... in response to What is going on out there, posted by Bobby Orr on Dec 11, 2004That is a good wake-up call. Here is another: I know of a Latvian woman who is living with a guy in London, playing house with him in his small studio apartment while she pursues the career she trained for in Latvia (Graphic Design.) It's not a lucrative profession, but she knows that in London she can earn three or four times what she would have earned in Latvia. They met on the net, and when she first arrived in London, without work, he paid for everything, including many gifts and at least two return flights for her to go home and settle her affairs there, bring some of her stuff over, etc. He was also supporting her, obviously.
Nearly a year ago, she found a job, and is earning a pretty fair wage. Meanwhile, his job hasn't been going too well, and as interest rates have risen sharply in UK, the mortgage on his apartment is beginning to hurt. So he asks politely if she would consider maybe contributing something towards the household bills, and her response is one of outrage, as though he is trying to renage on some kind of deal. He explains to her that it is pretty normal for an English girl to share living expenses with her partner to some extent (proportionally), if they are both working; and is told that she is NOT English, and if he wants that kind of arrangement he had better go and find an himself an English girl instead.
I know for a fact that this woman has no intention of staying in London indefinitely, she has bought herself an apartment back in Latvia and is paying it off monthly from her earnings in the UK. Meanwhile she has already rented it out to a tenant and the monthly rental roughly covers the monthly repayments. It's a 15 year loan, but her target is to get it paid off in two years; and after those two years, she intends to return home. One of her ideas is to rent a cheap premises in town and start up business on her own, as a Graphic Designer. It's all planned out, coldly, methodically and remorselessly.
I don't know the guy, but he is sure heading for a fall and being used like a complete sap (although there appear to be some on this board who would probably accuse me of judging her unfairly!!!!!) Or maybe he realises it all, and is happy just to go with it while it lasts?
