Four Years....and Counting

Four years ago today, I met my honey in Prague. To be more specific, we saw each other for the first time 4 years and a few weeks ago. I was finishing up my final paper for the Teaching English as a Foreign Language Course at the Caledonian School, when a gentleman shuffled into the computer lab. We locked eyes for a few seconds and then we looked away. Did I stare too long? Did he really stare at me, too, or did I just imagine it? He sat two computers down from me and I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. I thought for sure I saw him peeking at me, too, but I couldn't be sure. A few minutes later he said, "Excuse me. Does anyone have a pencil?" A pencil folks. That's how he got me. I never reached for a pencil so fast before in my life. We made small talk about the TEFL course which he had passed a few months before. He returned my pencil, wished me luck with the course, and left the building. We hadn't even exchanged names. 

A few weeks later over Easter weekend, my friends Jessica and Kendra came to visit. They were on Spring Break from Barcelona and Prague was their first stop. I hadn't really done much exploring at this point because I had spent so much  time in the TEFL course, so the three of us explored the city together that weekend. It was the most wonderful, beautiful, fun day. We had a photo shoot in front of the John Lennon Wall, walked around the castle, took the funicular up Petrin Hill, got lost in the mirror maze, wandered the cobblestone streets, drank delicious Czech beer at the beer garden, went to the sex museum, ate goulash and dumplings, and danced all night at the most ridiculous Euro club in all of Prague. It was the day I fell in love with Prague.

When we went to the sleazy Euro club, we had to walk down one level, through a doorway that said "Welcome to the Gates of Hell," and then down another level to a bar that felt like a cave. A group of boys started talking to us and the one looked extremely familiar. Finally he said, "I think we met before. I borrowed your pencil." It felt like fate. We talked and danced all night. And by all night, I mean all night and the girls and I missed getting up early to go to the Castle for Obama's speech! The girls and I still attempted to go, but were late, got stuck in a huge crowd, couldn't see anything, and only caught the end of his speech. Regardless, it was awesome to be around such excitement. My lovely profile picture was taken that day: me holding an American flag and a Czech flag and LOVING LIFE! Sidenote: Yes I had to wear the same shirt two days in a row. No I am not ashamed.

A week later, I was leaving the school and I ran into Colin. Sidenote: Jessica had tried to tell me that his name was Dillon. Thank goodness I didn't listen to her! (Later, Colin told me he went to the school everyday that week hoping to run into me.) I remember feeling kind of embarrassed because I wasn't really sure if he liked me or not. He stopped me and asked if I wanted to hang out sometime. A few days later we went to the beer garden and after that...never really stopped hanging out. We went on our first official date at La Pizzeria Romantica (good one Colin), went dancing every weekend, soccer games, music festivals, ate goulash dinners and had picnics in parks. We explored Prague together, went on day trips, and left love notes for each other in our teacher mailboxes. I knew I had fallen for him when we went to the grocery store together and we were still having such a fun time...together...in a grocery store. I couldn't sleep that night because I kept thinking about him and around 6:00 am finally realized it was love....just like Dr. Seuss said.

When I moved to Prague, a relationship was the last thing on my mind. I had gone to kind of find myself. I passed the TEFL course, made an amazing group of friends, found a great apartment, and got a great job. I was already on cloud 9. Then, I ended up meeting someone who made life even better. I will never stop believing that the way we met was fate. Everything seemed to fall in place just like I had always imagined and hoped it would. Two recent college grads who wanted an adventure and ended up finding each other.