Joe's story

And they never payed us any copyright for this one... ;-)
You've got mail [UK IMPORT]

Flashback 1...
Grade 6-We wrote an Essay-the classical topic-What would I want to be later...Then I wanted to become an Ethnologist.Well,I did not become one,but my interest in foreign lands and cultures has never decreased.
Flashback 2...
1994-Somehow I had the feeling that somewhere out there in this world,there are a lot of people that would be worth for me to get to know.I began to write letters-first snail Mail letters,then over the FIDO-net and later came the Internet.Afterwards,it was much easier to find pen-friends,because there were uncounted pen-pals Websites. Where one could not only search for a pen-pal but also list oneself on the Website.For me,I did both.The response was positive-I received sincere Emails-no Spam (those where the days...),no marriage requests...;-)
And here it goes...
5th. MAR 1998-Like every normal evening,I sat in front of the computer and read my Emails.As usual,I received a great deal of Emails everyday,mostly were from friends.At that time there wasn’t so many advertisements received like nowadays.And there was a Mail -„New Pen Pal" from Singapore,from Nicole.Very short,only a few lines-She found my particulars somewhere in Internet (till today we still have no idea where precisely...) and wrote that she loved to read,write and especially travel,and would be glad to get a reply... That was all...I wrote back,just like I always used to do,but a longer Mail.Her reply came 3 days later and it was one page long this time.
It went from then on...after a few days I could hardly wait till late afternoon to come home and read my Mails...and the other end of the world,every morning someone woke up extra one hour earlier to read my Mails...we wrote to each other a long Email daily.
She called me on the 7th. APR,which is my birthday-for the first time we got to hear each other voices...and on the same day I got a packet from Singapore,with a CD,a birthday card and a photo... whereas I had sent my photo to her via Email.Only then we both knew how the other one really looked like.
30th.APR 1998-In the meanwhile I realised that I was in love...just like that.What now?I just sat down and started to write quite a long and confusable Mail.I told Nicole what’s going on with me here,and that this would be a good moment to draw a line if she would have a problem with the situation. Well,she did have a problem-it happened to be the same problem as mine-she had fallen in love with me...
There was our next problem coming right after now...what should we do?Shall we meet or should we just put this wonderful story aside and ignore it?We both knew,we would always look back and remember this piece of story later in our lives.We both were also aware of the consequences that might occur after we met (spoil a good friendship)...
We decided to take the risk,let it be,whatever that comes later.We were responsible for our own lives anyway.After some time of hectic planning (at that time by coincidence we were both in a chaotic stage of our lives),it was a day in the beginning of August 1998- About 5 am,I was already standing with 3 roses at Frankfurt airport- Nicole and her girlfriend Kim should arrived about 7am.Don’t ask how I was feeling...will tell you guys one day during our red wine session...
It was a great week.Afterwards we were more convinced that we would want to grab hold of this chance and continue this relationship.In December 1998 I took a few weeks break and flew to Singapore,there I got to meet and know her friends.Later we took a train to Kuala Lipis,Malaysia where Nicole’s mother lives.The first meeting with her mother turned out much more pleasant and relax than all of us had expected-of course I was over excited.We went to Kuala Lumpur after that and met up with Nicole’s brother,sister and some other members in the family.
After the new year,Nicole told me about her original plan,to come to Germany for a German language course.After some discussions we decided that Nicole will quit her job in Autumn and come to Germany to do an intensive language course for at least 6 months,in a language school nearby in Essen.This would also give us a chance to find out if we actually wanted to live and be together-till then we only saw each other during holidays...
In October 1999 Nicole came to Germany-and on New Year eve 1999/2000 we decided to get married...In February 2000 we had a traditional Chinese wedding (only among family members) at Nicole’s mother’s place in Kuala Lipis.There were the traditional tea ceremony and Wedding Dinner.On the 20th.April 2000 we registered our marriage in Gelsenkirchen and on the 6th May 2000 under the beautiful sunshine we had our church wedding in the Evangelical-Methodist Church Gelsenkirchen.