The Story of Ben and I

So, a while ago someone asked in the comments section how Ben and I met since he's Scottish and I'm Canadian. Well, it all started when I got a scholarship to do my masters in the UK. I chose Scotland because they have a great engineering school in Glasgow, anyone who's an engineer should know which one it is (hint, not Glasgow Uni). I also knew two people who had gone there before so they were able to give me guidance about where to live and hook me up with a few friends etc. So, I decided that for my great adventure I'd pack off to Scotland for a year and goof around doing my thesis based Masters degree and traveling in Europe.

When I got there I moved into a flat with 4 Glasgow Uni students. They were all awesome, two of them medics. One of the medics and I became instant friends and she convinced me to go out with her to the Glasgow Uni canoe club one night. I though it would be good for a laugh to canoe around in the Glasgow Uni swimming pool and, being Canadian, I had canoeing experience. Little did I know, crazy Glaswegians call kayaking canoeing. So, anyhoo, I went along a few times and it was awesome and I learned how to roll and all that good stuff. They also took me out to the bar and got me so drunk I thought I was going to die - those Glaswegians can really hold their liquor... never before have I seen someone drink a mixture of coolers with extra vodka...

Sometime after that I realized that the time had come for me to join the paddling club at my own Uni because soon someone was going to realize that I didn't actually go to Glasgow Uni. So, I joined and was signed up for my first river trip. We were taken to the river Tay rapids at Grandtully where there is a white water course at the end of a nice paddle down the river.

Someone padding the Grandtully white water course.
(Picture from the UK Rivers Guidebook)

On the bus on the way to Grandtully I sat beside this guy who I thought looked a bit like Tom Cruise and had a really hot Scottish accent. His name turned out to be Ben. Later on I got to see him change into a very tight wetsuit by the side of a road... hot (just kidding). Later still when I didn't want to go down the rapids because I was slightly FREAKED OUT on my first kayaking river experience, he convinced me to go down it. Thankfully I didn't swim until I had cleared the rapids and then did something silly. On the way back we stopped in a pub and he bought me a drink.

This is me on that first crazy day of paddling... I'm not sure why I had my eyes closed!
As you can see from this and the previous mountain biking pictures, I look great in helmets!

The next week when the canoe club met we hung out together in the pub and I brought him apple pie because it was thanksgiving and I had leftovers and we had talked about pie the week before. Then we snogged and the rest is history! Almost 3 years later we're still together but neither of us paddles anymore!