In September 2010 I moved from Stockholm, Sweden, to Bialystok in the east of Poland to study medicine for 6 years. On the train from Warsaw to Bialystok the train was packed, and having to carry our huge luggage, of course we didn’t get a seat. Three hours we had to spend sitting in the corridor between the wagons.
I saw a short man standing close to us, looking confused. I realized that this man was not your average pole, and therefore I started talking to him. His name was Paulo, he was from Portugal and he was going to spend a year in Bialystok doing an Erasmus interchange on the Technical University.
Since I was about a head higher than him, and he wasn’t very attractive and smoked like a chimney, I wasn’t very interested in getting his number to see him again. But as the time passed, I grew more and more tired of the upper class snobby Norwegians in my class and I started to think I should have taken his number anyway just to have somebody else to hang out with apart from my classmates.
And as if somebody had heard my wish, I ran in to the same little man outside the mall one cold and rainy afternoon in November when I was buying groceries for a Christmas party together with two friends. But this time he was not alone, but had with him a man that would in the future become very important to me.
His name was Flavio, he was talkative and charming, and I instantly found him very interesting. The three of us, and my two friends, stayed outside the mall taking for a while and in the end we finally exchanged numbers. I called for the week-end and we went for a drink, me, Flavio and Paulo.
The following months I was busy with school, trying to pass anatomy and getting used to my new life as a student. I met Flavio and Paulo a few more times, having dinner at their place with the other exchange students or bumping in to each other out on some club. But for then, we were nothing but friends.
My first year of studies came to an end and Flavio went back to Portugal. This would have been the end of our story if it hadn't been for the economical trouble Portugal was (and still is) in at the moment. Flavio graduated and started looking for a job, but with no luck. So at the end of the year, about one year after we had first met outside of the mall in Bialystok, he moved back to Poland to look for a job. He stayed with a friend in an apartment in Warsaw, but spend a lot of time in Bialystok, seeing friends that lived there.
In the fall of my second year of medical school, I randomly had someone tapping me on my shoulder one night at Rococo, one of the clubs we usually go to in Bialystok. And there was Flavio! The following months we started seeing each other as more than friends and he'd be going like a shuttle every week-end, from Warsaw on Friday, spending the week-end with me in Bialystok, and then back again on Sunday evening. Every week felt like an eternity and every week-end passed like a lightning. I started falling deeply in love with this amazing Portuguese.
During Christmas 2011 I went home to Sweden and he went home to Portugal, and this was the first time we spent apart since we started dating. That was when we realized how much we enjoyed each other’s company and for that how much we missed each other when we had to be apart.
The unspoken Three Magical Words were hanging in the air, and when I went home to Sweden for midterm break in February 2012 it was almost on the verge of bursting. I came back to Poland on the 13th of February and we spent our first Valentine’s Day together in Bialystok, saying I love you to each other and deciding that it was time for us to become a couple.
Since that wonderful Valentine’s Day, when I got together with my Flavio, the issue of finding a job has been a constant problem. I have no choice but to stay in Poland for another 4 years to finish medical school, and he cannot find a job in Poland.
At the beginning was skeptical and I didn’t really believe in long distance relationships. But when you find your soul mate, and the only opportunity for you to be with him is to have a long distance relationship, then it’s worth it.
It’s been hard from time to time, some days it feels OK, some days really suck. We speak on Skype every day, and we both feel that the day is not complete without it.
In May 2012, Flavio travelled 62 hours, from Africa to Spain, from Spain to Krakow in Poland and finally from Krakow to Bialystok, just to surprise me. I had no idea that he was coming until I got a text message saying "come down and open the gate". That was the happiest day of my life!
Now, Flavio has just booked a ticket to come to Sweden and visit my family for the first time, and we’ll get to spend 3 whole weeks together, which is amazing. After that I’ll visit him in Portugal and take a course in Portuguese to be able to talk to his relatives. We’ll spend Christmas and New Year’s together.
