You would think she came to that Chinese restaurant in the center of Kyiv to meet with someone as handsome as she is but that’s not the case. Two people are waiting for her in the corner – tall woman and a short bald man at least twenty years older then she is. His name is John and he is her today`s date.
Tall woman is an interpreter. She will translate everything John wishes to tell. And in fact he has a lot to tell and demonstrate! He will do everything to make an impression and J`s shy smile promises him a lot. All his deepest desires!
John talks about his home in California, about his favorite coffee from Starbucks and that he wants to buy a new house. He brought J. a present – French Perfumes she ordered in advance when they wrote each other long e-mails.
He believes J. is in his pocket. Could it be otherwise? He is a foreigner who came to save a girl from the cruel reality of Ukraine. To redeem this innocent creature from suffering! He would be happy to do so! Of course he will be happy – the girl is pretty and young!
The conversation continues. He is almost making a proposal and then goes to the CW for a moment.
An interpreted and J. speak to each other both in Ukrainian and Russian:
“Don’t order wine. In your e-mails you wrote you don’t drink at all”, says an interpreter.
“And why would I write something like that?”, J. is a little bit irritated.
“Because he wrote he is looking for a girl not drinking at all”, responds tall woman.
In fact, she is the one who wrote that long e-mails to John. J. is just a pretty photo, a cover for the whole story. She would come to the meeting only if she gets something out of it. Usually it is the money marriage agency would pay for the meeting but this time the girl was promised to get a perfume and a specific one – Chanel №5.
The moment John returns J. is smiling again. She makes pretend to be interested in the man. But in fact all she wants is to go home. Well, she can`t! The date has to continue! She has to make an impression even if after the date she will never see the man again.
Every marriage agency in Ukraine has working base with thousands of foreigners. Germans, Italians, Spanish, Britain and of course Americans. They come to Ukraine believing women desire to get married and move abroad. Usually they do but it all depends on conditions.
Girls like J. are not that rare. They registered on that websites because of easy money. The man has to be Prince Charming to catch their real attention: tall, young, rich and handsome. If he is not – she will chew him up and spit. What does it mean? The girl will try to get money out of him. For example, she will ask him to go to the shopping mall and buy certain stuff. If he does – she will go with him on a second or third date. If he doesn’t, well, he didn’t pass the test.
She is not obliged to know English. That’s why it's not rare to enter a classy restaurant somewhere in Kyiv and see a very unusual triangle: a man, a woman and a translator. Things can get very tricky sometimes because it's either to use Google translator where all the information is very distorted, or a real person. But imagine how comfortable it is to talk about sex with two people at once. It can be a beginning of erotic scene only in movies. In real life it is hard to speak about such things.
It is hard in general so many foreigners are looking for girls speaking English. Really, that makes the situation so much easier! But it shortens an area of search.
It doesn’t mean every woman is after money. Some of them are really looking for something serious. They could have had marriage and decided to be done with Ukrainian men. Or they want to live in another culture where gentleman, according to the rumors, are politer and smile all the time. It all sounds very appealing.
Vika is 38-years old. She looks much younger and has a 19-years old son who doesn’t want to work or study. That bothers her very much and she talks about the problem during almost every conversation. Also she has a masseur who is 10 years younger and craves to have sexual intercourse with her. Vika is considering whether she wants him or not. And explains there are too many problems with young man: “They fall in love too easily”. And she doesn’t need that of course.
The idea to move abroad sound interesting to this woman. So she meets a lot of men and Tray is one of them. But she is still hunting because Tray is 63 years old and looks exactly for his age. On the other side, he seems very generous. So now it all depends on Tray`s behavior. Will he be able to proof Viki that his age will be compensated by material goods?
Vika says she is a layer but got fired about five days ago. It's hard to be sure whether she’s truthful or not. Layers are paid well in every country all over the world and Ukraine is no exception. So why would she want to go somewhere else? Why did she get fired in the first place? Was she a layer?
Questions, questions. Nevertheless, Tray is interested. It's his third woman he got on the hook. Last two were too picky and obviously too young and they refused to go with him in US in the last moment. But he has spent a lot on that previous girls and it has made him more careful.
Tray was married to Ukrainian woman for five years. He also met her during his last visit to Ukraine. She was younger and very pretty. “Luxurious kind of woman”, likes to repeat Tray. She has left him for a younger man a year ago so now Tray came to Ukraine again hoping to repeat previous success.
“Ukrainian women are very good. They are pretty, they look nice not only on big occasions but every day. They wear high heels, family-oriented and… well… they are very sexy”, says Tray.
He was lucky – his wife knew English. Viki doesn’t. But he still wants to give her a chance. He likes her character.
“He likes that she is sexy, fit and pretty”, some people would say.
The truth is he doesn’t know her character at all because it wasn’t Viki responding to messages. It was an interpreter from the agency. This lady has a special folder on every girl with basic information: food preferences, hobbies, children, education, work etc. She just copies and pastes sentences from that folder into messages she will sent to girl`s fellows.
Ira seems to be different. She knows English very well and really wants to meet “the one”. She's imagining a prince who will choose her and she will choose him and they will live happily ever after. And, and, and they will day in one day! Isn't that great?
Ira has been dating foreigners for the last three months and her excitement slowly goes down: “They either arrogant or old. And very often these men believe I would do everything to marry him. I can see that look on their faces.
I don’t mind finding my soul mate. But he should treat me properly, prove his worthiness. All the dirt I can easily find in my own country. I am looking for something special”.
Usually “special” means with a nice car, house and a job. And of appropriate age. But that’s what women all over the world want and those “perfect” candidates are rare birds. A man has to have good reasons to fly over the ocean to find a wife.
Foreigners come to Ukraine believing in certain cliché: they will be extremely popular here and in a blink of eye will find a life partner.
Women attracted by the idea of Big American Dream: a nice house in the outskirts, a car and holidays in Florida. But the reality is it's not that easy for both sides. Bad things happen all the time.
For example, a man comes to Ukraine. He seems to be so perfect: so handsome, rich and family oriented. Well, he choses a girl and takes her to his motherland. But in 3-4 months he becomes a manipulative monster. Why? Because he knows his wife has no one to turn for help to: no friends, no relatives, no work. It takes time to gains all that things and until then she depends on the man. And some man “evolve” from nice gentlemen into tyrants.
J. tells all that stories during her lunch. In two hours she has to meet her Ukrainian boyfriend and go shopping. She wants to marry him but he still didn’t make a proposal. That nuisances her a little. For her dating with foreigners is not such a big deal. But she prefers to keep it her small secret.
J. explains that every girl in the agency knows prices for dates. Officially it is called: “money for a cab”. It means that in the end of the date she will politely tell him she needs money for the taxi and the man has to pay for her cab. And in this case it is not good a bad sign. A woman may like a man very much. But she will still ask for money for a cab.
“A girl has to eat”, repeats J. time to time. And basically she is right. In the end a girl does need to eat.
Credits:
Created with images by jar [o] - "Happy Man" • Hans - "men guys laugh"