Women gab about men, Valentines

Flower shops move their freshest roses to the front and candy stores line their windows with heart shaped boxes wrapped in red cellophane. It is the season for love, romance, hang-ups and heartbreaks. Cal State Long Beach women have many different ideas about Valentine's Day.

Joanna Chavez, an undeclared freshman, remembers past Valentine's Days as being "all pretty cool". This year, she is taking her boyfriend to the Flavor Jam concert.

"I won tickets," she said, "So I thought I'd take him out." Chavez's boyfriend wanted boxers for his gift, but she is surprising him with red thong bikini underwear. "I want to see him in them," she said.

Kamila Clark, a film major, looks at Valentine's Day in a different way. "There is no Valentine's Day here, there has never been and there will never be. It's just another day," she said. "If I wasn't in school, I wouldn't even know what day it was," Clark said.

Jenny Park, child development major, had a negative Valentine's Day experience two years ago. She was supposed to meet her boyfriend for dinner at a restaurant. He had called and left a message with her brother changing the time they were going to meet. She never got the message.

"I waited at the restaurant for hours and hours," Park said. Her boyfriend had gone to the restaurant after she had left and waited for an hour thinking she did not show up.

Park said she was so mad she didn't talk to her boyfriend for a month but then they worked it out and got back together. They are looking forward to a good Valentine's Day this year.

Alisa Yingling, a psychology major, has a similar Valentine's Day catastrophe story. Last year, she found out the guy she was interested in was seeing someone else. She found out at work from a mutual friend and said it was awful.

Like Park, Yingling, did not let that one bad experience tarnish her view of Valentine's Day. She has plans this year with a new guy. "We both had really bad experiences last year, and now that we are together we expect a really good Valentine's day because we are both with people we care about," Yingling said.

Yingling's friend, a psychology major who did not want to be identified, said, "Valentine's Day is a holiday made up by candy companies, greeting card companies and restaurants, it is so capitalistic," the friend said.

Jeanna Young, an interior architecture major, is spending the entire day with her husband. "Me and my honey are just going to dinner because we have no money," she said.

Three students from Korea said that the American Valentine's Day tradition is a little different then what they are used to. "In Korea, women give the men chocolates," Chun Fa, who studies English as a second language, said.

Eun Jung, who also studies English as a second language, said, "On March 14, men give the women candy."

Aimee Gaines, a liberal studies major, is taking a different approach to the traditionally couples holiday. "Me and a couple of single females are going out," Gaines said. "We don't know what we're doing, but we know we are going out."