First of all, Patrick and I are engaged! Most of you reading this blog are familiar with our story--we have been dating for about 3.5 years, so I expected an engagement sometime soon, but didn't quite realize when. What happened was this: I was having a bad time on the flight because I hadn't gotten to sleep much and although the flight was smooth, I was feeling sick to my stomach. The in-flight entertainment had thus far been a movie and some NBC movies. It then switched to show the flight map and we saw that we were flying over the UK, more accurately, over London. Then Patrick turned to me (he was in the window seat, I was on the aisle), told me that I meant a lot to him, etc., and then he said he had something for me. The moment he said that, I was skeptical and said, "Wait, are you kidding?," and as he reached for his bag, I continued to ask him if he was kidding. I even told him that if this was his idea of a joke, it wasn't very funny (he had faked proposals before, hence my skepticism). But he brought out a Tiffany box, and even then I was skeptical. He said that he would have opened up the box and shown me the ring, but that he knew how much I enjoyed the Tiffany wrapping and wanted me to relish it. So I opened the box--still half-skeptical--and the ring box within the box and there it was! My Tiffany flower collection engagement ring. I was in utter disbelief, and could only say, "Are you serious?" He then asked me THE question, and before I could answer he had put the ring on my finger, at which I said, jokingly, "I guess my answer is yes, then." We didn't make a big deal on the flight, no one else really saw, and that's how I liked it. It was surreal from that point on: I couldn't stop looking at my finger, and neither could I believe that I was engaged. My very pretty ring:
Given that we were 2 hours late in taking off from Chicago, we didn't make our connection from Brussels to Mumbai. Instead, we were re-routed to London! We had a 9 hour layover, and so we deliberated over whether to ask an immigration officer to issue me a visa (Patrick carries an American passport and can travel to many places without a visa), and much to our excitement, he did! And so we spent close to 5 hours touring London! If only we had known that we would actually get to go to London, Patrick could have probably waited to propose then! Regardless, it was a welcome detour and a great way to celebrate our engagement. We rode the tube from Heathrow to King's Cross Station, where Patrick took a picture with the Harry Potter Trolley on Platform 9 and 3/4 (except, it's not between platforms 9 and 10, but rather outside the station). We then headed to Tower Hill to get a quick look at the Tower of London--we're both big fans of the TV show The Tudors, in which several people are sent to the Tower to be hanged, and seeing the Tower offered us a way to bring the show to life. Right behind the Tower is the Tower Bridge, and so we enjoyed lunch by the river bank with a view of Tower Bridge and The Egg, London's Municipal Office building. We then went to Westminster, to see the Houses of Parliament, the Big Ben Clock Tower, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. We went back underground to take a train to St. James' Park and walked to Buckingham Palace--although we didn't realize it, Barack and Michelle Obama were in the Palace at that time! We took the tube back to Heathrow and finally made our plane to India.
Although I am behind in keeping you all up-to-date, I am going to have to stop at this point to get ready for today's activities. I figured, getting all the pre-India details done would be a good stopping point. I will try and update as and when possible. For now, enjoy our pictures from London:
Patrick at Platform 9 and 3/4.
The two of us with Tower Bridge behind us and the Thames on the side.
Patrick by the Houses of Parliament.
Wonderful start and interesting details of it all!
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