Omsk woman: medical care in Russia, home in Texas
Yulia Dandelion (her surname translates from English as «dandelion») left her own makeup studio in Omsk, a thriving business, friends, and relatives four years ago — and moved to a major US city. Now she works as a spiritual mentor. She moved overseas not for adventure: she met her future American husband and took a step many would consider a gamble.
How her life was built after the move, what turned out to be the hardest part, and why she still doesn«t regret it — in our article.
Life before emigration
Yulia is 35, she was born and grew up in Omsk. She asks not to disclose her real surname — for many years in her professional and personal life she has been Dandelion, and it«s not just a catchy pseudonym. Her love for dandelions, she explains, dates back to childhood: she picked them, wove wreaths, and admits she even ate the yellow buds.
She remembers her childhood with warmth. She was close with her parents then and remains so now. The family traveled, but she never thought about moving abroad. At most, an abstract «I»d like to live in Italy.« No serious plans were made.
«In general, I didn«t have such dreams. But somehow fate threw me there,» she laughs.
After school, she enrolled at Omsk State University named after Dostoevsky (OmGU) in the advertising department. As a teenager, she wanted to be a journalist, to write texts, but eventually went into another creative field. During her studies, she got interested in makeup — and gradually the hobby turned into a business.
In her first year, she met her future husband. He was three years older, worked as a photographer. Their creative tandem gave her career a start.
«I got drawn in, and it all took off. There were many creative projects, clients started coming. Then I opened my own studio,» Yulia recalls.
The business grew, her name became recognizable in Omsk. It seemed everything had come together. But the relationship with her husband after nine years together, four of which in marriage, reached a dead end. No scandals or infidelity: at some point it became obvious that their paths were diverging.
«I don«t have fear and horror when something changes. I take a more philosophical approach,» she says about the divorce.
Love across the ocean
After the divorce, Yulia decided not just to change her surroundings, but to completely reassemble herself. She plunged headfirst into self-discovery — she tried everything.
«At that time, I jumped in headfirst into everything possible: the church, all sorts of esoteric practices. I had to try everything. Now I have more understanding of what suits me and what doesn«t,» she says.
At the same time, she developed her blog. Gradually, a women«s community formed around her: first she invited psychologists, coaches, and masters for meetings with followers, then it grew into a full-fledged women»s club.
In spring 2020, when the world went into lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, she signed up on a dating site out of boredom. She wasn«t planning to find a husband — but it turned out differently.
«The app had a «multipassport» feature that allowed you to search for people all over the world. That«s how we matched with my future husband. I gave him my number right away — I was easygoing. We talked for hours on video calls. At first it was interesting to communicate with a foreigner and practice the language. Then we got into deep topics, not just talk about weather, nature, and »send a photo«.»
Yulia does not reveal her husband«s name or details of his life — he is not a public person, and the family values their privacy. But she shared the story of their meeting.
When quarantine restrictions were lifted, the man suggested they meet. They decided to choose neutral territory — Istanbul.
«We met at Istanbul Airport. I arrived earlier and waited for him for about an hour. When he finally arrived, he came up to me — and it was such a strange feeling: you«ve seen the person only on screen for months, heard his voice, and here he is in the flesh. It»s like meeting a superstar, you can finally touch him. I remember our first hug... Girls will understand me. Every cell of my body seemed to activate. I kept a straight face so as not to melt into a puddle on the floor,» she recalls with a smile.
Five days in Istanbul became the point of no return. After the first meeting, they still lived in different countries for another year and a half, seeing each other about once every two months — in different corners of the world. Yulia was only able to fly to the US in January 2022: getting an American visa was not easy.
«I know some people dream of moving and marrying a foreigner, leaving a small town. Everything was fine for me, I had no thoughts that I wanted to leave Omsk.»
She realized he was «the one» in the first months of their correspondence. In 2022, they got married in Houston, Texas, where they still live. Both had been married before, so they skipped the lavish wedding: a quiet ceremony in a Japanese garden, a walk for two, and dinner at a restaurant. In six years of relationship, she says, she has never doubted her choice.
Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth most populous metropolis in the United States. Located near the Gulf Coast, it is world-famous as the «energy capital of the world» due to its powerful oil and gas industry and as the «space city» thanks to the NASA Johnson Space Center.
Her parents took her decision calmly. Her husband later visited Russia several times — first for work, then to meet the family. Contrary to stereotypes, Yulia says, many Americans have a genuine interest in Russia.
