I am a 26 year old man recently settled in my native country. I left when little to attend boarding school in England. I find I have experienced a very colourful life; growing up in two very different cultures i.e. the culture of the occident in my adopted home and the culture of the orient in my native home which I revisited on holidays during the summer.
...Well, they have been a gradual, scattered process of evolution, which got better as I discovered what it is that I want out of life and love. Not being labelled a Casanova, and neither a shy wallflower, I have had a fair number of relationships with girls from differing cultures.
Kazantzakis said "You have your brush and colours. You paint paradise and then you go". I feel that as we get older, what we seek out most is acceptance, particularly from that special person, that "significant other". I believe that if you want to paint paradise you must be honest and gentle with yourself and in turn it will radiate onto the person you love.
A gentler perspective than most men would care to admit (but I hope you don't interpret this as arrogance, which it is not).