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Ekaterina Beloborodova (Katya) contacted us via e-mail in April of 2003 after finding our website while searching for potential employers in the upper mid-west.  She was participating in the "Work & Travel USA Work Exchange Program" which is only for university students.  After working for us the summer of 2003 she returned home where she finished her last year of university in Kurgan, Russia, which is in western Siberia just east of the Ural mountains, and is almost exactly on the "other" side of the world with their day starting eleven hours before ours.  Katya graduated in the spring of "04" with a major in English and a minor in German.  Having never hired anyone to work fulltime, we were somewhat apprehensive about proceeding with a job offer.....especially to someone halfway around the world but we decided to give it a try, as she spoke impeccable, unaccented mid-western English.  Katya immediately worked her way into our hearts, and by the time she had worked the allotted four months she had become part of the family.  We left April 23, 2004 for Siberia to visit Katya and her family as well as Marina who is her best friend, and another Katya, Katya Postovalova, who would be coming to work for us in the summer of 2004.  Marina would also visit us in the fall of 2004 after working for her second year at a special needs camp in Missouri.  We spent two weeks in Russia, living and touring with friends from that country instead of an organized tour!!!  After returning home May 9 we found that the world was now smaller and we will remember the wonderful people and experiences for the rest of our lives.  What an ending to an unexpected e-mail from the other side of the world!!!

2006 Update on Katya......Katya had met a young man, Bill Zimmerman, who is a good friend of ours just before returning home in the fall of 2003.  After an e-mail/phone correspondence for over a year, Bill traveled to Kurgan to meet Katya's family in early 2005.  Subsequently, they made plans for Katya to come back over to North Dakota in early 2006.  They were married in March with a wedding reception at Deepwater Bay Bed & Breakfast, and they are now living in Minnesota where Bill is employed at a power plant.  Soooo...further implications to an unexpected e-mail from the other side of the world!!!

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