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The Story

Our First Conversations.

We met for the first time in a Zoom room on Tuesday, July 27th, 2021. It was still a time of Covid and most people worked from home. Franzi was even still in Berlin, waiting for the Canadian border to re-open. Her internship in the Cleverhans lab had just started the day before. Franzi and Adam joined the Zoom call a bit earlier. Franzi because of her punctuality, Adam mostly because the topic of the expected talk was of interest to him. They ended up in the Zoom room alone and the conversation unfolded easily and fastly became very enjoyable. Franzi (without knowing Adam’s nationality) told him that she had just returned from her summer vacation in Poland to which Adam replied that he was Polish. We immediately started talking about Franzi’s impressions of Poland, the topic still close to Adam’s heart despite living already more than 10 years abroad. Once the others joined the meeting, it felt like we had just started our conversation and had to wear our professional hats and get back to work. This initial encounter already left a very good impression. Then Franzi started her marathon of presentations and Adam was interested in her topics as well as admired her eloquence and how smart, positive, and friendly a person Franzi was. Then, Adam gave his presentation at the end of September and Franzi also liked the way he talked, how clean his slides were, and the good flow of the talk. Then, after these online meetings that stayed fully in a professional mode, came the time of the first meeting in person.

Our First Meeting in Person.

It was the first day of October 2021. Even though Toronto is cold in Autumn and Winter, this day just about a week after the end of Summer was pleasantly warm and inviting to spend some time outdoors. Nicolas proposed to welcome the new lab member, namely Franzi, during a small picnic in Queen’s Park. This is where Adam frequently did his workout on rings with his gym buddies, so he knew the place quite well. The park was embellished in green leaves and the black squirrels that surprised Franzi were chasing each other either to steal some nuts before the upcoming Winter or just for fun to use the last days of warm weather. Franzi came with a surprise basket full of souvenirs from Berlin for the lab. The first time they saw each other in person was pretty normal, they were just new colleagues and Franzi was supposed to stay in Toronto for only 2 months, at least what Adam thought at the beginning. However, the more they talked to each other and with other lab members, the more curious they became about one another. It seemed to Adam that Franzi figured out life in Toronto on day one. She already planned to take part in Toronto’s marathon and even bought a 1-year subscription to the city bikes. It was a pleasure to talk to each other about research but soon even more serious topics about life cropped up. This is where the friendship started growing.

The First Photo.

“Nomen est omen” - Franzi’s name is very telling. Very soon Adam started calling her Fancy Franzi - since so much cool stuff she brought with her to Toronto. Nicolas took the first photo of them, even during the first meeting, sitting next to each other. The most interesting present in the surprise basket Franzi had brought, for Adam, was the Exit Game. Exit games became the lab’s and if not Vector’s famous games that a few lab members started playing regularly every Thursday. Franzi, Adam, Jonas, Stephan, and a few others who joined occasionally, such as Mohammad, Ahmad, Natalie, and many others, all enjoyed the games and had a lot of fun. This type of game was Adam’s favorite and even when Franzi left, Adam bought new ones to play with other lab members. Eventually, we finished all editions. Apart from the game nights, Franzi created new traditions in the lab, such as Sushi Burrito Friday, or lab trips. Believe it or not, Adam went on many trips during 2021 with Mohammad, with the most memorable one being the trip to Niagara Falls when everyone ended up soaking wet. Well, some of that was not fully successful but Adam tried to organize the trip to the Bruce Penisula twice – but it always fizzled out. Eventually, Franzi was able to pull it off and even encouraged non-lab members, meaning other people from Vector, to join us. All in all, 2 cars and 10 people went for the trip organized by Franzi. During the lab trips, shared meals, and game nights, Adam and Franzi talked more and more and they started being closer to each other every single day.

The First Date.

They seemed to be sharing many passions together and had many things in common. Adam was impressed by Franzi running the half-marathon while Adam’s famous (hours long) workouts were also very inspiring for Franzi. Towards the end of Franzi’s internship, with only a few days left, they decided to work out on a Saturday at the beautiful waterfront together and jog a little bit. The small morning workout turned out to be another half-marathon for both of them. They really enjoyed the conversation and adored the sunny Lake Ontario. They laughed a lot and could not stop this beautiful time. After the long run, Adam invited her for lunch, since both were rather exhausted and deserved a hefty portion to make up for the lost calories. This was a great time that they wanted to repeat one day. Franzi was especially inspired by Adam’s extremely healthy and tasty cooking. He served her a dish that became later in Franzi’s family known as “Lachs alla Adam” (salmon alla Adam) which Franzi’s father and Sigrid regularly prepare. Franzi’s farewell was getting closer and on the last day Franzi organized a party for everyone. This was a bittersweet event since Franzi integrated so well with our lab and all of us wanted her to stay longer, especially Adam. This occurred to be possible at some point since Franzi might have been able to visit our lab again.

Confession of Love.

