My mother is the person my father relies on. He wouldn’t be such a wonderful dad had she not stood by his side. Because it is the woman who makes a man the real man. There was a woman behind every legendary man. Think of Lord Nelson [...]]]> My family is my two beloved sons: Maxim will soon turn 20 and Stepan is only a year and a half. I love my boys very much, they are wonderful. Maxim is a college student, he is the man of the family because the boys are growing up without a father. Maxim knows how to do all kinds of things: he can tile the bathroom walls, fix the electric cables in the house, repair shoes and furniture. It was my father, Maxim’s grandfather, who taught him all those skills. My father is the best in the world. He’s like the father to the boys. He not only helps me raise my sons, but also supports us financially. It’s very important as well. I work as a lab technician at the university and my salary is small, so without my father’s help I wouldn’t have been able to provide for my two children.

My mother is the person my father relies on. He wouldn’t be such a wonderful dad had she not stood by his side. Because it is the woman who makes a man the real man. There was a woman behind every legendary man. Think of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, Petrarca and Laura, Buonaparte and Josephine, and other numerous examples. I am 41 and I know that I am yet to meet my Nelson.

I am a strong woman and was born to be by a strong man’s side. My friends tell me that I’m not only strong but also courageous, since not every woman in Russia has the guts to bear a child at 39 and without the father, too. My friends also say that with me they forget about their problems, worries and sorrows and start seeing the wonderful things in life and in people. Because our life is so wonderful. Look how happy a baby is to see a bug, a flower or a ray of sunlight. We were also babies once and could see the beauty. We’ve just forgotten that we are angels with a body of flesh and that every person is unique and Godlike.

We also have a cat named Sonya. She’s the best friend and playmate of my younger son Stepan. When he is crying, Sonya distracts him and all tears are forgotten. The cat is a great help to me, she’s the best nanny for Stepan. I have a lot of plants at home and Sonya likes to eat some of them. I dream about having a dog, too. Because dogs are the most reliable and loyal friends. A cat is independent, while a dog is loyal to its master. It’s so wonderful to come home and be greeted by your beloved pets.

In summer I often go with my children and my friends to spend some time by a lake. We have wonderful woods and lakes. We love to swim, to sit by a campfire at night, to go rollerblading in the summer and skiing in the winter. I try to have fun in my life. Because life is so short and it’s important to realise your potential fully.

Not To Have Lived Your Life In Vain

It happens in life that a door is shut right in front of your nose. But it’s important to remember that there are a lot of other doors which are waiting for you further along the road, and I’m ready to open each one of them, to try every key to them, but I won’t miss my own door.

I am grateful to my parents for always being by my side, always supporting me through the hard times. I am grateful to Fate for my children, for the health I’m enjoying, for the job I love and for the love that I’ve had in this life and the love which is still to come.

I wish you all to meet your wonderful better half. Because life is given to us to love and to be loved, to give each other smiles, laughter and joy. I wish you to live your life in such a way that at the end of it you can say, ‘Yes, I have things to remember and I have not lived my life in vain!’

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The two best postcards from men were chosen by the female TAU2 users: both Eliezer (1st place) and Tim (2nd place) get the main prize of 120 credits each which have been already credited to their accounts. All the other men who took part in the competition have got 55 credits as a participation prize.

It was much more difficult to choose the winning postcards from female users. There were hundreds of entries and each one of them was interesting in its own way. The voting lasted for over two weeks and almost a thousand of male users took part in it. To keep the voting honest, we counted only the unique votes, that is, each man could only vote once for any postcard he liked. The 1st place goes to Valentina who gets the main prize — a gift basket worth of 100 euros. Two additional prizes (gift baskets worth of 55 euros [...]]]> The Postcards From The Heart Competition on TAU2 devoted to the Valentine’s Day attracted a lot of interest from TAU2 members. All the site users helped us choose the best postcards: we’ve received over 120,000 votes! The voting is over and we congratulate the winners!

The two best postcards from men were chosen by the female TAU2 users: both Eliezer (1st place) and Tim (2nd place) get the main prize of 120 credits each which have been already credited to their accounts. All the other men who took part in the competition have got 55 credits as a participation prize.

It was much more difficult to choose the winning postcards from female users. There were hundreds of entries and each one of them was interesting in its own way. The voting lasted for over two weeks and almost a thousand of male users took part in it. To keep the voting honest, we counted only the unique votes, that is, each man could only vote once for any postcard he liked. The 1st place goes to Valentina who gets the main prize — a gift basket worth of 100 euros. Two additional prizes (gift baskets worth of 55 euros each) go to Diana and Judie. Three more women — Inna and two Olgas, who got 4th, 5th and 6th places — will get gifts from TAU2 which will be mailed to them.

