We're getting married!

It was freshman year of college at UC Santa Cruz and Michael & I were placed in the same sub-college named Cowell. We officially first met playing on the same intramural volleyball team - I was so nervous to play that I barely remember this. A few months pass by and our mutual friend Richard tells me that Michael and I should go on a date. I thought there was no way he would. I later text Richard asking if Michael would really go on a date with me. Little did I know, he sent my message to Michael. Michael then replies to Richard in extreme excitement and all-caps! Richard sends Michael's reply to me. I now know that he sent my message to Michael and I am totally embarrassed! It was worth it though because it ended in Richard setting up a double date with me, Michael, himself and Helen. Needless to say, we were pretty much inseparable ever since. Almost 6 years later, we are getting married!

After we both graduated from 5 years of Engineering at UCSC, we wanted to take a 6 week trip to Europe (and a quick stop to Africa for Morocco) to celebrate. We visited 2 continents, 9 countries and 18 cities: Amsterdam, Paris, Athens, Santorini, Mykonos, Dubrovnik, Split, Hvar*, Plitvice, Budapest, Venice, Tuscany, Cinque Terre, Rome, Marrakesh, Casablanca, Essaouira, and Barcelona. Its hard to say which is my favorite but Hvar, Croatia probably takes the cake. Hvar is a small yacht island off of the coast of Croatia. It was beautiful. We were there during our 4 year anniversary and Michael rented a small boat for the day to drive around the tiny islands surrounding Hvar. We snorkeled for hours, finding beautiful schools of fish. During one of our last stops, Michael told me to record him diving from the boat into the water toward me. As I'm recording, he dives in and swims toward me and pops open a small black box with a beautiful ring inside. I was so absolutely shocked that it took me a few seconds to understand that he was proposing! After gasping in a lot of water and crying so many tears, I said yes. It was the most fun, magical proposal ever and I would not have wanted it any. other. way.