4pm. We will call her E3. She is very nice, but no real sparks at first. But this turned out to be one of my funniest dates. E3 ordered a fruit salad, but I was not hungry so I did not order. E3 did not want to eat alone so I asked for ice cream. E3 sat with her fruit salad in front of her waiting for my ice creamI had to use the restroom but the light (electricity) was not working inside. So I grabbed my trusty flashlight keychain. E3 and Olga thought this was very funny that I was in a pitch dark bathroom using a keychain flashlight to go potty.So when I returned, feeling rather smug at my success, they were still laughing. So Olga told E3how I used the keychain flashlight last night also. After I got a taxi for L2 last night Olga and I had to walk down a very dark street after being in the park. There were no street lights at all. So I used it then also. Olga said "It is like my magic wand."Well, I tried to ignore this one but I could not. I looked Olga in the eyes, she realized what she said and her eyes got about an inch wider in the white part. I decided to jump on this one, so I looked ashamed at Olga and said, "Ola, Ola, Ola...." (another way to say Olga) Olga got beet red, and started to laugh, E3 understood and she laughed also. We laughed for at least 5 minutes. Then my ice cream came.We just stopped laughing so much and to keep the mood going I looked at her fruit salad and said "devi, devi, devi" which means "let's go, or let's do it". I said it meaning that she could finally eat her fruit salad, since my ice cream was here. Well after the "magic wand" episode this was just too funny for Olga and E3. You see, if so ever had sex with a UW or RW this is something they often say if you are doing things correctly. I did not mean it this way, but......So now the laughter started again.I went back to the office again, and talked with T, my American friend, and there is another American guy we will call B2. I had fun chatting with B2, he is the youngest guy I have ever seen over here. It is first trip. The three of us plan to hit the disco XXL tonight, it is Sunday and the girls get in free.Also in the office Olga told the other office girls the "magic wand" story. All three girls left the room laughing so hard with tears in their eyes.Now L2 from last night did not have a phone at all either. So I told her to come to the office to set up a date. And she came in now. I talked to her briefly, and I can not see her today, or tomorrow. But I make plans for Tuesday at noon, another beach date. Another pretty girl walked in. She looked really good. She saw me and asked the office girl if I wanted to meet her. I am all booked today but I asked her to meet me tomorrow at 4pm, she agrees. She is older also 22 years old. So I have 3 dates for the next day also. I also had a 7pm meeting today. We will call her L3. Once again I was not so interested, but it is interesting to have conversations with all the ladies. She asks a lot of serious questions, she is a girl I saw in the office a week ago. We go for pizza, at Pan Pizza. Not much to say here, I do not think I will see her again.Now I go back to the office and B2, T, and I make plans for the disco. On the walk back to my flat we have another taxi queen sighting. This time she turned her head so far away from me I thought she was going a scene from the "Exorcist."We decide to meet at 11pm for XXL. We meet up and go there. I hope it is a good night, it is B2's first night in a Ukraine disco. Three American men in an Ukrainian disco. One in the mid 20s, one in the mid 30s, and one in the mid 40s. All age groups represented. Here we go.It cost about $4 to get in. The place is hot, and packed with girls. We see two girls from the agency right away and they recognize us too. We will call them D1 and D2, two 18 year old girls, hot as hell. I like D1 better (5'5", 105 pounds, blonde, blue eyes) and B2 starts to hit on D2. Cool. Now D1 and D2 are with a group of 5 girls total. Not a problem. All are smoking hot. I see them drinking beer, then they do vodka shots. Now, they call this a "girls night out". In the Ukraine this means = get drunk, smoke, and dance like strippers.A slow song comes on and D1 grabs my hand and takes me to the dance floor. OK, I can handle this. By now I know she is drunk. We dance for 3 songs. D1 does things to my leg, mid section, and butt with her pelvic region that I thought were not possible standing up. Her hands were all over me, she found places I did not know I had. When we stopped dancing I thought I might have to pay her.Back to the bar, and now they want champagne. B2 buys a bottle for less than $10, and they drink it in about 15 minutes. Now D1 says she wants ice cream.Remember she had beer, vodka, and champagne, I do not want to feed her ice cream now. Puking could soon follow the ice cream. I sorta ignore her request and soon she is over by a guy that looks about 16 years old. I see her a few times later on, she is a real party girl. B2 makes a date with D2 for the next day. And T likes another girl, so on the way out we give his phone number to her.So it was an OK disco night. I was in bed at 2:30pm.

