By Bridin Reynolds
Cape Gazette staff

Blessed with compelling beauty and blonde tresses, at first glance Alena Novikava resembles starlet Cameron Diaz.

And although she is a self-confessed movie maniac - with intriguing favorites ranging from the classic “Bringing Up Baby” to the cult classic “Dirty Dancing” - Novikava has no designs on Hollywood.

Speaking perfect English in her distinct and charming Russian accent, she articulates her lofty life goals with great verve.  A bartender at the trendy new restaurant, 59 Lake, Novikava impresses her customers with more than cold lager and exquisite martinis.

“I’m studying international relations and finance back home,” she said.

Three years into earning her degree, Novikava is a student at the International Business Belorussian State University, among the republic’s most important educational institutions in the spheres of economics, management and marketing.

Having grown up in a small Russian village near Belarus, Novikava is from modest means. “It is necessary for me to pay for my own education and I knew there was great earning potential in this country,” she said.  In that way her story is similar to thousands of European students who seek work in resort towns such as the Delaware beaches.

Novikava, however, did not get help from the many organizations that facilitate foreign students’ travel. Troubled by many restrictions they impose, she obtained a visa that allows an extended stay in the United States.

“I decided I am a brave girl and I am going to do this on my own,” she said.

Appropriately, her first job in America was at the Liberty Grill in Rehoboth Beach, which closed several months ago.

“I was fortunate to find Delaware.  This is my third year in Rehoboth Beach.  Everyone is so nice and open,” said Novikava, who resides with an American family in Kinsale Glen.  “They are so generous and have helped me in my pursuits. Everyone should appreciate the opportunities here,” she said.

Novikava has seized other opportunities while staying in the United States, including travel to cities including New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

“Ultimately I would like to go to a bigger city and work in finance. I’ve always felt I wanted to see the world,” she said. “And I believe I will succeed.”

Able to afford only one return home since 2003, Novikava uses email and text messaging to keep up family ties with her parents and 16-year-old sister in Belarus. She often recalls often the dramatic contrast of home compared with life in America.

The flat expanse of land outside her village lies between Moscow and Warsaw. Its wide stretches of birch groves, forested marshland and wooden villages suffered immensely after the Chernobyl nuclear power station meltdown in Ukraine in 1986, the year Novikava turned 2 years old.

“It is a difficult place to describe.  There are many cultures there,” she said. Until her travel to the United States, Novikava had seen only the chilled waters of the Baltic Sea and the Arctic Ocean.

“I went to high school in a village surrounded by forests. Very different from life here.  I especially love the beach and the warm weather.

“Being from Russia, it may sound silly to be afraid of the cold, but I am,” she said, smiling through a glossy pink grin.

As she plans for her future venture back to college, Novikava is cheerfully committed to earning her final tuition with a cocktail shaker, an inspired attitude - and more than a few good stories.