In the spirit of Valentine’s day, I figured I share a bit of my and H’s love story. I haven’t mentioned much about our relationship history out of the fact that I enjoy being able to just talk about myself. Today though I am sharing the spotlight with H to take a trip down memory lane, back to when this international relationship began.
When I left for Australia my main focus was working hard at my internship and traveling as much as possible. Even though all my friends kept saying I was going to fall for an Australia surfer (try Icelandic Viking) I kept telling them there was no way that would happen, boys were the last thing on my mind. Enter in H who would change this.
I mentioned that H and I met while I was living in Australia. We actually met because we were living in the same housing with 100 other international party-crazed students. I had seen H a few times during my first week in Australia but never really talked to him until the “mustard incident.”
I had been in Australia for about a week when our housing had a Friday night bbq. As I was preparing my burger I realized there was no mustard. I am team mustard all the way so this was not cool. I, of course, voiced my disappointment and in response, I heard someone say, “you’re in a new country you should try new things.”
Insert eye roll from me and turn around to glare down the guy that dared say this to me. Yes, H is the mustard guy, and even though he swears that he said this in a very nice and friendly tone I like my side of the story better. After that incident, I wrote him off as the cute “know it all” that I wanted to avoid.
Fast forward a month later and its Halloween and I am ready to enjoy the night with my friends. Our housing had a costume party and it was a blast dancing around in our costumes with all my new friends.
H wasn’t at the Halloween party and even though I wouldn’t have admitted it I was bummed. I had spent the past month pretending to not find him very attractive and tried my best to act uninterested when he was around. Yet I was still very intrigued by this guy from the random country of Iceland and couldn’t help but want to know more.
Back to the Halloween party. After the party at our house, a large group of us headed off to downtown Sydney to continue our night. In Australia the clubs tend to be a bit strict on who they let into the bars, aka don’t act drunk at all otherwise you won’t get let in. So I may have wobbled a bit in my too-high shoes and the next thing I knew I was being led to the cab line to go home.
Not only was I super bummed that I wasn’t going to get to go out with the rest of my friends but my roommate was inside the bar and happened to have our room key. Our building had a code to enter if you forgot your key, but at 2 am this was not something I was going to remember.
As I walked up to the building the only person I saw sitting downstairs was H. With no other choice I knocked on the window (I like to imagine that I looked extremely adorable and not like the angry drunk girl I was) and waited for H to let me in. After getting into the building taken care of I had to sit downstairs with H until my roommate came home with our key.
I am pretty sure I talked H’s ear off that night but he was a champ and stayed up with me until my roommate came home at 6 am. It was a night I will never forget, a totally cliche night where we stayed up all night just talking and laughing together. H really won me over when he helped take out the mass amounts of bobby pins that had been in my hair that night, such a romantic first night together.
After that night there was no denying my feelings for him, I had fallen hard and knew I was in trouble. For the next two months, H and I had a blast getting to know each other before I had to head back home.
When I was packing up to head home I had no idea if H and I would ever see each other again. It was a sad day when we said goodbye in Australia, little did we know this would be the first of many goodbyes.
Now here we are three years later getting ready to celebrate Valentine’s Day together in Iceland and I couldn’t be happier. It has not been easy being in an international relationship but through it all, I am glad I gave the know-it mustard boy a chance.
Happy Valentine’s everyone! And if v-day isn’t your thing celebrate anyways because it’s Friday!
