How we met
Once upon a time, a boy met a girl while passing out welcome packages in the Vanderbilt dorm room. Before he could say "nice to meet you", she took the package and closed the door. "Man, I'll never see her again!" he thought. Low and behold, few weeks later at Sunset Grill, he found himself sitting across the table from her. "I'm Amy," she said. Awkward conversations slowly revealed that Amy was born in Taiwan. “My family is from Hsinchu!” Steven quickly blurted out. As all Taiwanese people know, no talk about Taiwan can happen without discussions of food.
Food was what brought us together. All night conversations talking about the things we miss most: Taiwanese foods! Shio-long bow, mango bing, stinky tofu, all-you-can eat sushi buffet... the list goes on. Never-ending conversations about food triggered our desire to make experiment cooking those foods. From Pho parties, seared tuna fillet, and spicy Jampong, to the grilled steaks, broiled steaks, charred-black steaks, we explored many different recipes. We have yet to master the art of baking...disasters include sesame-flavored cupcakes, mango vodka-ladened cake (too much vodka, not enough cake), and mushy stuffed eggplants (think mashed potatoes, but with eggplants). One time Steven even managed to set the entire balcony in a ball of flames.
The challenges of cooking translated to taking on more challenges in life. One day, we thought that we could make our lives even more exciting. It all began with a little joke. Over the phone, he asked, “How would you like to raise a puppy?” Jokingly with a hint of sarcasm, she replied, “sure, why not?” Not understanding the joke, he quickly put a deposit on a little puppy named Pocky.
Besides cooking and chasing Pocky around, we have enjoyed life’s little journeys. Our adventures have taken us to adventures far and wide. Oil painting, house renovations, surprise omelets while studying, or IHOP at four in the morning – we continued to grow in our relationships through new experiences. We have supported each other as Steven has finished his graduate degree and Amy prepare for medical school. It will be exciting transition to our next journeys together.
His Story |
Her Story |
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Everything was set: permission from amy’s dad obtained, the ring was designed and made, parents were coming in town that weekend. Everything was set…all but the proposal itself. “How will I pop the big questions?” Then suddenly came into place, there were so many to be a Yo-yo Ma and marimba concert the night before. “That would be a perfect excuse to get Amy out of the house”. “What are you going to do, ask Yo-Yo Ma to play you guys a song in the middle of the concert?” Jessica asked. “Good point…that won’t work”. “I could ask Amy at dinner before the concert?” I asked Jessica. “What, you are going to propose to her and the sit through a three hour long concert?” Jessica asked rejecting that idea. There was also a Frist Museum gallery of photographs. I love photography, I could do it there. “Nah, too embarrassing” I thought to myself. Plus, the Frist wasn’t a memorable place being that Amy had never been there. “The place has to be memorable and meaningful” I kept on saying to myself, “What about the garden that Amy took me after a study break right when we first started dated?” As most indecisive people (like myself) are, you either do nothing at all or you do all three. I decided to do all three. |
On Oct. 16th Steven took me on 3 dates in one night. We walked around the Frist Museum and had 40 minutes to dine at Radius 10 before attending a Yo-Yo Ma concert. Since we were short on time, I made him park on the side of the street in the dark night instead of the secured garaged 4 blocks down from Schermerhorn. It was only later that I found out about the diamond ring in the back of the trunk (oops!). After the concert, Steven wanted to take pictures despite of the fact that it was cold, wet, and 9:30 at night. After much persuasion, I agreed. He drove me to a little garden where we stargazed four years ago. He gave her roses (which he has NEVER done before) and carried me to the center of the garden and told me to wait there with my eyes closed. Few seconds later, I heard a funny sound. “Splishhhhh!” I freaked out a little bit. It sounded like Steven was lighting something… IN A GARDEN! The sound got louder and I got scared. I opened my eyes and saw sparklers and fire shooting in all directions. Steven had used a long fuse to connect ten sparklers together; however, he did not realize that the fuse was actually used for rockets! In the midst of this chaotic moment, Steven got down on one knee and asked me if I would marry him. I quickly said of course. We celebrated for a few seconds and quickly decided that we need to put out the sparklers before the garden catches on fire. On our way out of the garden, we saw a police car across the street, shining the car headlight directly at the garden. I think he had watched the whole thing. |