Be a 10

Are you for real???

I am sure that like me you have been walking down the street minding your own business, when suddenly you see a super-hot girl walk by. It’s hard not to stare, but seeing as you are not a creeper and your mother taught you better, you look away and keep on walking. But then out of the corner of your eye, you see the scrawniest, palest little Poindexter you have ever encountered. You do a double take as he gives her a quick peck on the cheek and then proceeds to take her hand and walk away shooting you the smuggest little sneer you ever did see.

That’s right that girl you just got done thinking was way out of your league, is with that guy…

Living in Japan this is a common occurrence, but it is not just Japan. In all my travels I have seen it time and time again. So what’s the deal? Are beautiful women across the world attracted to nerds because they think they will be the next Bill Gates? Are Geek Squad agents and social rejects really international most eligible bachelors in disguise? I don’t think so.

What’s the Secret?

The truth is these super nerds have finally put those massive brains to use and discovered a jealously guarded secret. It is known by many code names. The nerds know it as the duty free attraction dividend, others call it the gaijin kaiyo-ken or the weigukin whammy, the gringo grand slam, the laowai lead off, the haole hang ten or the extranjero extravaganza. No matter what you want to call it, the point is being in a foreign country, you get an automatic boost on the desirability scale.

I have experienced this first hand. Back home in America I like to think of myself as falling somewhere in the strong 7 to mid-8 range. I didn’t exactly have to beat the women away with a stick, but I like to think I did okay. However, the farther away from home I get the more I have to consider arming up. I first realized this in Costa Rica. Ticas are some of the most attractive women I have ever encountered. By rights they shouldn’t give a guy like me the time of day. But after collecting my foreigner bonus along with my passport stamp, I suddenly had no trouble figuring out what time it was.

I even found that it works both ways. In Hawaii I knew a lot of exchange students from both Korea and Japan. I met many of them just when they had first arrived in Hawaii. After about a month ALL the girls had found boyfriends. And not just some scruffy little nerd herder, these were some ripped, badass surfer dudes that also happened to be getting their masters in Biochemistry or some nonsense. These were the cream of the crop. At the time it seemed to make sense to me as these were some beautiful, intelligent attractive women that certainly fell on the high end of my scale. However soon after graduating college, I went to Korea and came to a stunning realization. My scale was broken. These young ladies who were coming in right about at a ten suddenly dropped down a few levels and I realized that I just didn’t know what I was missing out on. I was surrounded by women that were way off the charts.

The World May Never Know

Why is it that foreigners are somehow more attractive? Perhaps they are just exotic or maybe it is just a simple case of supply and demand. If you have some brilliant insight into it please do share. I certainly don’t understand this phenomenon, but that sure isn’t going to stop me from taking advantage of it.

So the next time you decide to travel internationally don’t forget to pass Go and collect your two bonus points. You may find that suddenly you are a little more popular with the opposite sex, so consider packing that stick.