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How We MetTess' version:We met on an airplane. I was flying out from Minneapolis, MN on July 20, 2004 to work in South Korea as an English teacher. As I turned to get to my seat, this Asian guy was sitting in the aisle seat next to mine and said to me, "If you need to ever use the bathroom, let me know, and I’ll move for you." It was the most considerate statement to make to me since I have had issues with my bladder since birth. So, for the next ten hours of a twelve hour flight, we talked. I was very attracted to him because he was very smart, articulate, and sexy plus I noticed music scores in his seat pocket. I am very attracted to musicians! When the flight was getting ready to land in Japan, John took pictures of us on his cell phone. He asked me if he could have my email address to send me the pictures. I told him no. At the time, I was dating a Japanese man and did not feel it was fair to the Japanese man for me to be communicating with this man that I had just met on the airplane. We parted our ways in Narita airport even though I desperately wanted to just spend a couple of days with him in Tokyo.
Soon enough I decided to contact John while I was in Korea but only knew one part of his name (Yuk which was Yuck in my mind) and that he was a computer science PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin. I went to the UT computer science website to find out info on this "Yuck" guy. Lucky for me, there was a link to PhD candidates' personal webpages under UT's PhD candidate link. I scrolled through billions of names until I found one at the bottom of the page (of course...) with Wong, Yuk Wah. I clicked it and sent him this email: On Sat, 24 Jul 2004, Janis Joplin wrote: Well, Mr. John from Hong Kong, I hope to hell that this is you and not a different Yuk!! hahahahha! If this is the same John who kept me company for 12 hrs on a crap NW flight to Narita, then I am a resourceful woman, aren't I? It was easy enough to put the pieces together in order to find your e-mail address. Now that I have gone through all of this trouble you better damn well send me that pic you took of us on the airplane! hahahahahahha! By the way, I looked at your web page and saw the pick up lines. I am quite disappointed that you did not use them on me... Of course, I am not saying that you would want to pick me up, but it seems entirely unlikely since I am so wonderful!!! ahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahaha! Oh, and why Winnie the Pooh? I always call him Winnie the pooh pooh head. He seems to be a bit of a bad bear. I of course am more partial to Tigger. I am surprised that Tigger never ate Winnie the Pooh. Then again, Tigger is just a fun tiger and has no evil thoughts unlike myself.... so watch out Pooh Bear! I made it to Korea. It is beyond hot and no word exists in the English language to describe it unless you attach a few swear words to it but that would be more than one word now would it. I am so glad I speak Japanese because I used it in the airport and with the taxi driver just to find a hotel. This hotel was a bit shady... I think I might have been in a red light district. I was able to meet up with my Korean language partner. Her brother took us out for drinks. Then we went to her parent's restaurant which has great food and an excellent view of the ocean. We also went singing!!!! Good times! I am now at the camp and it is total chaos. The director lacks all abilities and talents needed to run a camp. UTTER CHAOS! It will be a zoo here. I still have no idea what I am doing and we begin teaching tomorrow. We do not have all the books, supplies, and other info we need to run the classes. I hope you are having a blast in Hong Kong! peace He responded and from then on we had contact. In September, I broke up with the Japanese man with whom I had been dating for over two years and had plans on marrying after graduation. I became more attracted to John who was there for me when I made this difficult and life changing decision. On October 23, 2004 John flew to Minneapolis, MN to see me as I was a grad student at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. We went to a Chinese restaurant, walked along the Mississippi River, and then he asked me out at the student union building. I said, "Yes!" Funny enough, John would propose to me at the student union building on the UT campus. John's version:It was July 20, 2004 afternoon when I boarded a Northwest flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo, on my way to Hong Kong, my hometown. I didn't sleep the previous night, so I was ready to take a nap. Soon after I took an aisle seat, a girl came. She was going to sit next to me. As I let her in, I told her to wake me up if she wanted to go to the bathroom. I knew she would have to go to the bathroom when I took a nap. Normally a conversation would end there, because I'm not good at conversations. Specifically, I had almost never chatted with white girls, since most white girls find Asian guys boring and strange. Not the one who sat next to me, though. She's going to Pusan, South Korea to teach English. She lived in Japan for a long time. She even had a Japanese name, Tesu (照寿). And she's pretty, too. We chatted for almost the entire flight. Our overhead lights were on when it's dark everywhere else. When we were tired, we closed our eyes and listened to the Love Psychedelico and Janis Joplin CDs that she brought. The flight lasted for 12 hours. Before we left, I took a few pictures of us using my cell phone. Those were good photos, and I wanted to send them to her, but she wouldn't give me her email address. That was sad. But 12 hours of conversation with her was already a very big achievement for me. So I happily went home, and told my family and friends about it.
Who would have thought we would eventually meet again? On August 8, 2008, I'll be married to this beautiful woman, and I think it would be my biggest achievement of all. |
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