[stoichman]

Kherson day 13 Kherson day 13Total days in the Ukraine so far this trip= 35I am a good boy and I still go to the gym after the disco night. I get up at 9am and I am on time for my noon beach date. And it is a great day for the beach.I did not realize it yesterday but I got a text message from I1 on my cell last night at 10pm. It was simple "Hello Skot, Kak dela, kisses I1" or "Hello Scott How are you? kisses I1". I have no idea if I should call her or not. But If her story about her sick aunt was a lie, then she is a bad girl. If her story about the sick aunt is true, then I am a giant turd.She has no cell phone so she went out of her way to send it to me. But it was 50 hours after the fact. Call her, or no? I can not see her today anyway, I have 3 dates.I2 came to the beach date in 6 inch heels. She could barely walk, but she is so adorable. We went to Calipso for the beach. Very good beach day. This is our second date. We took a taxi there. Then there is a huge hill going down to the beach area. She had to take baby steps the whole way. At the beach, I started to put on sunblock. She took it from me any put it on every inch of my body. Hell yeah!!!!!!! I2 is so sweet, why could I not find her earlier? We swam, had snacks, and got some good sun. The communication was tough, She would not even be an 2 on the 5 scale system. But we had fun. She is always touching me.I had a 4pm to make, so we left the beach around 3pm. I had to make plans with her now, she has no phone anywhere, so I will see her tomorrow at 5pm.I take a shower and get ready to see N7 . This is our first date, she asked to meet me when she saw me in the office the other day. Now this is new one for me, listen to this. I show up at 3:57pm, on time. N7 was here earlier, 20 minutes early, and left at 3:55pm for a walk. What is this all about? I have never had this happen to me. I waited for her, and then 40 minutes later the staff calls her cell phone and she comes back. What was she thinking?At our date she asks if she can smoke. Now I remember why she did not make my initial list. I ask if she would wait until I am done eating. She says yes.The date starts out slow, I am dizzy now from being so hungry, I have not eaten since breakfast. After I eat she says that it nice to see me smile at last. I explain to her what was the problem (not eating) and she says she likes my smile.The conversation is very interesting, I think it is the age difference and the fact that she has been married already once. N7 shares her experiences about life, marriage, and men. I share my experiences also. I think I will want to see her again. She is very pretty, and seems to have her act together.I still have a 7pm today. We will call her O1. Not much to say here. She is a little older also and is working. But there was no sparks at all. I notice once again the difference in age as it affects the conversation and discussion. But I know that I will not see her again.Later in the evening B2 calls me using D2's cell phone. I exchanged phone numbers with both D1 and D2 the night we were at the disco. They want me to come out again tonight to the disco. I have no desire what so ever. This old man is very tired. I am at bed at 9:30pm.Kherson day 14 Kherson day 14Total days in the Ukraine so far this trip= 36Off to the gym. I always do my best thinking while exercising. So what do I think of.......?I have a beach date with L2 at noon and a meeting with I2 at 5pm. I also have to decide if I will call N7 for another date, and the last decision is if I will call I1. But it seems that L2 and I2 are the ones I want to see the most. It is funny that after I had to start over from scratch, (after the K2 and I1 drama) I met 6 new girls. Three I picked off the website search engine, and 3 that were spontaneous, from just sitting in the office. The ones I want to see again are the spontaneous dates. Just an observation.After my workout I check on the kittens under the stairs. The male owner/manager of the gym, walks in the front door, and sees me under the stairwell and says "hello."Now my male ego (which I stopped listening to at about age 17) starts screaming. It says to me......."Say something manly, like...............I'm just under here checking out the support beam structure on these stairs."But it was no use, I was busted, checking on the kittens. I