Getting Jiggy in Odessa

You hear about the whole "Russian Bride" thing and people going overseas or online to places like Thailand or Eastern Europe to get themselves some young, naive girl to bring back to North America as their life partner - but you picture it being some older (really older) bachelor with lots of money, a real Hugh Hefner type.

Not so.

Today was a real eye opener in the world of foreign brides. We stopped for lunch at an Odessa landmark that serves traditional Ukrainian food in a farm style setting where all the wait staff wears Ukrainian costume. Quite a unique place - in a Disney sort of surreal atmosphere. Somehow we managed to get a table right next to an American guy - a Stanford and Morton graduate - sitting with what we quickly realized were a marriage broker/translator and the petite blonde intended bride.

It was the weirdest conversation we've ever heard. The broker would ask Mr. Stanford Guy (SG) about himself, he would talk on and on about his education, background, work, etc., and then she would translate it into Russian for the extremely disinterested blonde. The whole time SG would order food and drink for them all and talk to about what they might like for him to buy as gifts, where they would like to go shopping, etc.

SG was not ugly, a regular geek sort of guy and obviously well off. He was fit, well kept, and dressed well. We couldn't understand why he would go to Eastern Europe to get a date or future life mate. Especially one he obviously couldn't communicate with. What would life be like back in the US? What kind of conversations would they have? How exactly is he introducing her to his family?

In the end who is using who? Is he getting himself a trophy wife from Eastern Europe - a nubile young girl who must depend on him for everything due to the language barrier? Or is she getting herself a meal ticket out of Eastern Europe in the form of a rich middle-aged guy who is going to take care of her and perhaps her whole family? The lines get a little blurry.