The voting took place at http://tau2.com/voting/. This page is still active and you can see the postcards for which you have voted as well as the winning entries. If you took part in the competition yourself, this page will show you which TAU2 users voted for your postcard. Perhaps, one of them is the very person who will make you happy.

Congratulations to the winners and all the participants of the competition!

The traditions of this holiday are strictly observed: men always give flowers to their mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, wives and loved ones. On March 8 the price of bouquets skyrockets, but it doesn’t stop the men who are eager to congratulate their beloved women on this day. And this is understandable: it is only once a year that men have a chance to show their appreciation to the better half of the humankind as in Russia and other post-Soviet countries the Mother’s Day isn’t celebrated yet.

On March 8 all women on TAU2 expect to get congratulations and small [...]]]> March 8 is a special holiday, it’s the celebration of spring, love and declarations of love. In the past, at the beginning of the 20th century, this day celebrated the fight of the ladies for equal rights with men, but nowadays this is merely the day when each woman can feel like a Lady — attractive, mysterious and beautiful. On this day the men around her traditionally act like Knights, become caring and attentive. They say compliments, wish her all the best, show their care and even do all the household chores like cooking dinner and doing the dishes.

The traditions of this holiday are strictly observed: men always give flowers to their mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, wives and loved ones. On March 8 the price of bouquets skyrockets, but it doesn’t stop the men who are eager to congratulate their beloved women on this day. And this is understandable: it is only once a year that men have a chance to show their appreciation to the better half of the humankind as in Russia and other post-Soviet countries the Mother’s Day isn’t celebrated yet.

On March 8 all women on TAU2 expect to get congratulations and small tokens of affection. On this day it’s so easy to get a new acquaintance — it’s enough to congratulate the woman you like. Don’t miss out on this opportunity! Do wish the woman to feel fresh and happy, to find her true and wonderful love. And may your wishes come true and your first conversation become the beginning of a new and wonderful lifelong romance!

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Oxana, a decorator from Moscow, and Silvain, a businessman from Switzerland, met on TAU2 on the eve of St. Valentine’s Day. They are together ever since — for over two years now. Oxana is sure that Silvain is the man she had always dreamed about. She told us the story of their meeting which turned into a love story.

I had always thought than meeting people on the internet is something unreal and definitely not serious. Had I been told three years ago that it would be on the internet where I would meet my love, I wouldn’t have believed it.

For a long time I was a single mum of my two daughters. Household duties, work, children, my life was 90% complete, what was missing was spare time and love. I had mixed feelings about the men I met in my real life. None of them was the man I had dreamed about, the man who could be my patron, my friend, my lover — the like-minded person with whom I could be really close.

One day everything changed for me. I remember my girlfriend calling and asking me to go shopping with her. The reason was that in a couple of days an American guy was coming to meet her in person: they had met on TAU2 and he had already bought the ticket. For the sake of this meeting she had learned English, got a driving licence and learned about the American traditions. The only thing left [...]]]>

Oxana, a decorator from Moscow, and Silvain, a businessman from Switzerland, met on TAU2 on the eve of St. Valentine’s Day. They are together ever since — for over two years now. Oxana is sure that Silvain is the man she had always dreamed about. She told us the story of their meeting which turned into a love story.

I had always thought than meeting people on the internet is something unreal and definitely not serious. Had I been told three years ago that it would be on the internet where I would meet my love, I wouldn’t have believed it.

For a long time I was a single mum of my two daughters. Household duties, work, children, my life was 90% complete, what was missing was spare time and love. I had mixed feelings about the men I met in my real life. None of them was the man I had dreamed about, the man who could be my patron, my friend, my lover — the like-minded person with whom I could be really close.

Waiting For A Miracle

One day everything changed for me. I remember my girlfriend calling and asking me to go shopping with her. The reason was that in a couple of days an American guy was coming to meet her in person: they had met on TAU2 and he had already bought the ticket. For the sake of this meeting she had learned English, got a driving licence and learned about the American traditions. The only thing left was to buy some new clothes! What can be more romantic than waiting for a miracle to happen? Waiting for a miracle to happen is contagiuos!!!

