Eccentric Expat vs. The World

As I've mentioned before, Ukraine is one of the prime havens for the marriage agency business. Every year, thousands of men from Western countries flock to Ukraine, looking for one of two things: love, or sex. The city I live in is one of the hotspots for those coming for both, and spring marks the beginning of the migratory season for men who haven't been laid in far too long.

I've named myself the "Eccentric Expat" for a reason; I've always been a bit eccentric, at least in comparison to most of my peers. This doesn't necessarily mean I'm weird, or completely socially inept, or the creepy kind of stalker that gives most women nightmares. I've always been a geek, and yes, sometimes I've been socially awkward, but like most people, I've learned how to adapt to my environment. I never had an actual "girlfriend" in high school, but I did have girls that liked me, and found myself with a decent amount of female attention afterwards.

Seven years of marriage flipped me back out into the dating pool, and again I found myself learning to adjust to my environment. Life as a 20 year old Marine didn't prepare me for life as a 30 something divorcee, but it didn't take me long to find my share of interested females again. As an adult, I've spent maybe a grand total of 3 or 4 years as a single male, as in, not being in a committed relationship. The vast majority of that time has been within the last couple of years. I spent a good stretch of a little over 2 years being celibate by choice. I didn't allow myself to get caught up in any kind of relationship, and didn't want the distraction that a relationship of any kind (sexual or emotional) would bring to accomplishing my goal of moving overseas.

While I've been able to adjust to my environment, I always still view myself as different. However, compared to the caliber of Western men that I've met here in Ukraine in the 2 months that I've been here, I've got absolutely nothing on them when it comes to being "different". It's like every year, the US government secretly rounds up all of the most hideous, socially deficient, abnormal men in the country and dumps them into Ukraine for weeks at a time. I have yet to meet a fellow American here who even approaches the outer limits of what most people consider "normal". I'll update later with some examples.