Mike H.N. Teodorescu ’11 & Debbie P. Lin ’11

There was a full moon the night Horia Mihail “Mike” H. N. Teodorescu ’11 proposed to Debbie P. Lin ’11.

The couple was in Vienna, Austria this January Term after visiting Teodorescu’s family in Romania. He kept the ring on him, waiting until he came across a place that felt right. At the Hofburg Palace, he found it.

As the couple explored the palace grounds, Teodorescu spotted an elegant courtyard, complete with a statue in a fountain. That night, after attending a concert, he and Lin wandered through the city until they found themselves back in the courtyard. “It’s dark,” Lin recalled. “He’s pointing up at the statue and saying something like, ‘That’s Fortuna, right?’ And I say, ‘I don’t know, I don’t have a classical education.’”

Teodorescu then took out and opened a small box equipped with its own light—he had anticipated that the proposal would take place at night. “I wanted to make sure the ring could be emphasized,” he said. He dropped on one knee to propose, and she accepted.

At the time this article went to press, the couple expressed plans to marry on May 23, 2011—two days before Class Day—at Memorial Church in a ceremony officiated by University Chaplain Dorothy A. Austin, with the reception to follow at the Faculty Club. Lin said the cake would be crowned with a topper she made herself: a polymer clay sculpture featuring “kitty” and “panda” figurines as the bride and groom, reflecting the couple’s pet names for each other.

The Currier House residents became friends as sophomores when their paths crossed frequently during late-night visits to brain break. “We met in Currier dining hall because of our ‘unique’ work schedules,” Teodorescu said. “It’s probably hard to find someone else awake at five in the morning working on p-sets.” The friendship evolved into what he called a “Currier love story” during their junior year.

“He says junior fall because he was trying to make his intentions known then, but I was clueless,” Lin said. During the J-Term that followed, Teodorescu spent hundreds of dollars calling her from Europe.

Eventually, Lin said, she got the point, and the couple officially began dating in February 2010. As their relationship developed, Lin said she slowly realized Teodorescu was someone she wanted to marry. “It was nice knowing there was someone I could trust so completely,” she said. “He knows everything about me.”

Teodorescu plans to work as a software engineer at Microsoft, and Lin plans to enroll at Harvard Medical School in the fall.

—MICHELLE L. QUACH