Serendipity...Our Story

I thought that the group post on why I was drawn to Chile would be a good segue into the background on how I met my Chilean. After reading through all the group posts I realized that I am really coming from a different angle than the other bloggers. Not only am I not living in Chile but also never studied abroad. That is something that I regret now that I'm older and wiser- not studying abroad or traveling more when I was younger. I almost went to Russia for 2 weeks with a school program when I was 14 but I backed out. I think traveling internationally more might have opened a lot more doorways for me but regardless it all worked out and I'm happy with my life :)

Here's the story on how I met Chile:
I was in charge of the Latin American region for the project I was working on. Seabass and I worked together for about 2 years off and on before we saw each other face to face. In those 2 years it was mostly all business at first and then some small chit chat about "weas" (TV shows, music, Chile, laughing at people during meetings, accents, cars, etc). I didn't know his age or what he looked like but thinking back I really was drawn to his voice. He speaks english better than anyone I've worked with (and work with people all over the world) and he has an amazing grasp on the language and gringoness in general. He had only been in the states for 6 months as an exchange student and lived in England for 3 months. I never had to filter anything when talking to him and actually he would use words that I had to look up. All I knew is that he was really sweet, 5'7", lived with his mom, liked American muscle cars, listened to standards, and was uber smart. I actually liken him to Wikipedia and at first thought that he was just making up things to sound smart until I actually researched whatever subject it was to find out that he really did know what he was talking about. (Side note to stress my point- he scored the maximum possible on the PAA which is the Chilean equivalent to the SAT). I also would listen to some of his girl problems and him telling me that he never really has much luck with girls. Anyway, you can imagine the picture I had in my mind... (think Geek) but still I liked him and wanted to be his friend forever. (I didn't realize at this point it was "normal" in Chile to live with your mom). He told me later on that he was really attracted to me but he thought I was the sterotype gringa (which I found out meant extremely overweight, unkept, bad complexion, etc.) or that's at least what his mind made him believe in order to try not to like me.

One day Seabass informed me that he would be traveling to London for some group meetings. I was originally not going to be at these meetings because from my group it was higher level people attending. A little more than a week prior to the meetings my boss asked me if I would be interested in going to the group meeting and I said yes (who wouldn't want to spend their 30th birthday in London?). Also, Seabass almost did not go until the last minute due to visa issues. This chance meeting came so close to not happening.

I arrive in London on Sunday morning and find a note from Seabass that says "I'm either at the gym or at the pool." I check the gym- no one there. I walk into the pool area which was rather crowded. I start looking for dark headed men (prior to the trip he did send me a few pictures but they each looked so different I didn't really know what he looked like). I kneel down to call out to one of the guys in the pool and then I hear someone calling my name. I look and it's Seabass who just got out of the steam room and I said "Hi!" and give him an air hug (because he was dripping wet). So it was a quick and slightly awkward exchange and then he decided to get ready and meet a coworker and I for lunch. It was really weird at first putting a face to a voice that I had been hearing for a long time but we both realized that our mental pictures were way off. That week we were always with other people but had a blast. We did have a lot of chances to talk and walked nightly along the Thames. One night we were sitting in the lobby (everyone else had gone to their room for the night) and we talked for a long time about life. At one point in the conversation I looked into his eyes and I can't describe this feeling but thought I could literally see straight through him. This had only happened to me one other time with a boyfriend that I was very close to (and it happened after we had been together for a year or more). I had totally forgotten that feeling until that moment. We did spend the last day together as friends walking around London, going to St. James park, saw a show, and went out for a drink. We both had feelings for each other but never shared them. I left London the next day with a hole in my heart never knowing if I would ever see Seabass again or if anything would become of us friendship or otherwise. I think it was one of the most sad days of my life because I felt like I was leaving something amazing. I was in a relationships and things were complicated. What he did show me was what it was like to be connected to someone and what love should feel like. I never believed in love at first sight but thinking back even though I didn't know it at the time it was almost love at first sound as I was attracted at some level even hearing him.

We continued working with each other and IMing and eventually shared our feelings with each other. I was going through some very tough times in my life with decisions I had to make with the relationship I was in. Seabass and I parted ways for a while while we both figured things out. Through most of this time I honestly thought never thought that things would work out with us and we would be together. Even if things did I thought it would be extremely difficult. This part is heart wrenching and would take a long time to explain so I'll keep it very short for blog sake. Over the span of the next year and a half I had a trip to Chile, he came here for a month, I went back to Chile and we got engaged and the rest is history. He applied for a job here and things ended up working out perfectly. Seabass is the most amazing person I've met and I have never felt more loved in my life nor have I loved someone so much. So there you have the Cliff Notes version of our story and our saga continues in Cincinnati Chile.