The First Meeting

It was May 1st, 2010 around 5:00pm in the Incheon airport of Korea. I was about to see the girl I had been so anxious to meet for the last month. I had no trouble going through immigration, picking up my bag and going through customs. When I finally went through the one-way doors, however, about a hundred Korean people were there waiting for their family and friends. There was no way I could see her amongst all those other people.

She had given me instructions on where we could meet in case I couldn't find her or if either of us were late, so I found my way there and waited. It wasn't but 10 seconds before a pair of hands covered my eyes from behind, and I knew who it was. I quickly turned around and found her smiling but very shy. She was even more beautiful than in her pictures. We hugged and I told her just how pretty I thought she was. (We were both dressed very well for our first meeting). On the bus, we kissed for the first time. We both admit that it seemed sudden, but we felt comfortable since we had sort of known each other for two and a half months already. The first night was when we both confessed our love for each other.

The next morning, we made our way by bus to the Gyeongbokgung palace near downtown Seoul. I was also introduced to more Korean culture when we visited the nearby museum. There, I saw traditional Korean clothing as well as how Korean people originally heated their homes through the floor (which is still true for Korean homes, although it is now done through electricity).

Later that day, we met two of Karam's best friends: Mijung and JeongSoo. They were so nice to me, and since JeongSoo had a car, we drove to Seoul University where he went to school. As it started to get late, we had planned to see the Banpo Moonlight Rainbow Fountain. It's a bridge that crosses the Han river and has fountains and lights all along the sides. Unfortunately, that night they didn't have a show. You can see the bridge in action here.

The next day, we had or first real movie date to see Avatar in 4D. It was pretty cool because the chairs moved and they even had smells during the movie to give you an even closer experience to "being there". For example, during many of the scenes on Pandora, there was a really sweet, fruity smell. When there was a fire, it smelled like something was burning. After the movie, we visited the Bongeunsa Temple. I had never been to a Buddhist temple before so I found it to be very interesting. One of the most notable was the fact that it was so quiet, even though it was in the city.

On the 4th, we spent the morning and afternoon at Lotte World. It's an amusment park located in the city. For a half-indoor and half-outdoor park, it was huge. There is also a shopping center, folk museum and lake connected to the park as well. We had a lot of fun together on the rides and just walking around. That evening, we met Mijung and JeongSoo for dinner and Karaoke. It was a blast! They even had some english songs I could sing as well. We had many drinks and laughs that night.

The last full day I had with her was a little more laid back. We slept in and then that evening we went to Namsun Tower. The tower stand 236m and is located on top of a small mounting near the center of Seoul. From there we had a great view of the city at night. It was a very romantic ending to a perfect vacation.

Finally on the 6th, it was time for me to go. We had to get up early to get to the airport on time and neither of us slept well that night. I suppose we were both sad about being away from each other again. We shared one last meal and ice cream before I left. When it was finally time to go, Karam was crying so much. I was trying to be strong but I was also feeling terrible inside. I knew I would have to let her go eventually. At that time, we had no idea when we would see each other again. With Karam's work schedule, it could be many months before she could get time off. I promised I would come back as soon as I could, and finally walked away. It wasn't until I was through the security and turned to see her for the last time when I finally cried. On the flight, I kept looking at her pictures on my phone, remembering what it was like to have her in my arms. Little did I know that I would be able to see her in just 3 months; and our relationship would get much more serious.

An Opportunity

We had been talking for about a month when the idea of meeting each other first came up. At that time, I had never been out of the country. I didn't even have a passport. I was a little nervous at first, but the prospect of meeting Karam in person was all the motivation I needed.

Fortunately for us, we were both able to get a few days off in the first week of May. I took care of my passport as soon as I could (which turned put to be about two weeks before I left). She started planning all the places we would go and what we would eat. She was nervous about meeting because she thought I might not like her as much in person, but she didn't yet know my true feelings for her. The only thing I was afraid of was delaying or shortening our time together.

