June 1, 2006
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Almost two years have passed since the two of us went on our fateful vacation in Italy. I had been accepted into the American Academy's summer program in archaeology, so Jp and I decided to take advantage of the free plane ticket and toured Italy together for a week before my program started. We saw many incredibly beautiful sites and dined in many romantic locations throughout the week but still...no proposal. Hmm. We ended our trip in Rome, where Jp took me to the Trevi fountain (nothing) and showed me the famous Spanish Steps (still nothing). So on the rainy day that we went to the Roman forum I had put aside any proposal expectations and prepared myself for finally, finally getting to see the Roman forum for the first time.
Jp and I climbed up the Capitoline Hill and paused at the small park inside. As lovely as the view was, I was eager to get down into the forum proper and shot Jp an annoyed glance when he asked me to wait up a minute as he got something out of his bag. I believe the conversation went something like this:
Laury: What do you need from your bag? I know everything you've packed, and you don't need anything! Let's get down there.
Jp: Umm, why don't you just take some pictures for a minute?
So I did, snapping the following shot:
Unbeknownst to me, Jp was setting up to propose in the meantime. After I enthusiastically accepted we got a passerby to snap this picture of the two of us (dressed in our attractive raincoats):
We capped off the evening with a lovely dinner in a nearby restaurant:
I wore that smile all day. I think Jp continues to have that slightly shocked expression.