How do you say “greetings, my name is Crandall Spondular” in Esperanto?
Saluton! Mi nomiĝas Crandall Spondular. 
I don’t want to say anything mean. But if you can’t find a local woman you like and who likes you, what makes you think you can find one in Russia? Have you tried local dating services? If your obstacle is that you can’t seem to meet anybody, online dating is for you. (I met my boyfriend of three years on OkCupid.) If your obstacle is that none of the people you meet seem to like you, and so the idea of looking for women desperate for a green card is appealing, perhaps it would be smarter to spend the money you’d spend on importing Svetlana on a makeover, new wardrobe, and counseling. Again, I’m not trying to be mean here, just a realist.
Unless you’re living somewhere like Alaska, it’s not that they’re not out there. Now, they might not be what you’re looking for - they might have kids, be divorced, etc.
Can I travel to Esperanto to meet prospective Esperantan brides? Also, what’s the food like?
How is that possible? Body language is instinctual. It least I’m both russian and american, and I can tell you it’s the same over there.
I think it may be a different issue. If you meet a woman who’s a scammer, she’s probably gonna be like other scammers and actually socially skilled…
My point is I think you’ll find nicer women who are like you on US dating sites or maybe real-world places like… i dunno. you could start a thread re where nice women hang out. A good start would be to join something, even if it’s church. Or you could change jobs.
Right, or learn esparanto. Hmm… meeting women in real-life is hard. Go join a normal dating site.
You know… Russia’s got normal dating sites too. If you find a woman there, at least you know she wasn’t out specifically to find an American… and she might still think it’s pretty cool that you’re one.
I didn’t say that I was giving up on the local scene. I’ve had some success with the dating scene locally, but none of them have panned out at this point, mostly due to 1:my own pickiness, and 2:incompatibility. I must admit that I’m very much average when it comes to the looks department, being only 5’7" and Asian, so I’m fighting somewhat of an uphill battle. But I have broken my own share of hearts out there with girls that weren’t my type, so it’s not like I’m a leper or something.
I just posted this thread because I didn’t know if these introduction services were a viable option for people out there. And now I know.
Unfortunately, no. Esperanto, like Atlantis, has no locus.
Nonexistent.
Does Esperanto have onomatopoeia?
Like, say, “whoosh?”
Yes. That link is to Pasporta Servo, a “hospitality exchange”. Basically, you can couch-surf your way around the world be staying at Esperanto-speakers’ homes. There are also conventions and gatherings. I’ve heard rumours that there are a lot more women at the European meetings than here in North America. So the ‘locus’ of Esperanto is wherever Esperanto-speakers come together.
Kind of a pot-luck, really. Depends on what people bring.
Most targeted and organized meet and greets with foreign women are going to wind up with Mr. Awkward & Lonely being scammed in one way or another. You think a foreign woman attractive and smooth enough to be interesting to you is not going to have all the action she can handle back home?
You’re US citizenship ticket with a penis and wallet. If you think you’re anything else to these women you’re being a fool.
Tim Blake Nelson from O’ Brother Where Art Thou starred w/ an Arquette in a movie about trying to make the Russian Romance tour work for them. But then, they just wanted help around the house rather than love. It’s a dark movie and odd (to me). It used a real tour as a backdrop and for extras.
I’ve had personal experience with the tours AFA (operators of the loveme.com website you asked about) runs. I went on a tour with them in the late 90s and was very impressed with them. They bend over backward to help you. My result? My wife and I will be celebrating our 9th anniversary in December.
I haven’t had contact with AFA in 6 or 7 years, but as long as the same people are running it from back then, I would recommend it with no reservations.
Trying to balance a lot of the negative replies from above: Yes, there are gold diggers in Russia, and you must exercise caution, but you’ll find gold diggers in the US, too. Most of the Russian women I met were sincerely interested in marriage. The exceptions weren’t too hard to spot.
As one who has been there, don’t expect to base your decision on the one trip. I recommend:
- Corresponding with many women well before the trip.
- Use the trip as an opportunity to meet some of the women you’ve corresponded with, as well as other women in the trip city. (DO NOT fixate on only one woman. One guy on my trip was using the trip just to meet the one woman he was corresponding with. While intelligent and nice in the letters, she was a shrew in person and he went home after only 2 days there.)
- Expect to meet several other times. My now wife and I took several vacations together in places that were easy and not too expensive for both of us to get to. (Greece and Cancun) She also managed to get a visitor’s visa (which is normally very difficult to get) and spent 3 months with me.
Keep in mind that you are looking for character, not just beauty. Pay attention to how she treats other people, not just you and how people relate to her. Is she friendly and charming to most people, or very nice to you but rude to waiters and bus drivers? Do other people (especially women) seem to like her? Think about the future with this person, not just the rush of love and lust right now.
Good Luck,
J.
Can you describe the ‘exceptions’? Were they obvious behaviors?
If you’re loaded, then sure, go ahead and proceed with extreme caution. If this would break the bank for you, then forget it. The huge risk is not worth it.
** jharvey963**, ever considered doing an “Ask the…” thread?
Well, it’s been a while, but here’s a few red flags:
- Any request for money
- More interested in talking about your job or your things than family, values, relationships, etc.
- Evasive or lying about personal situation.
- Presence on multiple websites using different names, different background.
- Very friendly to all of the foreign men, rude to locals.
- Moving too fast on the emotional front.
Just off the top of my head…
J.
My husband’s cousin, K. was divorced by his very materialistic American wife because he wasn’t making enough money to cover her lifestyle anymore. They had a little girl who was 7 or 8 at the time and she got custody. He went into a downward spiral (drugs, booze, etc–it had been a problem before his earlier marriage, but not during). After admirably clawing his way back out of all that, he met and started dating a considerably younger woman from Lituania, who got pregnant. They got married and had the baby. She had been married before and had a son a bit younger than the above daughter that she had left with his father back in Lithuania. At some point in the marriage she expressed a desire to bring the boy to American and K. agreed. This has since happened and they are all living together with K.'s first daugher making frequent weekend visits. I won’t say they are the most blissfully compatible couple in the world, but they are still together after 7 or 8 years.
Sounds like something one might say to Alex Trebek.
Jharvey,
How did you reconcile all those extra charges, ie $10 (at least) to read and send emails, and $4100 per trip, with getting to know HER. You must have spent alot of money. I guess when you go on the actual trip, meet up with people, the ones you get along with trade personal contact info with you, so that dispenses with the email charges. Right?
Well, as those women would tell you,
“The odds are good, but the goods are odd.”
I’ve heard that it is easy to decline.