I got excited, too. Even though my friend’s expectations didn’t quite come true, I still got interested in the phenomenon of internet dating. I must say that my friend didn’t give me the website address. It took me some time to search for that wonderful site, but my search failed. When I typed in “TAU2”, the search engines gave me links to everything and anything but a dating site. I almost forgot about it and then, all of a sudden, I saw the advertisement of the site I had been looking for on one of the social network websites. Was it a miracle?

It was exactly the way my friend had told me: strict conditions of registration, detailed personal data, they can call on the phone to verify the provided information. It looked like this was indeed something serious?!

And what about the design of the site? The cute postcards for short messages? It was obvious that the site was made with love by people who were passionate about what they are doing! It was so nice! And there are so many men there!!! Oh, yes, all kinds of men! I immediately got lots of attention! Compliments, postcards, photos…

It took time for a really interesting communication to start. Every evening I wrote answers to 3 to 5 letters. Gradually both flirting and very romantic relationships started to develop. Despite very fascinating letters from one of the men, mainly thanks to the distance separating us, I understood that, however romantic that looked, but I would never leave Moscow to live in a little chalet (which looks like an ordinary summer cottage in Russia) even if that chalet is on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It’s much easier to break up a virtual relationship than a real one, even when waiting for a new letter makes one dizzy and makes the heart pound. This communication has a certain advantage: a person in love looks much better!

I’ll never forget Pablo from Spain: he had a stylish photo, an excellent sense of humour, he’s flirty and sexy. He’s still on the site! I laughed wholeheartedly at our jokes: I’d love to have this guy as a friend. Just as a friend…

And now I’m getting ready to go to France, to meet the man who seems to be a good candidate for my partner… I’ve got the invitation, the dates are set…

Well, I’m really not sure that he is the one I’ve been looking for… I don’t make any promises, we’ll just have a closer look at each other… I’ve brushed up my English (using the self-study guide that my children got as a present, besides the translator on the site was helpful)… I studied German at school, why doesn’t anybody write to me in German? It would have been easier in German… I’m worried, I’m not sure. Suddenly everything turned out to be very serious. He’s been waiting for me, getting ready to meet me…

That’s Something Supernatural

A new postcard on the St. Valentine’s Day eve, in German. A brief and poetical phrase. How sweet! Who is it? No!!! I wouldn’t answer it! He looks so pleased with himself, there’s only one photo and almost no information… Basel… where is it?

Well, whatever, I’ll write back to him! The postcard is very sweet!!! Besides, it’s St. Valentine’s Day! Everybody on this website is looking for love, so it’s our holiday!

This is unbelievable! In his first long letter he describes his life in the very words I had repeated over and over again when dreaming about the man with whom I’d like to be. I get letters from him twice a day and the way they are written shows that the author is an extraordinary, creative and very interesting person. Wishing to keep things interesting, we didn’t use the phone or Skype and in two months of writing letters every day he was already in Moscow.

We agreed to meet at the GUM (the Main Department Store) at about … o’clock. Who knows, will we recognize each other while simply browsing the stores? Just in case we got each other’s phone number (if we did get completely lost).

I was the first one to give up. I sent him an SMS saying that I’m leaving and that’s too bad. He was somewhere nearby. I wrote to him where exactly I was and then I saw HIM. He was exactly like he looked on the photograph!
 — Hallo!
 — Hallo!

His smile was wide and open. We talked using a mixture of my school learned German, quickly brushed up English, gestures and facial expressions — we understood each other! Moscow, spring 2009, exhibitions, walks. In two weeks we were already walking the streets of Zurich and Milan. We never parted since then!

Dreams Come True

Meeting his children, his parents, his ex-wife and her boyfriend… A bit later I introduced him to my children and my family. My children compare our story to the movie The Ideal Man and say that Silvain is my ideal man. I agree with them! Even though we don’t live under one roof all the time and haven’t officially tied the knot (I head the Russian branch of his company, besides I can’t leave my younger daughter alone in Moscow, she’s still a student), but we are together every day, if not in Basel or Moscow, then on Skype. There’s no need to have a hasty wedding ceremony and to live under one roof to be happy together. Everything will happen when the time is right! I’m sure of it!

To all those who haven’t met their other half yet, this is what I can say: it’s very important to know exactly what you want from life because the dreams come true exactly the way you have dreamed them. Don’t force things to happen, live your life and enjoy it, Love and Happiness will definitely find you! Live honestly, openly, create harmony inside yourself and then harmony and happiness will appear around you!

I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to the TAU2 team! With their help the impossible becomes possible and people, who sometimes live on different continents, find their other half!

