Thank you David, I thought the question was a little different than the traditional fare of trashing on dates and asking rather simplistic questions that we're becoming sadly used to in here. There weren't a lot of responses but the ones that were given were quite informative.

My intention was to bring up what my date said once some responses filtered in but you beat me to the punch and knew exactly what she was saying. She felt like a young woman who looked even somewhat good that didn't have children in that part of the world had endless options so the likely reason she would be online is that the local men had vetted her and passed on her and we foreign men should probably do the same. As she said, listen to the experts they know their women lol. She said if you want a Russian girl go to Russia, that is the best way to meet a quality local girl, but she said go spend actual time, and not a weekend but real time, she said a year which is kind of a pipe dream for most of us but I get what she was saying. There are always exceptions, there has to be, some women are going to have wanderlust and want to experience life elsewhere and this is the practical way to have the most access to people from elsewhere but seeing these answers I'm thinking overall she was very right. She showed me her vk inbox which was something I had no idea existed lol but she was inundated with date requests, she said bluntly if she were still living there she'd be married by now that's how it works, only reason she isn't is because she came here for school and landed a great job who sponsored her to stay. We got introduced by friends, I didn't know she was Russian til I got there, so it was an interesting coincidence. I guess I'm used to people online dating, everyone is on tinder or bumble or hinge these days that I never thought about it from an international perspective before. For me this was just another avenue, I don't need to find an Eastern European, I meet women at home all the time so wherever it happens so be it. I just assumed that was a common mindset...Never assume, how many times does life need to teach any of us that lesson, for me obviously one more time at least. I didn't think somebody in her mid 20s here would be as you perfectly put it, discount rack material lol. I forget what it's like to be 20 and be out with my boys every weekend meeting somebody new all the time, your world shrinks as you get older. When you have a busy career that monopolizes your time, or a family as well like in your cae and your friends are married off, you're not out and about mingling socializing, you accept the way you date now as the new normal forgetting for others that's not the case. I had posted a while back about having some weird experiences with many of the conversations I had here, at the time it was a cluster of Ukranian women so I thought maybe it was cultural but the trend continues and it isn't just Ukranian women anymore, so I owe them an apology, I find few women I enjoy talking to that are in my dating range on this site, most are quite strange and off putting. The older women here are by far more interesting just not practical for my life. I've met loads of Russians in my travels and got along extremely well so I was wondering what the disconnect was here, now it's all making more sense.

hahaha I love the Irish girl story, I think that in the early days of online dating we all ran into somebody like that or were that person, it was embarrassing to be an online dater. That's stigma largely gone locally...still exists when looking abroad. I know a guy locally who met a girl from the Philippines online and he felt no shame but I have to admit I thought really you needed to go out there...I had to catch myself, like how is it any different than my trying this site out but even when we're open to it we can still be a bit judgy.

It sounds like you've lived an interesting life my friend, I hope we can share some stories over some drinks one day, we've probably got some doozies between us from our player days lol