On August 7th, 2011, I asked Venus to marry me. But, I had been planning it for a long time. I think almost everyone in the world knew that I was going to propose except for Venus. I had many of her friends helping me. They were really awesome.
Buying the Ring
A while back, I went to Orlando. Wennie was there and she helped me pick out the engagement ring. Iris had previously helped me look at some rings online too. Desire had offered to go ring shopping with me. I was going to do that, but then I found out Wennie would be in Orlando and so I got her to help me. I had no idea what Venus's ring size should be. I have decided that Facebook should ask every girl what their ring size is and put it in their profile information. Then, after they have been in a relationship for a few years, it should start posting messages to their boyfriend that say,"Did you know that Venus's ring size is (whatever)?"
The Search for a Chow Chow Dog
Venus loves Chow Chow dogs. We have plans to have one some day. We talk about it a lot. Anyway, I was hoping to find a Chow Chow dog here in Taiwan and have it there when I proposed to her. But I couldn't find one. I had Wennie send an e-mail out to Venus's friends, but they couldn't really find one either. I even tried posting on
http://www.forumosa.com but no one there really helped me much either. So, I reluctantly had to give up on having the chow chow dog there.
Balloons
I needed to buy some balloons. That in and of itself proved difficult. I thought I could just find a florist and they would have them. But, many florists don't really show up on Google maps if you search for them in English, and it is really hard to figure out which ones are near an MRT stations, and which ones are in the middle of nowhere. Also, the ones that had web sites didn't appear to have any balloons. I asked for help from many people. Alice asked around, but didn't really know where to get balloons. Jackie gave me some suggestions for stores that I could buy balloons at even though she had a lot of serious stuff going on at the time. Nan were very helpful. Her English is not too bad, but like most Taiwanese, she thinks it is much worse than it really is. Eva was super-awesome. She found me a balloon place and even went with me to pick out the balloons. I paid for them in advance, and she picked them up for me and brought them to the restaurant.
The Lunch Where I Proposed
Eva, Nan, and Lina, set up a lunch for us all to get together. And, secretly, they knew I would propose there. Their boyfriends also came, so that was cool. When Venus and I were in the MRT station, Eva called me to ask me if I wanted the restaurant to make a little cake with "Marry me please" on it or whatever. I thought that was a great idea. But, Venus was right next to me, so I couldn't say too much. When I got off of the phone, Venus asked me who called me. I didn't want to lie to her, but I also couldn't really tell her who it was because Eva never really calls me normally. So, I told her I would tell her after lunch. Of course, Venus got really curious then and kept asking me about it. She wasn't really suspicious or jealous or whatever. But, if you ever want to drive Venus crazy, just tell her that you have a secret that you will tell her later. She's cute like that.
The Proposal
So, after we ate lunch, I got the balloons and the cake and the ring and brought them all to the table and got down on one knee and proposed to Venus. They wrote "Merry me" instead of "Marry me" on the cake, which was amusing.
For a little while, she was incapable of speaking. I was pretty sure she would say yes, but when it took her a really long time to answer, I got a little worried. Eventually, she said yes. :) Here is a video and some pictures:
A long time ago, Venus and I took a trip to a little town called Wulai. It is famous for its hot springs and also its Native Taiwanese culture. The Taiwanese call the non-Chinese people that were here originally aboriginals. But, every time I hear that word, I think of Australia. Anyway, Wulai was apparently derived from some words meaning "hot and poisonous". (Mental note: If you are going to try to promote tourism, try not to be too honest about how you name your town. We never called Orlando "Cheap Swampland City" for a reason... )
The hotel room was amazing. We had our own private balcony with two bath tubs. One is for hot spring water and the other is for cold water. Even though it was really hot outside, it was still relaxing. At night, we had a good view of the stars.