Skype

If you are reading this site, then you have probably heard of skype. If you've somehow missed all the buzz, however, it's a program that allows people from a over the world communicate over the Internet. If you both have a webcam, you can see live video. I had seen it for first time at my dad's house when my brother and his family still lived in Michigan.

At this point, Karam and I had been communicating exclusively though email. It is a great tool, but it was slow compared to a live conversation. One day, Karam asked me if I had ever used skype. Of course I had and we gave it a try. Unfortunately, she was too shy to talk or show her video, so she used text to respond to me on video. On the second day, however, I was able to coax her into sharing her video with me. She was beautiful, and I couldn't help but tell her. That actually made her even more shy, and I was able to capture the moment.

After that first time, we started using skype every day. We just couldn't wait to get home and see each other. It wasn't long after when I came up with an idea of watching movies together. Since we were both already using our computers to chat, I showed her how we could also watch movies at the same time. This later evolved into our "movie date night" which is a tradition we still do almost every weekend.

A Relationship That Almost Wasn't

After the first few messages were exchanged through the site, we moved our conversations to our email addresses instead and the frequency increased dramatically. I just couldn't wait to come home from work and check my email. We were talking about all kinds of things including our values and beliefs, as well as exchanging pictures. I had recently got my hair cut one day, so I sent her a picture of it to hear her reaction. To my surprise, when I checked my email the next day, there was nothing from Karam. I was a little disheartened and thought I might have gotten a bad haircut. Or the more likely scenario: she met someone more interesting. I was starting to get discouraged by the site because there seemed to be so many others on the site (competition), and I was just an average guy. On March 3rd, I decided to give Karam one last email to find out what, if anything, I did wrong.

Dear Karam,

It has been many days since I have heard from you and I hope you have been doing good. I also remembered that you had your phone interview a couple of days ago. How did it go? I hope it went well and that everything else is going good for you. I miss hearing from you so often but I understand that people get busy and cannot always respond to messages quickly. I hope you have received my last 2 messages which contained pictures, including the latest ones with my new hair cut.

I look forward to your reply,

Chris

The reply was almost instantaneous.

Hello, Chris~

I didn`t get any emails after I said I want to see the picture!! I don`t know what wrong was.  :(     never happened before.

I thought, there was something wrong again but I couldn`t ask that if you sent me a message or not.

Thank you for talking to me!!

Well, Could you send the messages again? Sorry for the inconvenience.

The phone interview was 16 hours ago. 7am here. I wasn`t fully awake. haha

I think I said many stupid things.  Now, I just need to wait. I`m kind of worried but don`t want to look back. too late.

Anyway sorry again.

You also bed time soon, right?

Sweet dreams :)

I was ecstatic! Not only had I not done anything wrong, but she was also sad that she didn't hear back from me.

We both often refer back to this moment and are so glad that we didn't give up. After all, our lives would have been completely different.

In the Beginning...

I am not usually the type of person who makes a new years resolution, but I did for 2010. I made a resolution to meet someone special that year. I had never been in a relationship at that time. In fact, I had never even been in love. I was inspired by my brother and his family- especially his relationship with his wife- and I realized what I was missing.

In the past, I was always preoccupied by school or work to meet anyone. I had no idea what I was missing, but how could I know since I had never felt it for myself? Since I had always been interested in traveling and foreign cultures, I decided to try an international dating site. It was fairly basic: you could see a few pictures, a short profile with interests and biological information. I knew that some women from poorer countries would use sites like these to meet American men in order to get a US citizenship, so I had to be careful judging the motives of some of the women who contacted me. Some women had very beautiful, professional pictures, but I wasn't just looking for a pretty face. I wanted someone to talk to, and many women just couldn't communicate on the same level.

On February 14th, I was contacted by a girl named "Karam". Her picture was very basic, but I could see the warmth in her eyes. Her message was also simple. We had the same interests and she wanted to know if we could be friends. I knew that this girl was special, so I replied with interest. After exchanging a few messages, I knew that I had someone interesting to talk to, and that was a good start.