HOW I MET MY WIFE?

When I was growing up I was too young to know what love meant between adults that would culminate in a marriage. I was 10 years old when I became very fond and attracted to watch white people whom I saw frequently on foreign-produced films. That was the time when I ever dreamed of meeting a white girl to marry and to have children. 

However, taking into account my poor and unstable state of financial situation in my early 20s, such a wish of meeting white girls locally was highly impossible because all of them or even the half-breeds were either promised or reserved to the rich or good-looking men who had power and influence. Therefore, it's highly likely that such a girl, if ever there was one available who would ever take fancy on me at all, would unlikely concede to go with me out on a date either to a movie house or to the park alone in a local transport.

After high school, I studied in a vocational school to learn a trade that would help find an office job to enable me to earn a living and experience. After a couple of years of working hard on a very low salary, I decided to enroll at the university so that I could get a degree that would qualify me to obtain an all-expense-paid scholarship grant abroad. During that time, I had a choice between the U.S. and Europe. However, the U.S. offered only the scholarship grant but the plane ticket was at your own expense. On the contrary, France, which was the only available country, offered all benefits that I won, fortunately.

On my first days in France regardless of fatigue and jet lag from a long flight, I immediately spent all my time visiting and admiring all the iconic spots that I saw and read on the travel magazines and brochures I collected when I was young, like the Eiffel tower, the Seine river, the Notre Dame, the Louvre museum, and Montmartre. 

I was too happy and thrilled to be enrolled officially at the University of Lille in the first week of November 1967 and to be able to meet and talk to my classmates who came from different countries of Europe, North and South America for the first time. 

The first person I talked to in Italian was a girl from San Marino. However, she introduced me to someone from Italy. To be continued.