The postcards turned out to be so different and so interesting that we have decided to let everybody take part in selecting the winners. It took a week to make a webpage for voting and now you can vote for the postcard from the heart that you like.

To vote, go to the voting page where you will see all the postcards entered into the competition, one by one. You will have only two options to choose from: like it or don’t like it. Please be fair and judge not the author but the postcard itself and the creative idea behind it. There’s no need to vote on every postcard.

The competition winners will be announced later and now you can watch the voting process itself. If you are taking part in the competition, that’s great! On the page with your postcards you can follow the popularity of your postcards and also see the list of [...]]]> Before Valentine’s Day we announced a competition for the best postcard from the heart. Within a few weeks, we have received over 800 entries. The ladies were participating much more actively than the men who entered only 7 (seven!) postcards.

The postcards turned out to be so different and so interesting that we have decided to let everybody take part in selecting the winners. It took a week to make a webpage for voting and now you can vote for the postcard from the heart that you like.

To vote, go to the voting page where you will see all the postcards entered into the competition, one by one. You will have only two options to choose from: like it or don’t like it. Please be fair and judge not the author but the postcard itself and the creative idea behind it. There’s no need to vote on every postcard.

The competition winners will be announced later and now you can watch the voting process itself. If you are taking part in the competition, that’s great! On the page with your postcards you can follow the popularity of your postcards and also see the list of those who voted for you.

Good luck to the participants!

TAU2 users mainly communicate by sending each other postcards. The photo on your postcard is very important and TAU2 has few ready-made postcards. We are sure that it’s much better when users make their own postcards for each other. The postcards competition is a great excuse to tell about your feelings and to attract attention to your profile!

The rules are simple. You need to take a picture that would show your face and a heart-shaped object. The face has to be clearly visible and it must be your face, but the object can be anything you like as long as it has the shape of a heart.

It [...]]]> Valentine’s Day is coming, it’s the day of all lovers and those who are still looking for their better half. This is the day when one not only can, but definitely should say “I love you!”. You can say it with words or with gifts — the main thing is that the person you love hears you. TAU2 wants to celebrate as well and announces the postcard competition for Valentine’s Day. We will be glad if you take part in this competition — there are prizes, too!

Postcards From The Heart

TAU2 users mainly communicate by sending each other postcards. The photo on your postcard is very important and TAU2 has few ready-made postcards. We are sure that it’s much better when users make their own postcards for each other. The postcards competition is a great excuse to tell about your feelings and to attract attention to your profile!

The rules are simple. You need to take a picture that would show your face and a heart-shaped object. The face has to be clearly visible and it must be your face, but the object can be anything you like as long as it has the shape of a heart.

It is the hearts that will be judged by the jury. Choose any object you like: a balloon, a cake, a heart-shaped cliff or a cloud. Anything your imagination can come up with. If you can draw, draw your portrait instead of taking a photo of yourself! Your face on the photo or drawing is also necessary to confirm that you are indeed the author of this picture. This is the TAU2 tradition: our site guarantees that all its users are genuine people.

How To Create A Postcard On TAU2

When your postcard is ready, all you have to do is to add the new postcard to your profile.

1. Open your photos in your TAU2 profile
2. Under “Add one more photo”, select your new postcard
3. Before saving it, tick “Closed access to photos” to Photo under “You’ve chosen a photo. Whom you authorize to see it?”
4. Finally, tick “Postcard from heart — for the contest” under “What do you see on this photo?”

That’s it — you can see the postcard in your profile and it has been entered into the competition! Of course, you can immediately use this postcard and send it to the person you like with best wishes on Valentine’s Day.

Postcards sent to us via email are not entered into the competition. However, if you have problems adding the postcard into your profile, our support service will help you. The number of entries is unlimited, but only new postcards are accepted! Creativity and a healthy sense of humour are welcome!

Prizes

The important prize which every participant will get is an excellent postcard with your photo which you can use now and in the future!

• Two winners will get the main TAU2 prize worth 100 Euro each
  For the male winner it will be 120 credits to his account. For the female winner it will be a gift basket worth 100 Euro
• Four additional prizes worth 50 Euro each
  Two men will get 55 credits each and two women will get gift baskets worth 50 Euro each

All the other entries which get the jury’s votes will be published in the TAU2 blog with a link to the author’s profile. As we have written before, such publications greatly affect the popularity of your profile on the site. Right now being mentioned in a blog entry is the best way to attract the attention to your profile!

