Education

Surviving Valentines Day alone in Delft

Many TU foreign students will be separated from their lovers on Valentine%s Day. Will Friday be a day of sad faces and puddles of tears on the TU campus, or just another day? We asked three Mediterranean exiles of love how they feel about being alone in Delft on Valentine’s Day.

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Romeo

,,It’s never enjoyable being away from my girlfriend,” laments Raffaele Marciano, an Italian civil engineering student from Padova. ,,This Valentine’s Day will be sadder than usual, but we phone and email, so it won’t be too bad.” Missing his girlfriend is one thing, splurging is another: Marciano’s romantic heart is overruled by Dutch-like financial prudence when it comes to sending his girlfriend a Valentine gift: ,,I’d like to send her flowers, but sending flowers to Italy is too expensive, so perhaps instead I’ll send her this Delta article.” Although he shares his name with a great heavyweight boxer, this Marciano is no tough Rocky: ,,I might not appear sad on the outside, but actually I’ll probably leave work early on Friday and go to the beach, because that always reminds me of her.”

Juliet

Spaniard Marta Fernandez, a mechanical engineering graduate student from Madrid, isn’t overly keen about the whole Valentine’s Day concept: ,,It’s very commercial. I’m not unromantic, but you don’t need a special day to be romantic.” She and her boyfriend Ricardo share the same sentiments towards this so-called ‘Day of Love’. ,,I know for sure that he won’t send me a card or present, and if I do get a card, then it’ll be a joke from somebody,” she says. Marta’s not going to sulk and feel lonely on Valentine’s Day, but instead of going to the beach like Marciano, she’s just going to work, as if it were just another day. ,,Valentine’s Day is second to my brother’s birthday, which is on the same day. He’s the one I’ll be calling and sending a present, not my boyfriend.”

Don Juan

Eguzki Astiz Lezavn, a mechanical engineering graduate student from Pamplona, Spain, also thinks Valentine’s Day is a commercial event: ,,But I’m going to send my girlfriend flowers. That’s pretty romantic. I’ve been here since October and this month we’ve been together for a year and a half, so we don’t need a special day to celebrate.” And he won’t be feeling sorry for himself: ,,I won’t be miserable on the 14th, but I will miss her, and we’ll probably talk to each other on the phone for most of the day.” Lezavn doesn’t expect any cards, but if he gets an anonymous one, he’d be happy and probably tell his girlfriend. ,,The solution to being lonely is easy,” he says, jokingly. ,,Me and my friends say that if your partner lives more than 1,000kms away, you’re not betraying them by seeing someone else.” Ever the Basque romantic, Lezavn says he has no reason to feel broken-hearted on Valentine’s Day, because ,,I make my girlfriend feel like it’s Valentine’s day everyday.”

Many TU foreign students will be separated from their lovers on Valentine%s Day. Will Friday be a day of sad faces and puddles of tears on the TU campus, or just another day? We asked three Mediterranean exiles of love how they feel about being alone in Delft on Valentine’s Day.

Romeo

,,It’s never enjoyable being away from my girlfriend,” laments Raffaele Marciano, an Italian civil engineering student from Padova. ,,This Valentine’s Day will be sadder than usual, but we phone and email, so it won’t be too bad.” Missing his girlfriend is one thing, splurging is another: Marciano’s romantic heart is overruled by Dutch-like financial prudence when it comes to sending his girlfriend a Valentine gift: ,,I’d like to send her flowers, but sending flowers to Italy is too expensive, so perhaps instead I’ll send her this Delta article.” Although he shares his name with a great heavyweight boxer, this Marciano is no tough Rocky: ,,I might not appear sad on the outside, but actually I’ll probably leave work early on Friday and go to the beach, because that always reminds me of her.”

Juliet

Spaniard Marta Fernandez, a mechanical engineering graduate student from Madrid, isn’t overly keen about the whole Valentine’s Day concept: ,,It’s very commercial. I’m not unromantic, but you don’t need a special day to be romantic.” She and her boyfriend Ricardo share the same sentiments towards this so-called ‘Day of Love’. ,,I know for sure that he won’t send me a card or present, and if I do get a card, then it’ll be a joke from somebody,” she says. Marta’s not going to sulk and feel lonely on Valentine’s Day, but instead of going to the beach like Marciano, she’s just going to work, as if it were just another day. ,,Valentine’s Day is second to my brother’s birthday, which is on the same day. He’s the one I’ll be calling and sending a present, not my boyfriend.”

Don Juan

Eguzki Astiz Lezavn, a mechanical engineering graduate student from Pamplona, Spain, also thinks Valentine’s Day is a commercial event: ,,But I’m going to send my girlfriend flowers. That’s pretty romantic. I’ve been here since October and this month we’ve been together for a year and a half, so we don’t need a special day to celebrate.” And he won’t be feeling sorry for himself: ,,I won’t be miserable on the 14th, but I will miss her, and we’ll probably talk to each other on the phone for most of the day.” Lezavn doesn’t expect any cards, but if he gets an anonymous one, he’d be happy and probably tell his girlfriend. ,,The solution to being lonely is easy,” he says, jokingly. ,,Me and my friends say that if your partner lives more than 1,000kms away, you’re not betraying them by seeing someone else.” Ever the Basque romantic, Lezavn says he has no reason to feel broken-hearted on Valentine’s Day, because ,,I make my girlfriend feel like it’s Valentine’s day everyday.”

Editor Redactie

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