Issue date: 11/6/08 Section: ARTS & LIFE

Media Credit: Roberto Rodriguez

The NT football team may not have scored a victory at Homecoming, but Andrew Morris did when girlfriend of three years, Elizabeth Buchanan accepted his marriage proposal during the fourth quarter.

Morris, history senior, said he and his new fiancée already knew they wanted to get married. It was just a matter of when, where and how he was going to propose to her.

"I planned to do it a week before Homecoming, but I hadn't gotten a chance to get the OK from her father yet," he said. "So I waited until Homecoming, when I knew her whole family would be here. I wanted to do something really special."

Buchanan, a French language junior and a member of the Green Brigade Marching Band, said she knew something was strange when her band director, Nicholas Williams, selected her to conduct the band in its next musical selection. She said that for every game toward the end of the third quarter, the director orchestrates a bidding process in which members of the band have the chance to conduct the next song selection.

"So I start to conduct the band, and Andrew comes up and proposes," she said. "I couldn't believe this was happening."

She said this was definitely a moment she'll never forget, but the proposal is only half of their love story.

Buchanan and Morris met in July 2005 online at bolt.com, a Web site much like Myspace that allows members to chat with people from all around the world.

"I'm really interested in meeting people from different countries and came across his page, and we began to chat," she said. "It was just something that happened."

Morris, originally from the United Kingdom, was attending school in Melbourne, Australia, at the time and said he and Buchanan immediately hit it off and began their long-distance relationship.

The two talked online for about 10 months, but it wasn't until Buchanan's 18th birthday, May 29, they had their first telephone conversation.

"I was going to send her flowers, but I didn't want to seem like the creepy crazed online guy who just sends flowers," Morris said. "I thought her hearing my voice for the first time would be a better gift."

Buchanan said hearing Morris' voice was a big deal for her, but it was even better when he came to visit her.

"His debate team was in the middle of a world debating tour, and the United States was one of their stops," she said. "We met for the first time in person on Thanksgiving Day of 2006."

They spent the next year taking turns flying 9,000 miles to visit one another in their respective countries with the financial support of their jobs and families.

Morris said it wasn't until December 2007 when he decided to move to the U.S and transfer to NT to be with Buchanan.

"People say that long distance relationships are hard, but it wasn't that hard for us," Morris said.

Both agreed that writing letters, talking on the phone, keeping themselves busy and having predetermined dates to visit one another helped them.

"We're both really happy," Buchanan said.

The newly engaged couple said they will have a long engagement because they want to be financially stable before they marry and for now will just enjoy being together in the same state.

"Until you are apart, you'll never know how much you truly love someone," Morris said.

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