Jury and Judging

All postcards added to the profiles before midnight of February 14 and marked as competition entries will be forwarded to the TAU2 designer. He will select the best postcards and publish them the next day in the TAU2 blog. After that the TAU2 team will vote on the winners. The competition results and interviews with the winners will be published on February 20.

We’ll be glad to see you among the competition participants!

You’ve probably noticed that all blog entries have a link to the author’s profile (except for the love stories in the Just Married! section because their authors have already found their better half and deleted their profiles from TAU2). Thanks to that link, all members who find your story interesting can go directly to your profile.

Interesting stories always attract the attention of the blog readers (including those of the opposite sex because the blog is published both in Russian and in English) which affects the number of visits to your profile. The women who wrote a story [...]]]> Would you like to have more people visit your profile? Would you like to see new messages every time you open your profile? Would you like to make your communication on the site more interesting and varied? It’s easy to do that — just write a blog entry.

You’ve probably noticed that all blog entries have a link to the author’s profile (except for the love stories in the Just Married! section because their authors have already found their better half and deleted their profiles from TAU2). Thanks to that link, all members who find your story interesting can go directly to your profile.

Interesting stories always attract the attention of the blog readers (including those of the opposite sex because the blog is published both in Russian and in English) which affects the number of visits to your profile. The women who wrote a story for the My Family section have noticed that. “More people look up my profile,” Valeria says. “Visitors flock to my page,” Tatjana wrote to us.

Olga was the first one to tell about her family in our blog and she has found many new friends and even more admirers. “Since my story was published in the blog, I have a large number of visitors every day. It’s always interesting to open my profile, there are always surprises and something that makes me smile! The people I have communicated with a long time ago have come back. In short, I’ve got a second wind. Among my friends, there are a lot of men who are looking for a woman of a different age. But we have things to talk about even in this case. We share advice, opinions on certain issues. Why not? It’s also a kind of communication which makes one feel better and raises the self-esteem which has suffered because of the unsuccessful personal life.”

You also have a chance to attract the attention of people who share your attitude to life. If you have something you’d like to tell the blog readers, write about it to blog@tau2.com. You can share your ideas about your ideal family or tell about your family values in the My Family section. Or you can tell about your hobbies and things that make you happy in the new section which will be launched soon. The text in English and Russian will be illustrated with photographs and will have a link to your profile which will attract many TAU2 users to your profile. Use this chance to attract the attention of your real soulmate!

— How did you get to TAU2?

It was fate, there’s no other explanation…

I lived with a boyfriend for 8 years but the moment came when I realised that we were already drifting apart. We were sort of together and sort of not together. So, I was sitting at my computer, feeling blue, just punching the keys… And somehow I got to TAU2. I had no intention of meeting any men. I just thought that, perhaps, I could get a job there, maybe someone needs a translator and I can speak two languages…

In two months my relationship with that boyfriend finally ended and I thought of TAU2 and went there again. I always knew that I would never marry a Russian or Ukranian guy because they are not the kind of men I like. That’s why I was searching for someone from [...]]]> For almost a year now Lyudmila has been living in paradise. That’s what she says when asked whether she likes her new homeland and adds that, perhaps, this is because with the loved one even a tent becomes a palace. Lyudmila married Ethan, an American working for a medical company. They met on TAU2.

— How did you get to TAU2?

It was fate, there’s no other explanation…

I lived with a boyfriend for 8 years but the moment came when I realised that we were already drifting apart. We were sort of together and sort of not together. So, I was sitting at my computer, feeling blue, just punching the keys… And somehow I got to TAU2. I had no intention of meeting any men. I just thought that, perhaps, I could get a job there, maybe someone needs a translator and I can speak two languages…

In two months my relationship with that boyfriend finally ended and I thought of TAU2 and went there again. I always knew that I would never marry a Russian or Ukranian guy because they are not the kind of men I like. That’s why I was searching for someone from a far away place.

— Was it an intuitive feeling?

It’s just that men are different. I don’t understand our men. In the West men are different, I like them better. They treat women differently, with more respect. They are ready to give instead of saying ‘I’m a man, I want this’.

America was my last choice when it came to choosing a country to live in. I liked Europe better as it’s closer to home, closer to my mother. And now an ocean separates us… I wanted to go to Portugal, I like the way of life there, I know those people, their culture and traditions. But the Portugal men I met were interested in blondes and I’m not a blonde, I look different. I look like a Portuguese woman, I have dark skin, dark hair, I’m not tall and the Portugues men weren’t interested in me.

