Hey From Odessa

[Manny]

I think some of you folks have forgotten this topic is JAD meeting the girl from Belarus.

He’s gone quiet. Maybe she kidnapped him.

[Contrarian]

I think some of you folks have forgotten this topic is JAD meeting the girl from Belarus.

He’s gone quiet. Maybe she kidnapped him.

Or maybe he’s having the time of his life. 

Post another photo Dude! Especially when you get hitched!

[justadude]

Lvov and the Alpine village of Bukovel. I don't think Ukraine (oooh kraine not you crane) is really all that poor. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a $400k chalet in Bukovel. Nice cars everywhere. Lvov is super clean and nice as compared to some parts of Odessa.

[rosco]

Nice photos but it looks like your face masks are too big!! 

[Chris]

Lvov and the Alpine village of Bukovel. I don't think Ukraine (oooh kraine not you crane) is really all that poor. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a $400k chalet in Bukovel. Nice cars everywhere. Lvov is super clean and nice as compared to some parts of Odessa.

Yes there is a lot of money in that area, we visit a lot, usually in the summer / early Autumn some nice ski lifts taking you up the mountains and lots of other things to see, various new experiences they have added the last couple of years as you no doubt saw, BTW its a Carpathian village, not Alpine 

Most of Western Ukraine has nice villages/towns/cities, good architecture etc,. can be quite a different experience to other parts of Ukraine.

[BillyB]

Lvov is super clean and nice as compared to some parts of Odessa.

I've been there and it is a nice place. Architecture closely resembles old Western European type and I can't remember seeing anything that resembles Soviet architecture.  There's a huge historical cemetery there that is worth visiting. Ask a local about it. Sometimes there are dozens of tour buses lined outside. Tours are given in multiple languages. Polish is one since the land used to belong to Poland.

[Chris]

Lvov is super clean and nice as compared to some parts of Odessa.

I've been there and it is a nice place. Architecture closely resembles old Western European type and I can't remember seeing anything that resembles Soviet architecture.  There's a huge historical cemetery there that is worth visiting. Ask a local about it. Sometimes there are dozens of tour buses lined outside. Tours are given in multiple languages. Polish is one since the land used to belong to Poland.

If you mean Lychakiv Cemetery, yes its quite an amazing place to visit, I was last there two years ago.

[BillyB]

Lvov is super clean and nice as compared to some parts of Odessa.

I've been there and it is a nice place. Architecture closely resembles old Western European type and I can't remember seeing anything that resembles Soviet architecture.  There's a huge historical cemetery there that is worth visiting. Ask a local about it. Sometimes there are dozens of tour buses lined outside. Tours are given in multiple languages. Polish is one since the land used to belong to Poland.

If you mean Lychakiv Cemetery, yes its quite an amazing place to visit, I was last there two years ago.

Yep, that's the one. My wife took me there when I first met her. I would never recommend inviting a woman to a cemetery but she invited me and its hard to refuse a woman

[AvHdB]

L'viv is an amazing city. While many cities in Ukraine  faced Sovietization, L'viv escaped this treatment. In fact L'viv was more or less the most easterly reach of the Austrian Hapsurg empire. This period in time was the high point of the Baroque period and one can find some amazing examples that mix a Central European influence with that of the prevailing Slavic flavor.

Certainly visit the Pinzel museum located in a small church.

Worth noting I suspect you are having coffee and pastries at Centaur in L'viv, my favourite.

Regarding Bukovel and the Carpathians in general I suspect allot more money was invested in this region before Russia meddled in the East and the Krim was lost. 

[justadude]

I went home to California on August 5th. Our plan was to meet in Mexico the following week. I bought her a total or 3 plane tickets from Ukraine to Mexico. For the first one in Lvov they wouldn't let her on the plane. Same thing for the second one from Kiev (in that case, looking back, we think the airport official was hoping she'd offer a bribe). The next day she flew with KLM through Amsterdam to Mexico City. Same carrier all the way. In Mexico City, they took her phone and passport and let her use a land line to call me to tell me she had to go back home. I was in LA, about 70 minutes from the Tijuana border with my two dogs. The plan was for me to teach my classes remotely from N Mexico and be together for a few months while we planned our next move. Also, I could drive home in 8 hours to take care of business up there, i.e., wrapping up my house sale. So I turned around and drove home.

