TravelDiva is... ENGAGED!

Bet you didn't see that coming. LOL. This year has definitely been a roller coaster ride of emotional highs and lows. But just this past weekend, the love of my life, Mr. TravelDiva (he is going to shoot me) popped the question.

But let's rewind first--how did I meet Mr. TD? While I was on vacation of course! In December 2006, Lily Lily, Nadina and I were in Barcelona for New Years. Lily and I had been there earlier in the year, loved it, and knew that New Years would be sick. Our first night there--December 28--we decided to hit a club called Catwalk. It's one of the hot clubs in BCN--the lower level is club music, but the upper level is all hip hop all the time. So we set out around 12 or 1 and hit Club Catwalk. We got our complimentary drinks and basically posed by the d.j. booth basking in how fabulous we were. LOL. It was a hot scene and kind of like the United Nations of hip hop--Asians, Africans, Europeans and people from pretty much everywhere were groovin' to T.I., old school and whatever came on. We were definitely hot as the only Americans at the club.

Anyway, at one point, Nadina and Lily were sitting and my song at the time "Check on it" by Beyonce came on. So I started dancing and at one point I was spinning around in a circle (ladies I was gettin' it. LMBAO)--when I noticed this guy across the room staring at me nodding his head with the biggest grin on his face. I smiled at him to kind of encourage him, but he didn't come over. So I soon forgot about him and kept it moving. Little did I know, he watched me the whole night. So a couple of hours later, my friends were dancing and I decided to take a rest by the d.j. booth. While I was sitting there, I felt a tap on my shoulder and it was the guy from before and he asked me to dance. Of course, all fatigue instantly wore off, and I was like, "Yes!" We danced for awhile and kind of had an instant connection. I don't necessarily believe in love at first sight, but there was definitely an instant connection. We just were chillin' from the first moment we met--like we had known each other forever. I gave him one of my "leisure cards" (When I travelled, I came up with the idea of having a card with my e-mail address on it, pic, etc. to give to interesting people I met abroad. It actually worked out quite nicely. heeehee); and gave him my cell number. Anyway, I went back to my hotel with my friends--and figured I had an awesome first night out.

Little did I know that Mr. TD was very interested, and he called me the next day--twice. I hung out with him at clubs on Friday and Saturday, but then went my separate way for the rest of the trip. I really didn't think much of it--except that I'd met a cool guy and had fun in Spain. But when I got home from Barcelona, Mr. TD had sent me an e-mail and left phone messages expressing serious interest. Mr. TD is from Senegal, but he was getting his masters in the Netherlands at the time. We then began a long distance relationship. Yes--a long distance relationship on different continents. I used it as an excuse to travel to Amsterdam a couple of times. But eventually long distance got old. Last summer he came to the U.S. and ultimately stayed.

We've gone through the normal relationship ups and downs, but in the end, we knew that we were meant to be together. So last Saturday Mr. TD popped the question in grand style--on his knees in front of a restaurant full of people. Suffice it to say, we're very happy.