just smiled and said hi.The beach date with L2 was interesting. Our second date. We did not use a translator. I think the beach is a great first date to try no translator when one is really needed. You can do many things without a whole lot of talking. But L2 was so shy and timid. She refused to take a taxi. She insisted on using the public transport bus. It was less than $.20 for the two of us. The whole day I got the impression that she did not want to spend my money. Different, and refreshing.The bus ride was interesting. I stood under the air vent sunroof gizmo so I would not sweat to death. The people were all packed in like sardines. There were two men working the bus, one driver and one guy to take money and work the doors. The bus looked like it was at least 30 years old. Like all drivers for pay here, he drove at warp speed and knew where every pot hole was. It was quite a wild ride.Another great beach day, but it was not Calipso she took me to. It was the public beach they call "hydropark". The place was packed. There is a huge bridge crossing the river here. And in Ukraine like fashion the beach is free, but if you want to cross the bridge to the less crowded side you must pay money. She paid to cross the bridge, weird. I was not fast enough, since I did not expect it. She also tried to buy her own soda, (before the bridge) but they did not have what she wanted. Later she also tried to buy her sunflower seeds, but I was quicker that time. She finally gave up and I bought drinks later in the day, once we reached the other side of the river. She was very quiet. But when we went swimming she loosened up a bit. I held her in the deep water, she is only 5'4" she smiled big time. Soon we were kissing and from there it was all OK. She did not take her hands off of me the rest of the day.She would not eat. L2 brought with her a big bag of candy. She ate them, and smoked a little. She says that she could quit smoking, but her new job at the cafe makes her nervous. She started to smoke working there a month ago. We managed all of this talk with a electronic pocket translator. A good thing to bring with, I got mine on eBay, about $30.We left around 4pm, she wanted to take the bus again, but I insisted on a taxi. I had a 5pm. Once again she has no phone at all, so I make plans with her at 6pm tomorrow. A great second date. My concerns, as you would guess, her age.I go home and shower for my 5pm,. I am running late so I call and tell the office I will be late. I was about 20 minutes late.I wanted to take I2 somewhere nice. So I suggest Nostalgie, one of the nicest place here, and within walking distance. I told you about it earlier. She has never been there, cool. We walk in and sit next to another couple.This other couple happened to be B2 and J, a girl I had two dates with. It was awkward. I suggested J to B2 when I was so busy with I1 and K2. She is great. She looked funny at me, but it was not like we could walk out.J speaks great English, so they talked a lot. I2 and I could only manage words every 5 minutes maybe. I knew this would happen sooner or later (running into an old date) in a little city like Kherson, but it is never fun. Also I did not expect her to be with a new American friend of mine, just my luck.We had a great dinner. She liked the place and I love taking dates somewhere they have not been. She ordered a salad, but I suggested she also get meat, so she did. The salad was so big, she never touched the meat. I took it back to the office and Kevin ate it. It was the same I had, grilled chicken, with pineapples and peaches. Yummy!!!!!!!I2 and I went back to the office and grabbed a DVD. Finding Nemo, a classic. We went back to my flat and watched it. We had fun. The DVDs in the office have Russian audio and you can put on the English subtitles. A great way to spend time here in Kherson. I2 lives in a youth hostel since she is here for the University. By the way she is studying exactly what I do, she wants to be a chemistry/biology teacher like me. A great connection. So she must go soon. They lock the doors at 11pm and you can not get in then. So I put her in a taxi at 10:30pm and we will see each other for the beach at noon tomorrow. So it seems I will continue to see I2 and L2. I did not call N7 or I1 today. Maybe another day I will, but I am happy with the way things are now.