Falling in Love Abroad
Switching things up a little bit today for an international love story...because why not?
Monday was our 7-year wedding anniversary. A date that my husband and I can never keep straight, no matter how many years pass by.
This year we coincidentally planned a trip to Modena for the week. My mom assumed it was for our anniversary (it was not) but we appreciated her sending us the reminder all the same 😅
I met Raf 9 years ago in a hostel in Panama City, Panama. He's born and raised in Bogota, with all of his family still in the same house he grew up in, and I'm born and raised in the Southern US, with all of my family spread between Georgia and Tennessee.
AKA, he's the only one in his family that speaks English and I'm the only one in my family that speaks Spanish. Thank you alcohol for making our wedding fun, not awkward 🍻
We lived in the same hostel in Panama for months on our off days as tour guides in the San Blas Islands before we really even spoke. To be fair, our off days hardly coincided and while we knew who each other were, it wasn't a "love at first sight" thing.
He was the guy always wearing headphones and I was the girl always with a group of noisy tourists around. Not the best match on paper.
Anyways, one night we were both off work and I gathered a group of guys who worked at the hostel to go out with me, Raf included. It was a rare Saturday night in the city that we all had off and I was itching to do something.
I had always felt some weird tension between us and, honestly, I like to be liked, so I bought him a tequila shot to clear the air and toast to a friendship. Well, about 10 minutes later, he was sitting in my lap.
The rest is history, kind of.
We both had our exits from Panama already planned out so decided to just enjoy the few months we both had left in the country. On our off days we were inseparable.
When June finally rolled around, we went our own ways. While we both knew this day would come, it hit harder than expected.
I went from London to the South of France and started working on a yacht. Raf moved to Berlin for grad school but quickly changed his plans when he landed a really sweet online job instead.
Although we were both busy, seeing new parts of the world and taking on new jobs, we couldn’t stop talking. It got to a point that a decision needed to be made: we either needed to commit to each other or move on.
So, as one does, I bought him a flight to Nice and a train to Monaco to spend his birthday there with me. The stars aligned and that weekend happened to be my only one off the yacht so I snatched up the opportunity.
I quickly realized what a mistake it was to blow a good chunk of money flying in a guy to Monaco. We didn’t know each other well enough for him to know that was the most expensive birthday gift he was ever going to get from me. Don’t worry, he now knows where the bar really is 😂
That quick, impromptu weekend sealed the deal though. The yacht was already not the job for me but now that I had something (someone) waiting on me, I couldn’t wait to quit. A few months later I had enough money saved and knew it was time.
Given Raf’s online job, he was ready to meet wherever and start traveling together. We chose Croatia as a starting point and really haven’t stopped since.
Being in a cross-cultural relationship isn't always the easiest but it's definitely not boring. The beginning definitely came with a learning curve when we were still figuring out the nuances of being in a new relationship while simultaneously throwing ourselves into traveling full-time together.
But now we’re really quite comfortable in our Spanglish life (just don’t get me started about how confused I tend to be now that Italian has crept its way in). We’ve been able to take aspects from both of our cultures that work well for us and toss in some things we really liked from the places that we've lived.
It was a leap of faith going all in so early but sometimes the biggest risks give off the biggest reward.
You won't know until you try.