Chris McGarvey and Laurie Stewart

Chris McGarvey (BA 2007 Woodsworth) and Laurie Stewart (BA 2007 Victoria) got engaged shortly after they graduated last year and then travelled to Japan to teach English. In September, they moved to Leeds, England, where Laurie is pursuing a master’s degree in international communications. They plan to be married in 2010.

Chris: I didn’t see Laurie often while we were attending U of T, but in September of fourth year I ran into her at the Dance Cave on Bloor Street. At the end of the night, after they turned off the music and turned on the lights, we hugged tight and promised to e-mail each other, yelling out “I’m Chris dot McGarvey at U Toronto dot C A!” and “I’m Laurie dot Stewart at U Toronto dot C A!”

So began an e-mail correspondence that turned into an awkward first date over a plate of French fries. She was a left-wing anthropology student and I was a right-wing political science student. She referenced Edward Said; I referenced Robert Kaplan. We’d butt heads and then make out. I sat in on her lectures. She sat in on mine. I like to think that we pulled each other closer to the centre.

Laurie: I remember calling Chris once in the early days of our relationship to talk about how a political science course I was taking (his field, not mine) was really challenging. He was on the train heading to the university from his job in Pickering. Chris didn’t tell me until the end of our 20-minute conversation that he had intended to cram for the psych test he was travelling to! I loved how excited he would get about philosophical thinkers and world issues, though to this day he’s shy about the nerdy side that U of T brought out in him. Even his best friends don’t know that he reads Foreign Affairs and downloads lectures from the Internet.