Yes, there are lots of memories that we have shared that we see totally differently. The following tries to illustrate the point from my perspective, though my wife remembers most of what i have detailed below totally differently:
I met my wife on a 10 day residential marine biology field course while studying for a post graduate degree. I used to attend the field course every year for about 6 years (I worked at the university as a research assistant). Though I initially met her while working in one of the labs earlier that year helping out the lecturer during a practical session for first year undergraduates. It was an entomology practical and I remember my future wife because she had refused to dissect a cockroach (I later learned she was a strict Vegan), I'd never come across a student on the course until that moment who had been so vocal on the subject. I didn't think any more of her for several months until I was put in charge of a group of students that she was part of while studying exposure on a cliff based ecosystem, I remembered her immediately, but at that point I was more concerned with the safety of the group as we were looking at the different zones from the top to the bottom of a cliff face, with the tide coming in; plus my main job was to help the students identify various species of flora and fauna that inhabited the cliff face using key books to key down the particular species, then to record the density of those species using transect lines (measured out at regular intervals and various pieces of equipment. Each lecturer or demonstrator (as I was called) were put in charge of a group of around 10 students for the day. Each day was spent on a particular area of study with a different group; for example Salt Marsh eco system, Sandy beach ecosystem, rock pools ecosystem, comparing various species of marine organisms that inhabited the littoral zones etc.
It wasn't until the evening of the same day we'd been calculating the exposure scale of the cliff side rocky beach that we latched onto each other, after I with my friends were chatting at the local pub and she with her friends were doing the same. We happened to be sitting on a particularly long banquet table (what we call in the UK the snug room). As the table was large enough to accommodate both parties, I ended up sitting next to my future wife and within minutes we had struck up a conversation, then for the rest of that evening we both ignored our friends (the main things I remember chatting about were of an environmental nature, vegetarianism, hunt sabotage the Green party, Greenpeace etc and more significantly, that she had just broken up with her fiance as he had punched her in the face a few weeks previously while they were on vacation together. I'd just broken up with my girl friend and really fancied her, but was a little careful not to push myself onto her as from her conversation, she was still very upset at what had occurred a few weeks previously.
The field trip always took place at the end of the summer vacation just before the start of the new academic year, mainly to take advantage of spring tides that would allow us to examine areas of the littoral zone that are only infrequently uncovered by tides). For the next three nights (from my memory) after the days field trips and early evening lab sessions and lectures had finished and after we'd had our late evening meal, we'd meet up and I'd help her to consolidate her notes from the days work (using the forts excellent library). We'd then go out for a walk; we were based at an old Victorian fort that was over a mile away from the nearest community and amongst beautiful countryside and coastal beaches. One beach in particular is noted as a world famous geological site due to a massive anticline fold that is seen on the cliff face. The fort is on the only coastal National Park in the UK and is situated at the end of a promontory to the West of the Milford Haven Estuary in Pembrokshire Wales UK.
Later in the evening we would go out to the local pub, take a midnight walk, or go to a nearby community that used to hold 2 or 3 dance evenings for us every year as we were a 60 + strong group of students plus around 10 staff members and would spent a lot of money at the events, or if the weather was bad, I'd take her to the staff room, that was usually deserted later in the evening and watch some TV, make a hot drink or use the libray as it was open 24/7 ((the librarian was only available for an hour after the evening meal each day, where you could buy research papers etc). For those three days before the field trip concluded we stayed up all night, so didn't have any sleep for three days.
Basically Michelle remembers those three days almost totally differently from me, though there are some reference points where we have the same memory for example on the evening we went to the dance, we were the last out and missed the mini vans that took all the students back to the fort and ended up walking back around 8 miles to the fort and didn't get back until middle of the night (around 3am). There were a couple of events such as a local car stopping ahead of us, then realizing we weren't locals that then sped off, plus it was a chilly September evening and we had both been actively dancing for most of the night, so had left the event rather sweaty. I had a thin waterproof with me, but Michelle had nothing but the dress she was wearing, so I offered her the waterproof to keep her a little warmer, but she refused, so I refused to wear it as well. We'd also discussed meeting up during freshers week at the start of the new academic year which was about two weeks later. When two weeks passed I met her in the Freshers hall, where she was hosting the Green party clubs hoardings and she invited me back to her room later that evening. That was the start of at this point 29 years of being together virtually ever hour of the day (apart from work and study), we took the same postgraduate teaching diplomas after she had finished her undergraduate degree. I completed my post graduate degree at the same time as she completed her degree three years after we met. She did a four year course that included a one year industrial placement in her third year, where she worked for six months at Cambridge universities Plant Breeding Institute (and oddly was the same placement I'd done when I did my undergraduate industrial year (it was unusual because we were offered a choice of around 60 different placements, so I thought it odd that she had chosen the same placement and had been accepted following an interview. She spent the next six months at the Freshwater Biological Associations (FBA) field labs in the English Lake District (I'd applied for that placement as well when I was an undergraduate, but had failed at the interview). I spent that year with her so that I could used Cambridge Universities libraries for my research. the FBA's library was also particularly useful for me as well, so Michelle's two placement s helped me significantly. She also typed out my thesis as I was a two fingered typist whereas she had done typing at school and was a fast typist. Again much of what I've written about the above Michelle remembers totally differently.
p.s. my opiate meds kicked in while writing this. I do tend to waffle a lot when that happens. :)
