8:45 on a Thursday night, phone rings. The call usually goes like this…
Hello. KT! What’s up, bro? What’s that, got an idea? Taking a trip? Nice, road trip! What’s that? OK, hang on, you’re saying that you want to go to another country? Ok, you know I’m down for a little adventure, let’s do it! You are going to do what? You are going to find a wife? In another country? Oh, you want to go to Russia to look for a wife? Russia? Seriously!?!? Dude, you do know that’s behind enemy lines, for Christ’s sake! We can’t go there…you must be off your rocker. Do you have any idea how many things could possibly go wrong in this little endeavor of yours? You could be kidnapped or killed or worse, you could be scammed – they do say that Russia is home to all of the scammers in the world. Yep, I read that on the internet just last night. You can’t trust them, I tell you. And if they don’t kidnap you, they are just going to watch you wander around lost. How are you going to find your way around, you don’t even speak their language? Hell, you barely speak our language. And, AND, you can’t even read their alphabet. You know I hear that a P is actually an R over there and the write their R’s backwards? Seriously, it is a weird alphabet. Wait, what? Me? You want me to go with you? To Russia? To find a wife? Nope, not happening. Nope, Nope, Nope! Good luck though. I’m going to plant my butt right here on my sofa in the good ol’ U-S-of-A! And what do you think you are going to find over there? Have you seen the women from over there? They’re like HUGE! Oh, and I hear they chug a bottle of vodka and then wrestle grizzly bears for fun. Nope not for me. What do you mean I’m wrong? Trust me, you are going to get kidnapped, raped by a grizzly bear, and then thrown into a damn hole in Siberia where you are going to freeze your butt off. No, I don’t want to look at a grizzly bear wrestling… you sent me a text? Hang on? Who is this a picture of? No, she isn’t Russian. I guarantee you SHE IS NOT RUSSIAN! Can’t be. Dude, this chick is beautiful. And you think I’m going to believe that. She is certainly not a university professor? Nope, don’t believe that either. It can’t be. This is part of that scam I was telling you about. What do you mean that this normal? This is not normal. I’m telling you, this is not normal in Russia. All of those girls over there are big…they can bench press you. Seriously bro, pieces of you are going to get mailed back to the states in separate boxes. She’s what? You talked to her? Really? Really? Oh. Yeah, really? Hmm… she’s normal you say? And no bears? What about the kidnapping and scams? No, huh? Really? Hmm…ok, what about the alphabet? HA! I knew it!
Does this phone call sound kind of familiar? Any man that has thought about dating a lady from another country has probably had a similar conversation with one or more of his buddies when he tells them of his plan. I know I went through this same conversation. In fact, the dialogue above is basically my best friend’s portion of the phone call from some years ago.
Hi, I’m KT Stephenson, part of the staff here at Match-Mate. The President of Match-Mate (i.e. my boss) has asked me to step out of my comfort zone and work up a running blog for the website on the realities of International Matchmaking and Dating. You are probably already thinking, “Great! Some desk jockey is going to try to tell me how to look for a foreign lady”. Well, guess what…you are correct, this desk jockey is going to do just that. But there is a catch. I am not only an employee here, but I am also a client.
In November 2014, I stepped off an airplane into the frigid cold of Odessa, Ukraine. That day is etched into my brain as that is when I met some of the greatest people I will ever have the pleasure to call friends, I was able to finally verify that the Ukrainian ladies from all of those profiles I had researched were really as beautiful as their pictures depict (and often time, more so), and I learned that Ukraine was much more than I could have ever imagined.
To give you an idea how some of my perspectives are driven in the blog, I want to give you a quick “resume” of what I have done with my life. It might help explain some of my dry humor from time to time. OK to start, I am from Texas. Born here, raised here, left for the Navy, and came back to Texas. Later this year (2021), I will turn 56, so I have been around the block a time or two. Professionally, I started out as a nuclear reactor operator on a Navy submarine. Since I left that world, I have operated nuclear power plants, traveled as an electronics field engineer, and managed maintenance departments at various industrial plants. I am also a bit of a computer geek, as I build my own computers. You could say that I am certainly a technical kind of guy. But I enjoy writing too, especially about those things that I am very intrigued by and those that I have experienced somehow. And I am a research junky. The engineer in me wants to make sure that whatever I write is as accurate as it can be. (Honestly, I’m not even finished with this first blog entry and I’m already arguing with my boss about some data that I want to put out to the Match-Mate members). When all is said and done, I want to make sure that it is accurate, in the correct context, and as complete as possible. In other words, I am apologizing for any future lengthy blogs.
But that is enough about me. Let’s get started. I hope you join me on this virtual journey, pick up some good information, and maybe we will meet someday on the other side of the world.