— Tell us about your husband. At what moment did you realise that this man was to become your husband?

My husband’s name is Ethan, he works for a medical company. On TAU2 he was the first to notice me — he put a heart on my profile. I replied to him, he wrote about himself, asked something and we started writing to each other.

We just talked, we talked a lot. There was no moment when I said to myself, ‘Oh! He’s the one!’. At first we wrote each other letters, then we talked on Skype, every day, then we met face to face. It wasn’t like we saw each other, embraced and kissed and — voila! — we’ve got it! Things developed gradually. Ethan suggested that we met in person. I still had a valid visa for Portugal, so I suggested that we would meet there.

— Do you remember the first time you saw him face to face?

It was an interesting moment. In reality he didn’t look like he looked on Skype. He even seemed shorter. During the first meeting it’s natural to feel nervous, it’s like meeting a stranger. All the previous experience of communicating with this person is forgotten, that is, one still remembers the information, but the emotions are erased, one has to get used to each other all over again.

For ten days we were together in Portugal. And when we returned home, we decided to apply for my visa because we realised that online communication wasn’t enough, we wanted more. When one isn’t twenty years old, one wants to have a family, not just to talk and to date. Then I was waiting for the visa for ten months, though sometimes it takes longer. On my flight to the USA I met a girl from Kazakhstan who had been waiting for two years to get her visa.

So, we started writing to each other in July 2009, we met in person at the end of that year. And on 29 October 2010 I was already in the USA. It happened to be his mother’s birthday and he even forgot to wish her a happy birthday. Poor mom! But she is good, she forgave him. His family was very nice to me.

Now I have the white American wedding band.

— Why is it white?

Everybody here has one like that, white gold is very popular. I didn’t want to look different. The wedding band is worn on the left hand, together with the engagement ring.

— I know that recently you have found a job…

This is my first job here, so it’s nothing special. I live in a small tourist town with the population of only 1,200 people. For a person with no experience there’s little choice of jobs. I don’t have any experience. In Portugal I worked at first as a housekeeper, then as a dentist assistant. But here it’s not easy to get a job, one needs American education certificates. That’s why I got a job at a laundry. I like it. The job is simple. The co-workers are great. Americans turned out to be even better than Portuguese as they don’t pry into one’s personal life. I’m a sociable person, but I don’t open my heart to strangers. And Americans just ask how things are going, talk about weather, about the latest news and that’s it.

— So, you like everything in your new homeland?

I live in paradise. First of all, the place itself is very beautiful. It’s even impossible to describe. Either I got to the place where I was destined to live or it’s a paradise wherever my loved one lives here. But I love it here. It’s a tourist destination, there’s woods, ocean, clean water, mountains. There are few people, few cars, no factories. Instead there are lots of animals and plants… Just like I said, it’s a real paradise.

— And how’s life in the paradise?

I got used to it gradually. I have already had a similar experience, I lived in Portugal for a long time. I got there ten years ago, started meeting people and got some ‘life experience’. So this time I was careful. I hid in the flat where we live like a turtle in its shell and only in four months I started leaving the house on my own.

My husband has two children who call me odd because everything I do looks funny to them, everything is strange, not the way they are used to. The way I dress, the way I walk, the way I cook, the way I eat — they find it all odd. Just like they seem a bit odd to me. But it doesn’t affect our relationship. I realise that I look strange to them, just like they look strange to me and we laugh about it.

— Lyudmila, what advice could you give to the women who have just started using TAU2?

First of all, learn the language. If your intentions are serious, learn the language. It’s very important. Because if you communicate with the help of a translator, then the translator works like a filter: everything positive and negative is filtered out. And you are left with the filtered stuff, lacking vitamins and the most tasty things.

As for the photos for the profile, it’s better to have them taken at a professional studio, don’t use home made photos. When the pictures look beautiful, then it’s not so important what is written in the profile. So have good pictures taken. Also, look after yourself, visit a beautician, so that the photos represent the real you well enough and aren’t just made to look pretty in Photoshop. It’s also very important to be able to see the eyes clearly on the photos. Men do pay attention to this.

It’s also important what you write about yourself. At first I wrote very simple things and nobody, not a single man, got interested in me. I started reading men’s profiles and found out that they are written so beautifully, there are a lot of adjectives. Then I re-wrote my profile, not just ‘I’m looking for love and a man’, but using pretty words. That is, it’s necessary to make the effort, to pay for professionally made photos, to take the time to write substantial information about yourself.

