During the summer of 2009, I had been on and off 100hookup for quite some time and I had not met “the one.” Overall, I was tired of the New York dating scene. I considered removing my profile since I was very busy at work (I had gotten a promotion and was loving my new position) and visitors from my native Germany were taking up much of my free social time. It was only after talking to a couple from my synagogue who had met on 100hookup that I decided to keep my subscription.

On August 25, 2009, I received an email from Frank. I opened it the next day and checked out his profile. Something was different about his profile from the hundreds I had seen; it seemed more real, more honest and lacked the pretense I had seen so many times before. Instead of bragging about his successful business, he wrote about his dream of starting a family with the right person. Overall, his profile was simply different and not easily forgotten.

He also lived 4,000 miles away in Germany. However, since he looked cute, I decided to email him back.  Out of curiosity, I replied in German instead of English, wondering why he would email a girl so far away. I was fascinated by his reply in German. Frank is incredibly humorous, witty and eloquent. Soon emails were flying back and forth between Europe and the U.S. Since my cousin was staying with me, I was busy and did not email him back for a few days. I will never forget the email I received four days later. He wrote, “Your emails are the highlight of my day and the first thing I read when I get to my office in the morning. Since you have not emailed me back in four days, I will simply email for the two of us.” I was both flattered and smiling because he had such a great sense of humor.

After two weeks, we finally started talking on the phone and texting. I liked his voice immediately and we had an instant connection on the phone. Soon we were talking and texting all the time with a six hour time difference between us.

By coincidence, I had planned a trip to Berlin to visit my family in the beginning of September 2009. Frank said that he would really like the chance to meet me in person and asked if he could fly to Berlin to go on a date with me. I was very impressed by his willingness to get on a plane just for the chance to have a date with me. This defiantly showed incredible effort and a great deal of chivalry. We decided that we would meet at the Berlin airport on September 12, 2009. The week leading up to our first date, we talked several times on the phone and texted several times a day. Frank went to a wedding the weekend before our date and actually spent the entire evening texting me. It is hard to explain, but we both felt that something special was happening. I had never met Frank in person, yet he was already giving me butterflies just over the phone. It was magical. The night before the date, I told my mom who had heard me talking about Frank for an entire week that this was the first time in years that I was actually excited about a first date and that I thought that this was special and something different.

On September 12, 2009, I was at the Berlin airport to meet Frank at 5:00 pm. The plane had landed on time, yet for almost one hour there was no sight of him. I had first date jitters to start with, which were only intensified by the hour-long wait. Since he was only staying for one night, I assumed that he was only travelling with a carry-on bag. Unbeknownst to me, Frank had indeed checked his luggage and was now anxiously waiting for his suitcase. As the minutes went by, I started to think that maybe he had changed his mind and had decided to not come. I did not want to call him, so I decided to wait a bit longer. At the same time, Frank anxiously was pacing up and down next to the conveyer belt, fearing that I may have left by now. He also did not want to call. Eventually, he got his suitcase and made his way to the exit. I will never forget the moment our eyes first met. All of a sudden I was looking into the most beautiful pair of green, smiling eyes behind a huge bouquet of white roses that he had brought with him on the plane. My heart started beating like crazy and it was love at first sight for both of us. Up until that point, I did not believe in love at first sight and also rejected the idea that two people just know immediately that they want to spent the rest of their lives together.

Frank simply bear-hugged me and gave me a huge smile. There was none of the first date awkwardness or uneasiness that can sometimes be experienced. Ours was an instant connection on all levels.

We took a cab and had dinner at a wonderful restaurant. During the entire dinner, we only had eyes for each other. Knowing that I was scheduled to fly back to New York three days later, Frank told me that he wanted to show me his home town and that he did not want to be without me ever again. I agreed to join him on his flight home the next day. It was during dinner that Frank asked me if I could imagine moving to Germany to be with him and I agreed. Neither one of us is irrational, but this just felt natural.

Three weeks later, we moved in together and exactly a year to our first date, Frank proposed to me with a beautiful ring during a trip he had planned for us. We plan to get married on the beach in Tel Aviv, a city we both love, next summer. If it had not been for 100hookup, we would have never met each other. Thank you 100hookup!

Anne & Frank
Cologne, Germany

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