MAIL ORDER BRIDES - History at work in Moscow
The men think American women are too grasping. They're looking for someone to love them and butter their toast. The women have given up on Russian men. They want a man of quality and a home in the US. So East meets West in a Moscow mail order brides convention and sometimes, just sometimes, fairytales do come true. Bill Thomas is a middle-aged American who came to Russia to find a Russian bride. His kind of wife. Not the greedy American kind who is only interested in his credit cards and annual income. He wanted a Russian mail order bride, and in this he is not alone. Indeed, for once, the echoing lobby of Moscow's Cosmos Hotel has more guests than staff roaming around. Seventy of Bill's fellow Americans have booked in for ten days of mail order brides hunting.
Mail order brides from European Connections
They have paid thousands of dollars and flown many more miles to come and look over some 600 Russian brides invited especially for their inspection. 'Tomorrow, I'm going to meet more eligible women than I have met in my whole life,' says one softly-spoken man from Tennessee. Is he nervous? 'About as nervous as a cat in a room full of mice,' he says, and actually licks his lips. The mail order brides are obligingly beautiful, but no fools. 'This is not an equal situation,' said one woman through gritted lipstick. She is right. That's what the European Connections mail order brides Moscow Tour is, but at least it's a convention with aspirations. Of the fairytale variety. Most of the men want love, marriage and an ending that includes the words 'happily ever after'. The women are more pragmatic: they talk of a better life, a 'kind' man, a home to call their own. The men's average age is 45, the women's 29.
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