A couple more recommendations. When one comes here, the way of thinking changes. We tend to buy something more expensive, some famous brands, something glamorous. And here everyone tries to save a bit and to spend less money. That’s why I have some practical advice.

There’s no need to get a driver’s licence at home if you want to come here and drive a car because here it’s much cheaper. Also, unless you have loads of money, it’s not worth wasting it on attorneys. All paperwork can be simply and easily done without them. Attorneys demand lots of money, five thousand dollars and more, and that’s the money wasted.

To me, my family means first of all my parents. My mother was a real Cossack girl from the Don river, one of those who were so skillfully described by Mikhail Sholokhov (a Nobel Prize winner) in his novel ‘And Quiet Flows the Don’. My father was from a family of Ukranian tanners, he came to the Don because of the great famine in the Ukraine in 1930’s. They had three children: myself, my sister and my brother. When I was a child, my grandmother Feodosiya also lived with us, she often told us about our great grandmother and great grandfather. Her stories were also full of warmth, jokes and humour even though their lives were not easy.

At the end of the 19th century, my great grandfather Nikolay had everything one could wish for. He [...]]]> The history of my family is the story of people who were divided by distance or religion. The fate brought them together for a long and happy family life. And this is very much like people on TAU2 who are looking for their better half, except in the past there was no such excellent opportunity as using dating sites.

My Family History

To me, my family means first of all my parents. My mother was a real Cossack girl from the Don river, one of those who were so skillfully described by Mikhail Sholokhov (a Nobel Prize winner) in his novel ‘And Quiet Flows the Don’. My father was from a family of Ukranian tanners, he came to the Don because of the great famine in the Ukraine in 1930’s. They had three children: myself, my sister and my brother. When I was a child, my grandmother Feodosiya also lived with us, she often told us about our great grandmother and great grandfather. Her stories were also full of warmth, jokes and humour even though their lives were not easy.

At the end of the 19th century, my great grandfather Nikolay had everything one could wish for. He was a Cossack, had a house, cattle, a big plot of land and was the father of five children. But his wife died while giving birth to their fifth child. At the funeral Nikolay got drunk, went outside, fell into a snowdrift and got frostbite, so that both his feet had to be amputated. The relatives and neighbours got tired of helping the big family and decided to find him a wife who would run the house. There was this young girl Sofia, whose father Moisei (a Jew who was the watchmaker of the village) died recently. And they all decided that Sofia should forget her Jewish roots, convert to Christianity and live like a proper Cossack girl.

She was baptised and brought to Nikolay’s house. The hungry children crowded around her and she rushed to the stove to cook something for them. Her cooking was very unusual but very tasty. Sofia became a good mother to the five children. People were saying that such a stepmother is better than some real mothers. In a year, in 1892, she bore a girl who was named Feodosia (Feo or Fenya for short) and who became my grandmother, the mother of my mother Nina. Sofia had no other children.

Feodosiya had dark curly hair and a pretty milk-white face with clear sky blue eyes, just like her father’s. She had angelic looks but a very mischievous character. I am very much like my mother and my grandmother in everything, both in looks and in character. I may be naïve in some things, but I’m always determined. Though, if one looks closer, I look like my father as well. It’s true that every person loves himself or herself and looks for the better half that is similar.

Having graduated from the military school in St. Petersburg, my grandfather Mikhail met the lively girl Feo at one of the parties (that was the way young people met before TAU2 was invented) and fell in love with her. They got married in 1910 and he was sent to serve in Ekaterinburg. They were given a house with a big plot of land, though not in the town itself, but in a village nearby where gold diggers lived. Cossacks were not allowed to dig for gold, but Feo was never the one to abide by the rules. Despite being almost permanently pregnant and nursing babies at the same time and against her husband’s orders, she got the necessary utensils and got to work. In the darkness of the night she dug hole after hole on their plot of land and covered them with wooden boards and tree branches for the day. She got lucky, and in two years she had panned quite a bit of gold. When they returned home, they sold the gold and bought a good house. My mother Nina was born there, in the Urals, in 1913, she was one of five children.

My family seemed to come right out of the Mark The Rich Man tale which my grandmother Feo used to tell us. Like any Christmas story, this tale had a sad beginning but a happy ending. Grandma wove the elements of all the Russian folk tales she knew into this story. We, the children, always listened to her with bated breath. Good always won the struggle against Evil, orphans found a family, hungry people were fed, freezing people were warmed up, sick people were cured and rich people were generous to those who were less fortunate. This tale has given me my role models for the rest of my life and taught me how people should be treated.