I had been planning, off and on, to move to Ukraine for about 18 months. I was going to stop teaching math at the end of the 19/20 school year. Instead, I began the 20/21 year teaching remotely. I decided now is the time. My employer and I decided it was not tenable to teach remotely from Ukraine, so I gave 2 weeks notice, planning to leave on September 2nd. Meanwhile, my house is in escrow, scheduled to close in mid September. Over a one week period I sold 7 car sized items; a diesel tractor, a Porsche 911, an LS1 swapped V8 mini truck, a Honda swapped old school VW beetle, a box truck, a toy hauler and a Mini Cooper. I got close to market value for everything except the 911 and the Mini Cooper. Together they brought in $30k but market would have been closer to 40. The home sale, including the main unit and the abnb rental, is supposed to be furnished, which helped a lot. I had a garage sale, which brought in $1200, and sold most of my tools, the 3 welders being the big ticket items.

[justadude]

On August 26th, I woke up and read a story on a Ukraine expat group, that the borders were being closed, due to covid fears, at midnight on August 29. I wondered if I could get a ticket for the 27th and arrive on the 28th. I called my booking agent, CheapoAir. They said they had nothing for the 27th, but that they could get me on a plane 11 hours from when I called! So I changed my ticket and got my affairs hastily in order. I stopped by my school and turned in my keys and laptop. I flew San Francisco to instanbul to Odessa. I stayed one night in Odessa, then onto the city where I plan to live with my girlfriend. She met me at the airport late last night. She's out getting her hair done right now. She's just as beautiful and sweet as I remember.

Along the journey, I found that Ukraine bumped the timeline for closing the borders up one day. If my math is right, I entered the country 2 hours before the border was shut. I am under self (ok not really by myself, haha) isolation quarantine for 12 more days. However, I took a covid test at the odessa airport. Assuming it's negative I should be free sometime later today.

My sister is taking care of my two small dogs. They need to wait another 80 days to travel, because they had to take a titer test which takes 90 days to process. I hired a company to ship them for me. Right now they are scheduled to fly out of LAX for, get this, $5400! Plus $700 for the titer test, $1000 to my sister...  I'll have $7500+ into their travel by the time they get here to Ukraine.

I said a tearful goodbye to my daughter a week ago. At that point I thought I was going to get to see her a couple more times before I left. I also got a chance to say goodbye to my Mom and my brother.

My largest suitcase got lost by turkish Air. Thankfully the most important items were in my other two bags.

Next plan is to obtain some sort of semi-permanent residency for my girlfriend and I, then buy a car, then find a more permanent place to rent or buy a house, then get a job.

So kind of a big life change for me!

[Omega1982]

Where do you plan to work?  Salaries are low there

[Guile]

wow big changes Justadude!!  congrats and I hope everything goes smoothly in Ukraine.

Why didn't they let her into Mexico?  Glad you took the jump, adventure awaits!

[Guile]

Where do you plan to work?  Salaries are low there

Money doesn't seem to be one of his problems..He just spent $7500 to bring his dogs over and he just sold his house, probably for a pretty penny knowing Cali real estate.

[msmoby]

Sorry, your initial plans didn't work out.

We have three airline tickets paid for (RU Bank card) that SHOULD be refunded in Jan 2021 for flights the were cancelled.

I am glad to see someone has gone for it..

I thought your g/f was from Siberia.

Did I miss something or has she stayed in UA?

[justadude]

Update. I just got the lab results. I'm negative and free from quarantine.

I believe I have plenty of money to survive, but I think I'll try to teach to stay busy. At the top of my list is university professor. Most likely teaching English.  I have a BS, MS, California Secondary Math Teaching Credential, 26 years experience teaching high school math, and recently completed an MA in psychology.  Maybe I can do something with some of that. If I can find a uni that wants an English speaking math, engineering or psych professor that would be ideal. And yes, I realize the pay for educators is low here.

[AvHdB]

Good News!

[cufflinks]

At first I read this and thought wow, way to go, but as I think about it more, I think this is all a big lie.  Now why would an adult go through the trouble of making up a fantastic story like this?  Maybe someone can google search the photos and see what comes up.  Here are the facts and inconsistencies. 

