Just above, you should see a photo of Yana, and Yulia and myself at the New York Pizza Restaurant  in Novosibirsk, Russia.  I am the man with the silly smile on my face, Yanina Melnikova (or YANA) is just to my left, and Yulia  my interpreter is sitting across from me.                Around the 3rd of January 2001 I arrived in Novosibirsk Russia for the purpose of meeting new friends, learning new things, and also for the hopeful purpose of finding my soul-mate.                   I met Yana through a Marriage Agency Called "Amenity  International".  This Marriage Agency is run by Victor and his wife Olga, and their office is in Novosibirsk Russia.   Over the course of about a week, Victor and Olga introduced me to many fine ladies.  I think that I met around 10 girls during this week.  It was an interesting experience for me and all of the girls were very nice.                   I do not remember all of the details from this, my second trip to Russia, because for me going to Russia is a very exciting, head spinning experience.  Everything is very different in some ways and in other ways it is just the same there as it is in the United States.   Below I will detail briefly how I met Yana and what she has come to mean to me.                I met Yana without writing to her and without her writing to me.  Before I left for Novosibirsk I printed out a few profiles and photos of some girls, from Amenity International's web site, that lived in Novosibirsk.  I thought that this might be the way I might find the right girl for me.   When I first met Olga at Amenity International's office, I communicated to her using the few words that I knew in German and the even fewer words that I knew in Russian.  We had to communicate this way because I neither spoke Russian or German well, and she could only speak Russian and a little German).              I told Olga of my troubles and of my heartaches and she consoled me the same way any loving mother would, and she then said "In Novosibirsk there are many good madchens" (girls).   Olga then looked at some of the profiles from her web site that I had brought from home and she started to set certain profiles off to the side saying, this one is not so good (I am sure she meant not so good or suitable for me), and others she said were good or very good.              I then held my breath as I gave Olga the profile and photos of Yana, and I waited to hear what she would say about this girl.   When I heard Olga say the words "Good Russian Girl", my heart leapt for joy because I had high hopes for Yana.  I felt this way because in the photos and in the words contained in her profile I saw something VERY BEAUTIFUL.  I saw a beautiful girl with the most wonderful smile.  The kind of smile that could make the sun come out even on a dark winters day.  But I saw much more than a beautiful girl. I saw a girl who was sincere, honest, and down to earth.

Kindness, warmth and love of life emanated from the words she had used to describe herself and to describe what kind of man she was looking for and to describe what their life would be like once she found him.   I felt that Yana had opened up the door to her heart when she wrote those words describing herself, because her words and her photos matched perfectly and they both seemed to be speaking just for me!                  The first time I met Yana, she was waiting for me in the Lobby of the Sibir Hotel in Novosibirsk.  She was waiting there along with Victor the head of the "Agency" and with Yulia who was a translator.  The date was near the middle of January 2001.              I was looking forward to meeting Yana but I was a little bit nervous because to my eyes and heart she was so very beautiful.  When I first saw Yana in person, she looked even more beautiful than in her photos so this made me even more nervous.             We went to a restaurant to have lunch and to talk.  Yana was kind and gracious, but sometimes I had difficulty in keeping the conversation going.  She seemed interested in what I had to say but she did not seem to have as much to say about herself.   Part of the way through our lunch I told a story that related how sometimes in war a person can come to value life more or learn to see life in a better way than he did before his experience in war.  I was not saying that war was good or that war was fun or anything like that.   I was only pointing out that when you come close to loosing something precious (like your life),  you often learn to appreciate that which was almost lost even more.             Anyway Yana seem to misunderstand me, and she pointed out how terrible war is and how very terrible the war was in the area of Russia where she grew up.  And then I felt terrible because I really liked Yana and I really wanted to make a good first impression on her.  At this point I felt like I had ruined my chance to make a good first impression, so I then tried to recover by explaining just what I meant.  But it seemed as though the damage was done and I felt certain that I was "HISTORY"!           Later I got out my trusty Lap Top Computer and I showed Yana all of the photos of me doing different things.  She did seem to enjoy seeing these photos of me so this made me feel better.            I also remember that she wanted to pay for her share of the meal.  My interpreter was gone for the moment so I put my hands together and I gave Yana one of those pleading for your life looks.  I hoped that she would understand that I did not want her to pay for any part of the meal, and I hoped that she would relent and allow me the privilege of paying for her meal.  I did this because I wanted to show her what kind of man I was and because I wanted to show her how interested I was in her.  But she insisted so I gave in and said OK.   As our date ended, I said to myself "Monty you must ask her out again, she is just too wonderful and special for you to let her go without even trying, SO ASK HER!" So I took a deep breath and nervously asked her out on a second date.  I think I said maybe we could go dancing, "Tansavite" together.  Just then she gave me a gracious but not to overly enthusiastic look and said "Maybe".               I really liked Yana but I thought that it would be unlikely that I  would ever see her again.  I still had a little hope that I might see her again but I did not think that my chances would be good.  I thought this way because Yana was just so beautiful!!!  And I by comparison felt very much the ordinary guy.  Probably too ordinary for such a beautiful and wonderful girl.   I will continue this story on another page.  You can get to this page by clicking the link below.

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