The Story

Okay. First things first. Yes, my fiancee's nickname is Trash. That is how she is known. No, she is not a "trashy" person. Her Korean name (which 90% of our friends don't know) has a very girly kind of meaning and she is not a girly girl, and a big difference between Korean and English names is that everyone knows what names mean in Korean. That being said, she has given me permission to tell people her real name even though she REALLY hates it.

What will surprise many is that she's been able to get away without divulging her name her in Korea very easily. Most Koreans have their legal, Korean name and an English name. The English names are not registered and can be changed at any time. That being said, signing documents with an English name you claim as your own is very common in Korea so she very easily signs credit cards slips "Trash" or "T-Rash" without any problem. However, much to her chagrin, I informed her that things don't work that way at home. First, she will need to sign things with her real, legal name. Plus, even people that are willing to call her by her nickname (which she LOVES) will insist to know her real name. Plus, while I call her Trash more often than not, I will not be taking vows to marry "Trash" at our wedding.

All this leads to the moment she has feared for years. Here it is, the international broadcasting of her real, legal name. It is "양정아." Hahahaha. Who is disappointed? I guess you need to learn to read Korean now.

On to the other thing people keep asking. How did I propose? Before that though, how about how I didn't propose? I was going to take her to the restaurant at the top of Seoul Tower (kind of like the Space Needle but overlooking Seoul). I made reservations, and the day before wanted to figure out if she had any idea it was coming. I mentioned something about having a special night at the Tower and she said that was so cliche and would be a terrible way to get engaged. Needless to say, when I go home, canceled the reservation and started making new, better plans.

Now, the final plan. In May, we had a long weekend for Buddha's Birthday (a national holiday here). We spent two of our three days off at Muui-Do, a small island off the West Coast. While we were there, we spent some time sitting on a boulder right on the edge of the Yellow Sea. It was while sitting on that boulder that, for the first time, we both said that we love each other. It was a pretty special moment for us so last Saturday, I convinced her to take the bus and spend the day at Muui-Do.

When we got there it was a little rainy and cold, but within an hour the weather cleared up and was beautiful. After relaxing on the beach for a little while, we walked down to the end of the beach and sat on our boulder (I actually picked the wrong boulder, but she corrected me. haha). We sat and talked for a few minutes, and then I told her that I had a present for her. It was a scrapbook.

I had spent the last two weeks picking about 300 pictures from the whole time we've known each other (I have MANY more). I got them printed and made her a scrapbook. It had all kinds of things in it, pictures, love notes she'd given me, ticket stubs, a caricature of us, etc. She was sniffling and fighting back tears the whole time. It took us about 20-25 minutes to look through the whole thing. Then she turned to the last page, and there was a picture of her ring with the words, "Will you marry me?"

At this point she started to cry for real. It as obvious that she was completely dumbstruck. Then she looked over at me and saw that I was holding the real ring in my hands (She later admitted that her first thoughts were, "Is he seriously proposing with a PICTURE of the ring he is going to buy me?!" haha). After about two minutes of her attempting to catch her breath, she turned and said, "Of course I will!" and that was it! We were officially engaged!

Then, the plan was to take some pictures to fill in the last page of the scrapbook. Unfortunately, my camera had turned on in my bag and the battery was completely dead so the few photos we took were with her cell phone (and people say camera phones are pointless!!).

After that, we didn't really feel like laying around on the beach so we headed back to Seoul to have some bbq and share the good news with everyone :)

Just Engaged :)

That's right. I got engaged in my Chacos.

...by the way. "양정아" is Yang Jeong-Ah. Yang (family name) pronounced yah-ng. Jeong-Ah (first name) pronounced Juh-ng-Ah ("ah" like when you realize something. ie - "Ah, I see." Not "Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I'm so scared!" hahaha. The "a" in Yang is pronounced the same way.). There. The secret is out for all the world to know :)