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June 29, 2019
Fort Collins, CO, USA
#teardownthewall

Eric & Paula

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Eric Tonkin

and

Paula Okrutna

#teardownthewall

June 29, 2019

Fort Collins, CO, USA

Our story

The beginning of cliche romantic movies are notorious for the immediate "love at first sight" interaction between the couple. This, however, is not a cliche romantic movie. This is the story of two college coaches living in the small town of Chadron, Nebraska. He was a football coach trying to move up the ladder and she was a volleyball coach figuring out her citizenship status. They had their coaching offices near each other but never spoke (Eric claims he said hi to Paula but she doesn't remember it happening). The first time they officially talked was out at a bar with a couple of Eric's friends. And just like that, Eric was talking to the lady he affectionately nicknamed "Helga." Not to her face, of course. Eventually, Eric went back home for winter break and had quite a little spill on a trampoline. Two torn patellar tendons later, Eric was immobile in Fort Collins, Colorado, three hours away from Helga. During Eric's prolonged sleepover, Paula tried to talk with him from Chadron, but because of the weather, her calls never went through. One night, back in Chadron, the pipes in Eric's house froze. Without anyone there, Paula spent the whole night in a house without heat, trying to thaw the pipes. After Paula became Eric's knight in shining armor, they began to date. Eric brought a girl home to Easter and things got serious. On April 7th, with Eric's anxiety through the roof, he very carefully got down onto one knee and asked Helga for the opportunity to make her laugh for the rest of their lives. She said yes. So this rom-com Rotten Tomatoes summary reads like this: Perky Paula from Poland travels over 5,000 miles to follow her love of Volleyball while Eric travels all over the US to pursue his love of coaching football, only to find Paula from Poland waiting for him Chadron, NE.

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