The 14th of August we will celebrate 6 months of officially being a couple, the best 6 months of our lives! <3
I saw a short man standing close to us, looking confused. I realized that this man was not your average pole, and therefore I started talking to him. His name was Paulo, he was from Portugal and he was going to spend a year in Bialystok doing an Erasmus interchange on the Technical University.
Since I was about a head higher than him, and he wasn’t very attractive and smoked like a chimney, I wasn’t very interested in getting his number to see him again. But as the time passed, I grew more and more tired of the upper class snobby Norwegians in my class and I started to think I should have taken his number anyway just to have somebody else to hang out with apart from my classmates.
And as if somebody had heard my wish, I ran in to the same little man outside the mall one cold and rainy afternoon in November when I was buying groceries for a Christmas party together with two friends. But this time he was not alone, but had with him a man that would in the future become very important to me.
His name was Flavio, he was talkative and charming, and I instantly found him very interesting. The three of us, and my two friends, stayed outside the mall taking for a while and in the end we finally exchanged numbers. I called for the week-end and we went for a drink, me, Flavio and Paulo.
The following months I was busy with school, trying to pass anatomy and getting used to my new life as a student. I met Flavio and Paulo a few more times, having dinner at their place with the other exchange students or bumping in to each other out on some club. But for then, we were nothing but friends.
My first year of studies came to an end and Flavio went back to Portugal. This would have been the end of our story if it hadn't been for the economical trouble Portugal was (and still is) in at the moment. Flavio graduated and started looking for a job, but with no luck. So at the end of the year, about one year after we had first met outside of the mall in Bialystok, he moved back to Poland to look for a job. He stayed with a friend in an apartment in Warsaw, but spend a lot of time in Bialystok, seeing friends that lived there.
In the fall of my second year of medical school, I randomly had someone tapping me on my shoulder one night at Rococo, one of the clubs we usually go to in Bialystok. And there was Flavio! The following months we started seeing each other as more than friends and he'd be going like a shuttle every week-end, from Warsaw on Friday, spending the week-end with me in Bialystok, and then back again on Sunday evening. Every week felt like an eternity and every week-end passed like a lightning. I started falling deeply in love with this amazing Portuguese.
During Christmas 2011 I went home to Sweden and he went home to Portugal, and this was the first time we spent apart since we started dating. That was when we realized how much we enjoyed each other’s company and for that how much we missed each other when we had to be apart.
The unspoken Three Magical Words were hanging in the air, and when I went home to Sweden for midterm break in February 2012 it was almost on the verge of bursting. I came back to Poland on the 13th of February and we spent our first Valentine’s Day together in Bialystok, saying I love you to each other and deciding that it was time for us to become a couple.
Since that wonderful Valentine’s Day, when I got together with my Flavio, the issue of finding a job has been a constant problem. I have no choice but to stay in Poland for another 4 years to finish medical school, and he cannot find a job in Poland.
At the beginning was skeptical and I didn’t really believe in long distance relationships. But when you find your soul mate, and the only opportunity for you to be with him is to have a long distance relationship, then it’s worth it.
It’s been hard from time to time, some days it feels OK, some days really suck. We speak on Skype every day, and we both feel that the day is not complete without it.
In May 2012, Flavio travelled 62 hours, from Africa to Spain, from Spain to Krakow in Poland and finally from Krakow to Bialystok, just to surprise me. I had no idea that he was coming until I got a text message saying "come down and open the gate". That was the happiest day of my life!
Now, Flavio has just booked a ticket to come to Sweden and visit my family for the first time, and we’ll get to spend 3 whole weeks together, which is amazing. After that I’ll visit him in Portugal and take a course in Portuguese to be able to talk to his relatives. We’ll spend Christmas and New Year’s together.
The 14th of August we will celebrate 6 months of officially being a couple, the best 6 months of our lives! <3
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