The truth about relationships.

One of my students told me he was saving up money to get a girlfriend. I obviously asked him if he was buying one. The truth wasn't far off.
Girls in Hong Kong expect the guy to pay for absolutely everything. Ok, so this is a country where it's fine to have a dinner date in McDonalds, but with a national average salary of HK$12,000, even that can get costly for a young guy in his first job.

It's not just dinner, he told me, it's bus tickets, cinema, and then all the presents. To keep a girlfriend happy, he expected to be spending at least HK$800 a month on gifts for her. More at Christmas, birthdays and Valentine's. In order to afford this in the long-run, he'd made a plan to save up around HK$5000 before making his move.

What will she bring to the relationship? I wondered.
She should be pretty...and kind, he replied honestly.

I was a bit horrified at first but I've now started to appreciate the simplicity of the matter.
He will buy her presents; she will be pretty and kind. Why complicate things?

A while back a different student asked me:
Marie, you're really highly educated, why are you not married?
I didn't really know what to reply then, but now I know what to say:
I don't really like McDonalds.