Multicultural Couple

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I met her while I was studying abroad in Santiago, Chile. Her name is Diana and she is from Ecuador. She is beautiful. Her hair is long and smooth and brown with a red tint in it. She has big dark brown eyes and coffee-colored skin. She is also the peaceful and patient woman I have ever met. Her sense of humor is quirky and she almost always is smiling at you or laughing about something, her dimples appearing as she does so. I am from the United States. I am much more serious and reserved. I am constantly worrying about the future and am very cynical at times. She likes to go out and dance; I like to watch documentaries. We first crossed paths at a Couch Surfing party in Cerro San Cristobal in downtown Santiago. We have been together for over a year now. Since meeting, we started going on dates and she took me around Santiago and invited me to her birthday, to parties. I hit it off with several of her friends and integrated myself into life in Chile where I completed my exchange and stayed another six months to be with her. We traveled to southern Chile together, visiting the enormous island of Chiloe. We explored its small towns, little fishing and farming communities, while trying excellent seafood. We spent New Year's Eve together in Puerto Varas, a town on the shores of shimmering lake fed by the snowmelt of a nearby volcano. As the fireworks went off and we stood with our cheap bottle of champagne on the beach, she grabbed me and said she loved me with tears in her eyes and told me that she wanted to be with me. It was beautiful and I answered saying I felt the same way for her. We spent the rest of the night dancing and celebrating and made love as the sun came up. The next few months were a bit chaotic. She was looking for work as she had left the airline LAN and I finished my internship in sustainable agriculture in southern Chile. My visa then expired and I had to leave the country. I used it as an opportunity to visit the Pampa in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay and I came back hooked. Work was not turning out for her. I was desperate to travel and kept saying it was a sign (I don't believe in signs but always talk about events as if they were anyways). Finally, I convinced her. We left Chile riding a bus twenty-six hours just to get to the northern border with Bolivia. The crossing was easy and we spent the next month walking through national parks, taking horseback rides through the sierra, crossing mountains on dangerous roads in the dark, meeting interesting people, learning about Bolivia's history and its problems. The journey has continued after passing through Peru as well and now we are in Ecuador meeting her family. After a walk through the jungle one day which led us to a river surrounded by green hills covered in mist with hummingbirds and iguanas, we found ourselves at the side of a road in the rain, muddy and tired but feeling alive. I casually said to her "Why don't we get married?" She didn't hesitate one second as she took my hand and said she would spend the rest of her life traveling and exploring the world with me. I feel blessed to be with her and to have so many great opportunities. I sometimes worry though about the fact that we are from different countries, very different cultures. She loves to go to parties. I occasionally enjoy going out but I prefer to read, paint or entertain myself in some other way. I admit that she has been a light in my life but I wonder if we are too different sometimes. I have gotten her to think more seriously about her future and she has been able to make me relax about mine as well; it has been good for the both of us. But, as stated, we are traveling. What happens when we have to settle down? Will that spark still be there? Would she be happy in my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin in the United States? How many multicultural couples turn out well? There are so many hurdles I can see in the future that it makes me a bit nervous. There is another big question in addition to all of this. She is quite a bit older than me. I want to keep studying and I am sure she is ready to have a family. I don't want to lose her but I am also worried about being a father so soon. Can this work? Is there some sort of age-limit barrier that can break a relationship? Are there cases of relationships working out even with age differences? What will the future bring for us? I guess you sometimes just have to let things happen and stop worrying about it. Worry itself might become more of a concern than the situation actually is.