1.    The author of the post claims he took six flights then mentions only four flights which are as follows.

A.    SMF / ORD
B.   ORD / VIE
C.   VIE / FCO (Rome)
D.   FCO / KBP 
2.    The author claims his “girlfriend” took two flights then a ten hour taxi ride.  Most Ukrainians take the train, but lets assume he paid for this ten hour taxi ride.  Then he claims he picked her up at the airport?  So if those two flights were from Siberia to Moscow and then Moscow to Kiev and then the drive to Odessa how did he pick her up from the airport if he himself said he flew into Odessa? 
3.   Also, I searched online and could not find any flights from Moscow to Kiev. 
4.   Also how would he not be quarantined if hes coming from America.  She would also need to be quarantined.  Theyre both coming in from countries with very high infection rates.  See below. 
The fact that the author has insurance doesn’t mean he isn’t infected.  Insurance is a promise to pay when the bill arrives, its not a declaration of a clean bill of health. 

“Red zone” countries are countries that have more than 40 active COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population. Travelers entering from “red zone” countries are required to undergo a 14-day quarantine upon entry to Ukraine. These include:
•   Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Cape Verde, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, France, French Guiana, Gabon, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, Maldives, Mauritania, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Turks and Caicos, UAE, United Kingdom, and the United States of America
Citizens and nationals of “red zone” countries do not need to undergo quarantine if they have arrived from the “green zone.” They will need to prove that they have physically been in the “green zone” countries in the last 14 days.


Then there’s my personal opinion.  I’m 38 and the only FSU women which are currently communicating with me are aged 44.  Ideally I seek a 30 year old woman but guess what it ain’t 1999 no more.  I find it difficult that a Russian woman would be interested in meeting an American right now and especially if said American is 20 years older than her.  The woman in the photos is either a 9 or a 10.  This is extremely difficult to find now, basically impossible.  If the woman’s intention is for a long term relationship, why is America still attractive to her?  What does a country with civil unrest, high unemployment and 140,000 preventable covid deaths have to offer her?  Add to this the strong anti Russian sentiment and the sanctions.  If the woman only wants a shag why bother with a 20 year older American which can potentially bring the virus?  So there are only two logical options left.  Either he paid her or this is all a lie.  But given the irregularities in the story based on the facts above, I would go for the latter. 

p/d Steve, can you be so kind as to tell us how many 9’s and 10’s from Russia are currently on your site?

Ideally I seek a 30 year old woman but guess what it ain’t 1999 no more.. Glad you finally come to that conclusion..  

But you can still find a nice younger women BUT it aint easy!! Best to live in Russia

p/d Steve, can you be so kind as to tell us how many 9’s and 10’s from Russia are currently on your site? . Yes we do get lots of 9/10 women but 99.99% we transfer over to our other web site.     https://www.facebook.com/CupidGuardcom-1946518872238288

[cufflinks]

Update. I just got the lab results. I'm negative and free from quarantine.

I believe I have plenty of money to survive, but I think I'll try to teach to stay busy. At the top of my list is university professor. Most likely teaching English.  I have a BS, MS, California Secondary Math Teaching Credential, 26 years experience teaching high school math, and recently completed an MA in psychology.  Maybe I can do something with some of that. If I can find a uni that wants an English speaking math, engineering or psych professor that would be ideal. And yes, I realize the pay for educators is low here.

Curious the City in UA you have settled in and the monthly living costs?

[Manny]

Hats off to you for not messing about and grabbing the bull by the horns! 

I’m really interested to see how life works out for you there.

[Contrarian]

Congratulations not just a Dude!! Pretty cool!! 

[BillyB]

Next plan is to obtain some sort of semi-permanent residency for my girlfriend and I, then buy a car, then find a more permanent place to rent or buy a house, then get a job.

When I was a young boy, my mom asked me about my plans when I grow up. I told her I'm going to find a girl and get married, then buy a house and then find a job. She told me my priorities were out of order.

[Omega1982]

Your Uncle Sam says never forget him and he wants an Easter card stuffed with cash every 15 April. Your nephew facta also wants some attention. Probably more relatives will also appear. Stay in touch.

[Dogsoldier]

JAD, have you burnt all your bridges?
If things go pear shaped have you a home to return to?

Knowing your previous form with FSUW, it seems probable that this relationship may not last or the complexities of living in Ukraine will simply overwhelm you.
What then?

[andrewfi]

Your Uncle Sam says never forget him and he wants an Easter card stuffed with cash every 15 April. Your nephew facta also wants some attention. Probably more relatives will also appear. Stay in touch.

If he's working as a teacher of some kind he won't be needing to support the USAian national debt.

What's the rules about teachers having relationships with the students over there? Position of power and everything might create an appearance of a target rich environment where the targets are more interested in his mind and grades than his money. Problem is that's a tempting but risky option.

I hope that he doesn't go down that route. It might be an interesting read if he does, but it'll be a crappy life choice.