«Americans adore Russia. In movies, Russians are shown as some kind of mafia, and every time I think: «God, why is that? Why are we always portrayed as gangsters?» In fact, Americans who travel, many of them have been to Moscow and St. Petersburg. They like our culture, nature. Even winter doesn«t scare them. Everything is a real curiosity for them, and that»s always balm for my soul. When people find out I«m Russian, they immediately start asking a million questions. And if I say I»m from Siberia, they are even more surprised: «Oh my god, how did you even survive?»»
The cost of moving
Now she comes to Omsk once a year — to visit family. She says the city has noticeably transformed and continues to change. She has adapted to life in America, no longer homesick.
She wasn«t afraid of the move. She didn»t study other people«s emigration experiences, she just decided — because she was in love. Now she admits: if she had to change countries again, she»d think ten times.
The first two years were hard. She had to give up makeup artistry — after leaving, she closed her business in Russia but continued working as a self-discovery coach. Her faith and connection with God became her support. Everything around was foreign and unknown.
«You«re like an astronaut who sort of wanted to fly into space. You flew there without fully understanding what awaits you there. Like in the movie »Interstellar«, where the cable holding the astronauts breaks loose, and you just fly off into a dark abyss where you see neither Earth nor your spaceship. I went through all stages: denial, anger, acceptance, despair, and everything else.»
For the first year, she couldn«t leave the US due to paperwork — that weighed heavily. She faced a loss of identity: finding herself in another country, she had to search anew for the answer to who she was now.
Thanks to the move, she became softer. The striving for achievement that accompanied her in Russia disappeared. She jokes that the world became clearer to her, but her desire to learn and try new things hasn«t gone away. At first, she continued working with participants of the women»s club online. Now she understands: she should have given herself time to recover and not demanded too much.
In 2026, she continues to conduct online trainings for a Russian-speaking audience — group work for women. She combines psychology, psychotherapy, and energy practices. Previously, she thought she would only work with compatriots, considering Americans «aliens.» Now she dreams of holding offline meetings for locals as well. She sets that challenge for herself. In the West, specialists of her profile are called facilitators, and the profession is fairly common.
«I had resistance, thinking I«d only work with my own people, and foreigners are aliens to me. Now I»ve partly absorbed it, though not completely.»
A facilitator is a specialist who organizes the process of group work (meetings, brainstorming, strategic sessions) so that participants can communicate effectively, resolve conflicts, and reach consensus, without taking sides or offering ready-made solutions.
America without embellishment
Americans, Yulia believes, behave more confidently than Russians. A sense of self-sufficiency doesn«t stop them from learning, building careers, and developing — on the contrary, understanding their own value helps them speak up more boldly. At the same time, they can»t be called selfish: the idea of equality is strong in society.
«Their baseline is: «I am worthy, there is a place for me in the sun. I don»t have to fight tooth and nail for this life somewhere on the sidelines.« That is very much felt.»
Another feature is freedom of expression. On the street you can meet anyone, and no one will turn around. Strangers easily give compliments, and the coach quickly got used to that.
She doesn«t consider the famous »fake smiles« of Americans to be a bad thing: people here really look more friendly.
There«s a different approach to friendship here. They know how to build strong relationships, but they maintain more distance than in Russia. All of Yulia»s closest friends are Russians, even though they now live in different countries.
In the service sector, however, she feels Russia wins. Especially noticeable in medicine.
«If you have money, you«ll be comfortable anywhere you live. But overall, I get all my medical care in Russia. I come for a month and do all check-ups, cosmetology too I do there, because once a year isn»t enough.»
Even with good insurance, you sometimes have to wait several months for an appointment with a primary care physician in the US. Calling an ambulance is expensive. Many medical services in Russia are significantly more affordable. The main drawback of the Russian system, according to the coach, is the quality of treatment in public clinics.
Daily life is also more expensive in the US. For example, a large tomato, similar to one that grows in a grandmother«s garden, can cost about $20 (roughly 1,500 rubles). However, Yulia herself explains this by the higher income levels of local residents.
In the future, she dreams of working with an American audience, speaking to them, and writing a book. Her main goal remains inner harmony and the opportunity to do what she loves.
Together with her husband, they discuss the possibility of living in different countries around the world — among the options, they are considering Russia. For now, she lives in the US, but returns to her native Omsk every year. The city that, despite moving overseas, remains a place of strength for her.
There are more stories linking Omsk and the US than it seems. NGS55.RU has already told why an American moved to the Siberian city from Florida, how an Omsk resident built a career in Los Angeles, and what the son of controversial businessman Avdoshin does in New York.
