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How we met: On architectural tour, they built love
UT student fell for future wife while in Poland
"Here's this nice naive Polish girl who thinks I'm coming to Warsaw to see a bunch of buildings and I'm coming to see her," says Robert Huserik, with bride Monika Lux. They wed in a civil ceremony in his hometown of Knoxville on March 27, 2004, and the following Aug. 14 in a church ceremony in Krakow, in her homeland of Poland.
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Rob happily admits it: He wasted no time in Poland as a University of Tennessee-Knoxville architectural exchange student.
He arrived Feb. 15, 2002; met Monika Lux in Krakow, where he was staying, on March 1; went to see her at her home in Warsaw on March 8; and for the rest of his four months in Poland, "we saw each other almost every weekend," he says.
"Rob," she says, "is very caring and good and loving, and he is very tolerant. I was definitely heading toward a career in Poland, and not all the Polish guys like women having a career. Rob was the opposite. He lets me follow my ambitions."
Today, Monika is on maternity leave from her job at International Paper as a sales manager for secondary fiber and pulp products. "I don't do anything that I went to school for," she says. "My degree is in applied linguistics and another is in international relations."
Rob is an architectural intern at Hnedak Bobo Group, working toward his architect's license.
They wed in a civil ceremony March 27, 2004, in his hometown of Knoxville, and that Aug. 14 in Krakow, in a 13th century church. Their parents attended both ceremonies.
"In Poland, a wedding is not like here, two hours and it's over," Monika says. "There's the ceremony, then dinner and champagne, then a party all night until 4 or 5 a.m. You have cakes, desserts, cold cuts, alcoholic drinks."
Rob loved it. "Anything Polish, he loves," she says proudly. "Polish food. Polish city. Polish way of life, even though it's harder there. I never have any cultural differences with him."
Rob was introduced to many things Polish through an exchange student in Knoxville who was part of the same architectural study program. When his friend returned to Poland and Rob went there to study, it was natural for the two to get together.
The friend, it turns out, was dating Monika's sister. (They, too, would marry.)
"I was visiting Krakow for the weekend. My sister had this party," Monika says. "We ended up at this club in the Jewish part of town -- it's only recently being renovated."
That's where she and Rob met.
"I thought she was, first of all, drop-dead gorgeous," says Rob, 30.
Because it was so loud in the club, they moved to a nearby café to chat.
"She's really smart and a good conversationalist," he says. "We were talking a lot about language, with her being a linguist. I was teaching her the little Southern phrases, like from Jeff Foxworthy. She ate it up."
At evening's end, "I wanted to be polite," says Monika, 31, "so I said -- not just to him, but to all the American students there -- 'Please e-mail if you are in Warsaw and I'll show you around.' Rob was there the next weekend! He took the train and came to Warsaw with this big, big bouquet of flowers."
It was part romance and part cultural observance. "I went to Warsaw on March 8, which is an old Communist holiday called Women's Day. It's the one Communist holiday that everybody liked so they kept it. It's basically the day all the women get flowers, so ...."
Monika had gotten help to map out a visit that Rob the architectural aficionado would enjoy.
"So here's this nice, naive Polish girl who thinks I'm coming to Warsaw to see a bunch of buildings!" Rob says with a laugh. "I'm coming to see her."
"I did date all kinds of guys," Monika says, "and you can't really name one quality that made me think of Rob. It was multiple pieces of his character. He's a great person, my friend, and it turns out he's a great dad."
Robert Jr. was born this past Aug. 13.
"Another thing, he never said, 'If you want to marry me, come to the States.'"
In the year between their meeting and finishing their degrees, Rob had thought of several scenarios.
"I wasn't opposed to moving to Europe," he says, as he knew that Monika hoped to work at the European Union. Eventually, however, they decided to concentrate first on Rob getting his architect's license in the United States.
"If Rob wasn't so loving and caring, I wouldn't be here," Monika says. "I had to leave my family behind and I'm close to my family. But somehow Rob has been able to comfort me. And, we always go to Poland once a year and my parents try to come once a year as well."
To be spotlighted in How We Met, contact Anita Houk with your story, photos and marriage certificate. E-mail info to How.We.Met@hotmail.com; call 489.8567; or, write to Anita c/o BeeLoveWorks, 1970 Snowden Ave., Memphis, TN 38107.
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