We're ENGAGED!!!!

Although many of you may have already heard the news, I'm sure there are some people who haven't... but it's true!!! Brendan and I are engaged!!! It happened on Saturday night, October 24th in Salamanca on el Puente Romano (the Roman Bridge) and it was a complete surprise! I seriously couldn't be happier!!! I'll share the story with you below because I know many of you are dying to hear the details, and if you don't have facebook, you probably have not seen the pictures.... so here it goes :)

A little background information:

Earlier that day, Brendan and I had met up with Sarah Molbert (the other Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar here in Salamanca, from Louisiana) for coffee. She invited us to go to the movies at 11pm with her and her Spanish host-mom and friends to see "Agora" (directed by Alejando Amenábar from Argentina). Since I had heard lots of great reviews about the movie and we had nothing else planned at that time, I thought it sounded like a great idea. Brendan said it sounded good, too, so we decided to go!

A little more background information (ha ha!):

Little did I know that Brendan had been walking around with a diamond ring in his pocket ever since we had left for Spain, waiting for the "perfect moment"... because he told me he never knew exactly when it would be... :)

So anyways, right around 10 o'clock pm that night Brendan and I had just finished eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant, complete with frozen margaritas :) Since we had time to kill before we needed to meet up with Sarah for the movie, we decided to take a walk to the cathedral. On our way there, as we were walking down Calle Rua (the street you see pictured above) the moon caught our attention. The skies were so clear and the temperature was perfect for a fall night... P.S. I think this is where the idea of the perfect moment all began ;)

Once we got to the cathedral, we took a seat on a bench and just relaxed looking at the beautiful architecture. After talking a bit, Brendan asked me out of the blue, "How badly do you want to see that movie tonight?" I responded something like, "Not that badly, but we already told Sarah that we were going to meet up with her! I would feel really bad canceling now!" The conversation went on like that for a couple minutes as he continued to try to get me to change my mind, and I insisted on how bad I would feel! Finally, after he mentioned getting ice cream (I NEVER pass on dessert) I gave in... so I called Sarah and we made our way to Ben and Jerry's.

While I started to eat my Cheesecake Chocolate Brownie ice cream Brendan said a little awkwardly (and I quote): "Hey, I've got an idea! Let's go down to the river and see the Roman Bridge lit up! We've never been down there to see it at night!" Ha ha-- I need to insist on the awkwardness of the way he said that... because, now I realize, it was his desperate attempt to finally get that perfect moment to arrive. Nevertheless, I agreed, having absolutely no idea what was in store for me...

One of my favorite parts of this whole story is that as soon as we got down to the bridge I immediately smelled "home"-- since the river has many trees around it, the smell of fall was in the air and I loved it!
Once we were walking on the bridge, I remember talking to Brendan about how impressed I was that the first 15 arches of the bridge were built by the Romans in the 1st Century... he later told me he hardly remembered me saying it because he was so nervous-- ha ha!
Our walk across the bridge took us all the way to the other side, to one of the most beautiful views in all of Salamanca (the Roman Bridge, the Cathedrals, and the Clerecia (another beautiful church) all together). A few weeks ago, we had stopped to take a picture in this very spot during the day, but we both agreed that it is so much more beautiful at night.
Here is another view of the bridge with the cathedrals and churches in the background from that night :)

The Proposal

As we started to walk back home over the bridge again, I remember I started to feel a little chilly. Even though I told Brendan, a few minutes later once we had arrived at the exact center of the bridge he said (again, a little awkwardly)

"Why don't we sit down on that bench..."

So we did :)

I'll never forget him telling me that he loved me... probably three times before he finally blurted out "I can't wait any longer!" At that moment he got down on one knee and pulled a cloth pouch out of his coat pocket, pulled out the ring and asked, just like in the movies,

"Will you marry me?"

Of course I said YES :) Although, I couldn't believe it at first! It was a complete surprise!! It took me a couple of minutes to realize that it was really happening and all it took was Brendan telling me the story of how he asked my Dad's permission to marry me as my Dad was driving and making a right then very quick left hand turn!! Ha ha-- that's when it really hit me and I started to cry!!

Here is probably the best part of the story:

Not even a few seconds later after I started crying, along came Ken, a Canadian from my master's program at the university. He very casually stopped and said, "Hey guys, what's up?" Pretty quickly, he realized something was up because I couldn't stop crying and Brendan was still a nervous wreck- ha ha! We shared the news with him and he was so excited for us! He even offered to take pictures for us!! We are both so thankful that he happened to be passing by at that moment... I honestly don't think Brendan could have planned it any more perfectly :)

We couldn't stop smiling :)

Still a little teary-eyed here

Had to get a picture with the cathedrals in the background!

So happy! :)

And so in love :)

Finishing the walk over the bridge towards home...

Yay! We're gonna get married!!! :)

Back at my apartment we stayed up until 5 in the morning sharing the news with family and friends through Skype, phone calls, and instant messaging

As you can imagine, since we are so far away from home (and home is where we want to get married) :) serious plans probably won't begin until we return from Spain at the end of June/beginning of July. In the meantime, we'll keep everyone updated!

And by the way, thank you to everyone who has already sent their congratulations! It means so much to the both of us! Can't wait to be able to be with everyone in person this summer!