Yesterday wasn't just a beginning of a new year, it was also a beginning of my third year with Adi.
And here is the story of how we met:

It was the summer break before senior year, and I was getting nerves about the oral English exam that we had at the end of the year, because I could not say one sentence in English. I was crazily insecure about my English, and didn't really have any way to practice it. My parents suggested that I go to Berlitz and I took their suggestion.
August 5th, 2003
This was my first day at Berlitz. When I got there the building door didn't want to open, and the intercom didn't work either. I was really embarrassed by my English to begin with, so not even being able to open the door made me want to totally disappear. I had to call them and ask them to help me. At the same time some random guy who happened to be around saw me in my state of helplessness and tried to assist. He didn't believe that door was supposed to be opened, because it looked very old and kinda jail-looking. However, eventually it opened, and I went up the stairs totally blushing. When I was in Berlitz I was early and had to wait for a little bit before my session started. I noticed a guy who was walking around the reception area was really, really cute. Later the girl who interviewed me introduced me to my teacher. To my horror it was the same cute guy, and I tried really hard to control my blushing, but I'm sure I looked like a burned tomato.

The lesson started, and I panicked because I was too distracted to even think of anything to say in English. The first 30 minutes were really lame, but as I got a bit more comfortable things started to flow more. We talked about music and other things we had in common. It was probably the happiest day of my life. The moment I got out of there I couldn't stop smiling. My dad hadn't expected such a great success from just one lesson. When he picked me up I fought my smile, but he understood I must have met someone special :)

I only had 12 lessons total, 8 were supposed to be with Adi and the other four with some English guy named Joe. Luckily I had actual reasons to cancel two of my lessons with Joe, and I ended up having them on different days with Adi. I was very happy with how it worked out.

The whole time he was my teacher it was all very professional, and there was nothing that hinted at taking our relationship to something romantic. There were some extremely subtle signs of the connection we had, but I was afraid to read too much into such small things. Plus he was 24 and I was still 16 (close to 17, but not quite yet), and I was pretty sure he wouldn't consider "us" as an option.

The great thing about these lessons was that I was there to talk, so we got to know each other better with time. One time we talked about the "ideal partner" and I was describing him (because he really did fulfill all my wishes and more), and I was hoping I fulfilled his, too. After we had been dating awhile we talked about it and I found out he was really thinking about me when he was describing his ideal partner, too.
He turned 24 while we were still "teacher and student" and I had to give him some attention without crossing the line. I decided to give him a home made birthday card, and it seemed to be the perfect choice. I suspected that he might feel the same way I did, and made sure in one of our conversations about dating and relationships that he knew I never make the first move because I'm way too shy.

Near the end of my Berlitz experience I was starting to be worried that I wouldn't ever see him again (ok, it was more totally depressed, and cried myself to sleep). At our last session he gave me pretty much every possible way to contact him, and I was relieved to find out it included ICQ because there was no way I was going to call him.

Afterwards we chatted on ICQ, and he called me a few times. We decided to go to some coffee place, and I didn't know what kind of meeting it was supposed to be (but I was not going to miss it!). A few hours before I was supposed to meet him I started feeling really bad and checked my fever. It was 38.6C (101.5F). I decided to go anyway. Magically, as soon as I got there all the bad feelings disappeared. It was interesting to meet him outside of Berlitz, and I totally had a good time, but got the impression it was a very "friend-like" meeting, and that this was the direction we were going, and yes, I was kinda disappointed. Later when we were together and talked about the way everything developed I also found out he didn't sleep the night before this meeting, so he was totally exhausted but didn't want to cancel either.

A few days later we talked on the phone and he brought up a question that freaked me out: "If age wasn't an issue, would you be interested in dating?" I was completely shocked. I was afraid to believe something this good was about to happen, and tried to think of other reasons why he would ask that. I decided he was either interested OR he figured out I had a crush on him and felt weird about it and wanted to make sure so he would know if he needs to get rid of me before I have any more illusions. (Yeah, this is how insecure I was.)
I couldn't decide what to say, so I went with "vague" and just said "maybe." He wasn't willing to let me get out of it like this, and asked if it was maybe that leans toward yes or toward no. At this point I couldn't be an idiot anymore, and just said "towards yes." He asked if I was just trying to protect his feelings because the answer was no, and I explained I was just trying to protect mine in case he was not interested.
We announced our next meeting as a date, and the date was October 4th, 2003. He was my first and last boyfriend, and soon I had my first kiss, as well.

...and we lived happily ever after.