Franzi’s second internship started on February 1st, 2022. She hit the ground running and with the perspective of seeing each other even more often, Franzi and Adam started spending time with each other, even without other lab members. Oh, of course, we enjoyed your company but also wanted to have some more time alone. We had wonderful moments together, lots of shared meals, shared workouts, and many long conversations about research, God, and the world, and very often also about books. Franzi was impressed by the number of inspiring books by famous and successful people Adam had read and internalized – but she also realized that all of these people were men. So, she decided to get him a book about an inspiring woman. But how to find the right one? A researcher probably! Someone that Adam would find relatable. This left one obvious choice and Franzi went to buy a book about Marie Skłodowska-Curie, a Polish researcher, the first woman ever to be awarded a Nobel prize. Before giving the book “Obsessive Genius” to Adam, Franzi read it fully and realized that the book was not only a book about a remarkable researcher, but also a beautiful love story between Marie and her husband and fellow-researcher Pierre Curie. When Franzi offered Adam the book, she found out that Adam knew a lot about this outstanding woman, and as the conversation unfolded about research, about a couple joined in their passion, leading a research lab together, remarkably supporting each other in their aspirations, and going through thick and thin, we eventually confessed to each other that we would like to be together in this way.

Big and Small Announcements.

Our relationship developed very fast and Adam eventually and officially asked Franzi to be his girlfriend. For a long time, they didn’t want to impose themselves on others and kept the relationship for each other while trying to stay professional at work. At some point, it became more difficult even in such a big city as Toronto. Apparently, some people saw them holding hands and spending rather more time with each other than only colleagues would do. So, we decided to spill the beans officially and to let Nicolas know first about our relationship. The meeting took place in Nicolas’ office at Vector and we both were a bit nervous since we were a bit unsure about how it would be perceived. All the worries were totally unnecessary. Nicolas was even happy for us and joked with us predicting that Adam would move to Germany at some point. We were glad that this relationship became official and that we could then finally enjoy telling the good news to others. We still wanted to wait a bit until being sure that our professional future would also allow us to be together at the same place, though. One day, before having told anyone else, we went for a walk from the Vector office to Queen’s Park. It was a public holiday, so few people were in the office and on campus, and we thought that it would be safe to spend our lunch break together in the sun, holding hands – when suddenly, we heard a voice shouting “Adam?!”. It was Roy, who had just the day before arrived in Toronto for his internship. Before, he had already been working remotely with Adam and Franzi, but when seeing the two in the park, he at first wasn’t sure if this was really Adam. However, he became confident once he saw Franzi with him, both walking arm in arm. This was quite a warm welcome for Roy who, from then on, shared the secret with us for a little while. Another day, Adam and Franzi saw Nick while walking on College Street. There were many such sudden encounters and somehow it always felt a bit funny and pleasant. Eventually, when we had figured out our professional future, we told everyone – somehow, nobody seemed surprised ;)

This is official - called to a court.

We met in Toronto and this city will always be the place where we go back to in our memories. We explored it thoroughly but also ventured into many of its surroundings including Bruce Peninsula, Scarborough, and many others. Probably the most unforgettable experience was our hiking in Niagara Glen Park during the long weekend in May 2022. We started our hike in Niagara Whirlpool, where there is a bit more challenging trail, leading through a forest with a beautiful part under a small waterfall and the viewpoints on the escarpment of the Niagara River. After a few hours of exploration, we found an attractive spot on a big rock by the river bank. We happily claimed the spot and started our picnic. We enjoyed the view, the sun, and the soothing sound of the white water of the Niagara River. All of a sudden, two Canadian rangers appeared near our rock. We both expected a pleasant conversation, as usual with the friendly Canadian forest rangers. Unfortunately, not this time. One of the rangers was very rude and didn’t even want to talk to us but immediately asked us for documents. We were taken aback and didn’t know why the whole situation was one-eighty. Both of us were given fines for trespassing and left a bad taste in our mouths – apparently, one was not supposed to sit on that rock. We tried to forget about the whole incident as soon as possible and enjoy the rest of the hike. Unfortunately, the other tourists noticed us and asked how expensive the fine was. We learned that 65 bucks per person is not the end of the world and much higher fines were given to other tourists. This was a cold comfort but we realized that there was a sign that the water level might rise abruptly and cover the rock on which we had our lunch. However, a small excuse is that there was no such sign from the direction of the trail that we came from, where not that many tourists explore either. Additionally, Adam already had a few brakes on this rock in the past during his previous tours, even one of them with Mohammad. In the end, we decided to go for a hearing in a Canadian court to reduce the fines where a negotiator talked to us before the judge. After explaining our situation, the negotiator decided that only one of us had to pay the 65 bucks and told us that there would not be any additional record in our police certificates. We went for many more hikes together afterwards and always liked the Canadian nature but became more vigilant about the imminent risk of trespassing.

This is official - really!

And now, it’s getting official again. Not at court, this time, but at the city hall. After plenty of joint adventures, many exciting trips, hours and hours spent talking, laughing, and meeting friends, on February 14th, 2023, we got engaged in Toronto, our favorite city in the world. This moment was one of the happiest in our entire lives. To share a little bit of this happiness with you, we included this video taken at Nathan Phillips Square short moments afterwards. We’ll share more happiness and more stories with you on August 22nd during our wedding.