When Ivan met Ruth

Ivan was born in Tainan, Taiwan. After graduated from medical school, he chose to be a surgeon and continued his surgical training in Veterans General Hospital-Taipei. As he became older, his mother started to panic. She was worried about whether Ivan was ever going to get married or not. She decided to contact some matchmakers that she knew and wished that they would be able to find a nice wife for her son.

Ivan had many arranged meetings with a number of girls for a few years, but he had no luck in finding a perfect wife. The answer to his mother was always" she's not my type". Sometimes his mother would think whether Ivan was gay or not? But, one day when he was 33-years old, he finally met someone. He thought he has maybe found "the one". It happened on November 28, 1998, the day he met Ruth.

Ruth was born in Taiwan but her family immigrated to the USA when she was 12-years old. She was educated there and had a good job in a computer company after graduated. Ruth's mother began to search for a suitable husband for her when Ruth turned 24-years old. Her mother believed that she would have a better chance of finding a good husband while she was still young and attractive. Her mother thought that most men perferred younger females because females are better looking when they are younger.

For a few years, Ruth met with a number of men, but she still had no luck in finding her perfect mate. For Ruth, her perfect man must be intelligent, tall and handsome. But, most of the men that she met weren't able to meet her qualifications. So, she remained single until she was 27 years of age.

On that particular Saturday morning, Ruth and her mother woke up early to take a train from Kaohsiung to Taoyuan. Ruth wasn't feeling happy about having to go up north to meet this man because she could not agree with her mother who wanted her to go see a man living so far away from her home. The man who lived in Tao Yuan, according to the matchmaker, was a surgeon and possibly a perfect match for Ruth. Because he was very busy of his profession, it would be easier for Ruth to went up to Taoyuan to see him instead.

When Ruth and her mom finally arrived at Tao Yuan railway station ,Ruth was upset after being on a train for 4 hours. The matchmaker didn't come with them to Taoyuan so she and her mom had to look for the man and that made Ruth even more upset. After few minutes of searching, her mother was able to find the man that they were looking for. As he was walking towards her mother, Ruth was able to get her first peak of him. Ruth's first thought about him was that "at least he is tall."

After introductions, Ivan drove them to the restaurant. Because Ruth's mother was a vegetarian, Ivan treated them to a vegetarian restaurant for Buffet. According to Ruth, "it was the worst buffet she had ever eaten". All through lunch, Ruth's mom talked a lot with Ivan. but Ruth didn't say too much; she just sat there and looked graceful. Ivan was nice enough to keep them company till 5pm that day. According to Ivan, his first impression of Ruth was that "she didn't look too happy and that she had a shitty look on her face". So he wasn't very happy with her either at first. But he started to change his impression of her after he got to know her better throughout the day.

Later on that night, Ivan's mother called him and asked him how did the date go. Usually Ivan's response to his mom would be "She's nice but she's just not my type", but this time her mother got surprised because he told her "I think I'll give her a call tomorrow", which made her mother so curious about the girl he met today earlier. Ruth, on the other hand, said to her mother while they were sitting in the train, "I don't think this time is going to work out". Because She thought that Ivan preferred girls who were musical. She didn't expect too much to happen, although Ivan did meet her qualification of a perfect man-someone intelligent,tall and handsome with a nice butt.

The next morning, Ruth was getting ready to go back to the US. While she was out doing some last minute shopping, Ivan called. Ruth's dad told him that she had gone shopping and would call him back when she got in. When Ruth returned home, she was very surprised and amazed that Ivan had just called. She couldn't believe Ivan was interested in her after all. She nervously returned his call and they talked for a while. During the conversation, Ruth invited Ivan to come to the US and visit her when he got a chance. Ivan said that would be great because he happened to have a chance to take some days off in the end of the year. On Dec 24th, 1998, Ivan did take the United Airline to LA to meet Ruth again. So, that's how their relationship started.....