I learned to be a good host by watching my parents who always liked to invite people to our house even during the hard times — during the war and just after the war. They never got depressed, they had fun with their friends, sang songs and danced.

I am Very Proud of My Children

When I started my own family, I treated my husband and our children (two daughters and a son) the way I learned it in my kind and happy family when I was a child. Sometimes I had 30 guests come to a party at our place.

The revolution. Perestroika. The breakup of the Soviet Union… Unfortunately, Time takes away our loved ones… Now I live with my daughter Nina, who is the middle child.

My son Dmitry lives separately from us, but also in Rostov. He is a specialist in managing big companies. Unfortunately, the past year was a difficult one for our family, my son’s marriage broke up. My older daughter Natalya has been living in Saint Louis, USA, for almost 20 years. In 1992 she applied to 50 best universities of the USA and Great Britain. She was invited to Harvard, then she studied at the Washington University and got her doctorate in Law, worked as a lawyer and taught at the university. She married an American of German decent. I am very proud of my children, even though all of them are going through a hard time now.

What are my expectations on TAU2? Sometimes I think that it’s too late for me. It’s highly unlikely that I would meet a man with whom I could talk all night long like I used to talk with my late husband. But I have met some men on TAU2 whose interests are similar to my own, who want to write down their family history, like I have done. Now I want to publish my own book.

My daughter Nina is also registered on TAU2. I want her very much to find her better half here.

Whom am I proud of in my family? I’m proud of almost everyone, from my great grandfather and great grandmother to my children because all of my family members have found their own way in life, not an easy one, and based their family on loyalty, mutual honesty and sincerity.

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On the site my attention was first of all drawn to those ladies who had a nice picture and a very descriptive profile. I looked at the picture first but it’s what was written in the profile that made me want to contact the lady or not. The more information in the profile the better. But good pictures are more important, it’s the photos that attract interest to the profile.

It’s important for the lady to know some English. I tried to communicate with a lady who knew only Russian and found it very hard. It’s not easy to overcome the language barrier, but everything depends on how serious you are about meeting a lady. Not all ladies on the site speak English. But if I find the lady attractive, I wouldn’t let language stop me! I’d learn Russian, she’d learn English and we would find a way to communicate.

It just happened that my better half has chosen me. I have been on lots of sites and this was the first lady who came for [...]]]> I had tried many different sites and found lots of scammers which honestly made me mad: it was such a waste of time and money. Then I saw a TAU2 ad and decided to give it a try. I’m so glad that I did! On TAU2 there are no scammers, all ladies are real people or at least seem like it. And I like that a lot!

What Men Want

On the site my attention was first of all drawn to those ladies who had a nice picture and a very descriptive profile. I looked at the picture first but it’s what was written in the profile that made me want to contact the lady or not. The more information in the profile the better. But good pictures are more important, it’s the photos that attract interest to the profile.

It’s important for the lady to know some English. I tried to communicate with a lady who knew only Russian and found it very hard. It’s not easy to overcome the language barrier, but everything depends on how serious you are about meeting a lady. Not all ladies on the site speak English. But if I find the lady attractive, I wouldn’t let language stop me! I’d learn Russian, she’d learn English and we would find a way to communicate.

It Was Her Who Chose Me

It just happened that my better half has chosen me. I have been on lots of sites and this was the first lady who came for me and said ‘I wanna know you!’. I knew she was the one after talking to her lots of hours on Skype. It took about a month before I knew it for sure. We had talked for about 6 months before deciding to marry.

Even before we met each other in person, just in case, we have discussed what we would do if in real life our relationship doesn’t work. But this didn’t happen as both of us have an extensive experience in dating, we are both committed to each other and know what we want out of life.

Be Honest and Sincere

Even by online communication only one can get to know a person well enough, but it takes a lot of work and you must remember there are no guarantees. Especially when the other person is from a different cultural background. The language barrier is a big problem. Work at it! Try with all your heart to communicate: learn Russian or whatever language your lady speaks. Above all BE NICE. Remember that she’s frustrated and trying hard, too.

And never ever give up! Online dating is not different from dating in your country. Treat the lady with respect, be nice and don’t play games. Ladies really respect this kind of attitude even if you are not interested in them.

Think and decide what you want out of life and in a lady. Be honest and sincere, write a very descriptive profile with lots of pictures and make sure that those are recent pics. Above all HAVE FUN! Good luck!

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