With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, people are putting their grand plans into place. However, for many students, being together in person is just not possible. Whether you’re in a long-distance relationship, have work or uni commitments, or isolating with COVID, spending Valentine’s Day without your partner is hard.
It may not quite live up to the real thing, but modern technology means you can spend Valentine’s with the person you love, wherever you are in the world.
Cook for each other
Cooking for someone is a time-honoured way of showing them you love them, so why not take it digital. Of course, if you live far away from each other it probably isn’t practical to bring them a dinner made with love. Instead write out your favourite recipe for them to make themselves. You can each do this and cook your partner’s favourite meal for yourself while on FaceTime. This is a great way to spend some time together and perhaps learn a little more about each other.
Go for a walk
Going for a walk with someone you love is easy to take for granted. But when you can’t see them, the simple pleasures are often the ones you miss the most. Going on FaceTime in public might feel a little embarrassing at first (headphones will help with this). However, once you’re used to it, you’ll realise nobody cares. While you’re each on your walk, make sure to show the sights you see This is especially interesting if you live in very different places; a city walk is a completely different world to a country walk.
Visit a museum
If you love arts a culture, visiting a museum sounds like the perfect date, but being away from each other makes that harder. However, if you want to recreate the experience remotely, you can each go to a local museum (a lot of universities have one) and FaceTime each other. Alternatively if you would rather stay at home, a lot of museums have online collections, such as the Guggenheim, the Rjikesmuseum, and the Barnes Collection.
Travel the world
Whether it’s budget concerns, or COVID restrictions, a fancy Valentine’s trip away is not on the cards for a lot of couples. However, you can use a video calling program that allows screen sharing, such as zoom, to ‘travel’ anywhere in the world together. Pick a location to explore on Google Street view, whether it’s the sights of Paris, the bustling streets of Seoul, or the Amazon rainforest. If you really want to go all out, you could even try and get some food from your destination. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll visit that place in person and remember your digital trip.
Make art
If you’re the creative types, why not make some art together over FaceTime. If you have the supplies you could try painting. If not, all you need is a pen and some paper. You could draw each other, a location that is important to you as a couple, or something that reminds you of your partner. After your date you could even post each other your artwork as a memento of your date.
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