GRACELILY

My Dear Friends and Families,

As many of you wondered (or already knew), Anwell and I
got ENGAGED on March 11, 2006 (also our 5 year anniversary
day). It happened at the David Duncan House, a very romantic
European style restaurant (http://www.davidduncanhouse.com) in
Toronto. It was such a big surprise since I totally had no clue that
he was going to propose on that special night. Even after I happily
accepted his proposal, still felt quite surreal about the whole thing.
We are very excited about our new relationship (fiancé vs. fiancée),
and hope to share with you our happiness.

Okie, think many of you would like to know how he proposed, so
here's the story. Toronto trip over the March 11 weekend was planned
from a while ago since it is a very important place for us. Five years
ago, before we formally started to date, Anwell invited me to Toronto
for a short trip with a bunch of his friends from Eastman School of Music
(U. of Rochester). However, most of his friends turned cold feet
(thanks guys) so that finally only one friend joined Anwell to Toronto.
Because of that, Anwell and I had lots of time to talk to each other
and get to know each other better. I remembered that he took me
to Niagara Fall (my first time there), a very loud jazz bar where we
shared a warm apple tart with vanilla ice cream (hey I remembered
vividly), the mall area where I didn't buy anything (very atypical me, )
and the pacific mall where we bought a lot of pop music. I guess our
feelings towards each other grew quickly and strongly since the trip and
on March 11, 2001, we became boy/girl friends.

This 5 year anniversary trip was supposed to trace what we did five
years ago and most importantly, to EAT! Yes, Toronto is such a heaven
for me. (living in Ann Arbor is tough since it's so hard to find a nice
restaurant to comfort my Taiwanese appetite). We indeed ate a lot
on Friday and woke up pretty late on Saturday. Since Saturday was
our big day, I spent some time to dress up and wore my pinky Carrie
dress (an early anniversary gift from Anwell which he bought at Eastern
Wing, our favorite boutique in Boston). Anwell also wore his powerful
black suit with the funky shirt I bought him, looked pretty cool/handsome!
Actually I really had a good time from the beginning of the day, got
a lot of compliments from strangers because of my dress.

After enjoying our fantastic brunch at Eggspectation, he took me to
the Allan Gardens Conservatory (http://collections.ic.gc.ca./gardens/).
Thank God the weather was really good and we took a lot of pictures
inside the Conservatory. According to Anwell's original plan (Plan A),
he was supposed to propose there, unfortunately, there were too many
people who were also enjoying the flowers as we were so he decided
this was not the right/romantic place to do it.

You must be interested in knowing whether I had noticed something
different. Indeed, I found something quite strange the whole day.
In general, Anwell is a very good and reliable driver, I've always enjoyed
his driving skills (believe me, not all guys drive well  ). Oddly,
it seemed to me that he didn't pay too much attention to driving,
so awkward situations happened a few times and we were even
stopped by a policeman   in the afternoon (luckily we didn't eat a ticket).
I thought he must be too tired or didn't sleep well that I almost offered
to take over to drive the car. Naïve me did not connect his weird
behavior (or nervous emotions) to what happened several hours latter.

Dinner was first reserved at the Panorama (51st Floor of the Manulife
Centre), which was recommended as having the best night view in
Toronto by our concierge. As we arrived, we (especially Anwell) did
not find it very impressive. It was like a small lounge with lots of people,
very loud, and we could not even get a table with the window view.
Actually I didn't care because I wasn't so hungry, but I could tell Anwell
really didn't like it so I agreed to leave and go to find the David Duncan House,
also recommended by our concierge as a romantic and quiet mansion-converted
restaurant. Anwell's Plan B also failed (Poor Bibi >_<)!

It took us sometime to find the restaurant, so when we finally got there
it's almost nine o'clock. We were brought to a nice table with fireplace
aside. Even though I was not too hungry, you know, I was eating the
whole day, I still tried to finish everything we ordered coz the food was
just AMAZING! Surprisingly, (nervous) Anwell couldn't finish his entrée
so that I finished his last two shrimps stuffed with crab meat and topped
with Canadian bacon, yummy! After the wonderful dinner, he (purposely)
took me to the lounge where NOT EVEN ONE PERSON was there to get
some sweets.

As our dessert arrived, he held my hand and handed over something
that he took out from his coat. It was a very delicate book, titled as
MeiMei & Buibui (our nicknames), that he made for me as a remembrance
for everything we've been through over these five years. The book
recorded our love letters written to each other, our encouragement
to each other when one was down, and he also added some paragraphs
that stated his feelings at certain special moments (how excited he was
when seeing me in the Toronto airport 5 years ago, how happy he was
on the day we promised to be boy/girl friends, and how much effort he
spent to find the right ring, but of course he didn't let me see this part
at this time). I burst into tears  right after I started to read the
introduction, and once again felt so touched by Anwell's relentless
creativity.

I thought this was the best ending for our big day and felt a bit sorry
for Anwell because I didn't do close to 1% of what he prepared for this
day. No, I was totally wrong, what happened subsequently was the peak
of the day.

After reading a few more pages of the book, Anwell asked me to close
my eyes because he had another “SMALL GIFT” for me, I followed his
words and closed my eyes, but based on women’s six sense, I kind of
sense something unusual might happen. It felt like a century long, but
finally when his voice aroused again, I opened my eyes and found him
on bended knee with a very sparkling ring, right in front of me. My heart
started to beat irregularly, and slowly he popped the question “MeiMei,
我真的很愛你，will you marry me?”

“Oh MY GOD, YES, OF COURSE”, that's my answer without any
hesitation, and that's the end of his proposal story. After a few
disturbances, his Plan C finally succeeded.

Special thanks to Keiichi (and Michiko & little Makito, we miss
you a lot), Anwell's cousin and my good friend from Harvard, without
you, Anwell and I might not know each other. You are our most important
matchmaker!! And Lu, also Anwell's cousin, without you, Anwell and I
wouldn't get to know each other better and better. Yurong, Weimin,
Wens, Peijun, and Yating, you are my best consultants in terms of
relationship. Many more thanks to my wonderful roomie, Peichin,
who helped Anwell a lot for the preparation of the proposal.

Dear friends, thanks so much for your love and support towards us.
Right now we haven't had our wedding date set, but we will definitely
let you know once we have our next move. Take care and let us know
how you've been as well (new career, newly wed, new born baby etc.),
we'd really love to hear anything from you all.