Be My Valentine

Happy Valentine’s Day! For the first time in many years, I was actually somewhat excited about today. It could be because for the first time ever, I am outside of the U.S. on Valentine’s Day, or it could also be because I was excited to share another part of my culture with my students. As ridiculous as Valentine’s Day can sometimes get, it’s still a big part of American culture and I wanted my students to see how it’s celebrated in the states.

As soon as I arrived to school this morning I went to the staff room to put my goodies on the table. Yesterday after school I went to the British supermarket to buy a Valentine’s Day card. I decided that I not only wanted to share my culture with the students, but also with the teachers by giving them a card and some chocolates. When I got to the staff room, I put the box of chocolates on the table and taped the card onto the box. The card said Happy Valentine’s Day on the front, and in the middle I wrote a short note in valenciano.

Since I had a lot of the younger-aged kids today, I had prepared some black and white Valentine’s Day cards for the kids to color and write short messages on. They had different phrases on them, such as “I love you” or “be my valentine.” I explained each of the phrases and I also described how a typical Valentine’s Day is in the United States, very exaggerated. I talked about what some of the students do at school, and how all of the restaurants are fully decorated and people have to make reservations, and how some women expect wedding proposals and other ridiculous things. I also taught them some v-day vocabulary such as balloons, teddy bears, hearts and chocolate. They seemed to enjoy the lesson and they were excited to make cards for their friends and parents.

One of my students in my first grade class loves when I come in. Whenever he sees me, he always runs up to me to give me a hug, he’s always trying to stimulate an English conversation with me, and during class, he’s always asking me how to say certain things in English. After telling the children that they can give the card to whoever they want to, he immediately told the class that he was going to give his card to me. And so he quickly tried to color the card and he asked me how to spell the rest of my name (he already had the L-A-T-A part). He kept coming to me to give me the card but I told him to color more (it only took him 5 minutes to do and we still had 20 minutes left). He then asked me if I was going to take the card to my house, and when I said, “yes, of course,” he got so excited. For the rest of the class, I kept hearing him tell his classmates that I was going to take the card to my house. They teased him and said that he was “enamorado” (in love) with me, and he didn’t even deny it. Later, when the other English teacher came in, he showed her the card and said that he was going to give it to me because he was in love with me. She couldn’t stop laughing.

When class was finally over, he gave me the card and I told him that it was so beautiful. As I was leaving, he said “bye, bye LaTasha, I love you.” This, in turn, caused all of the other children to say “I love you” as I was exiting. “I love you all too,” I said. Maybe I shouldn’t have taught them that phrase so loosely.

My Valentine’s day was fabulous; I ended up with not one Valentine, but several. All of my students made my day special in one way or another. I’m happy that I was able to share a bit of my culture with them and the rest of the teachers.

Apparently, in Spain, Valentine’s Day, or El Dia de San Valentín, isn’t that much of a spectacle. Some people are aware of the day when it comes around every year, but it isn’t nearly as popular as it is in a couple of other countries, and it’s mostly only celebrated by couples. I believe that in America it’s more widespread, as in, it’s not only acknowledged by people in relationships, but also family members, friends and small children at schools. As a child, my greatest Valentine’s Day memories included giving Valentine’s Day cards to my friends at school, receiving gifts from my dad and going out to eat with my family.

Here in Spain, if you don’t have a significant other then it makes no sense to celebrate it. I believe that is why I was constantly asked by the teachers today if I had a boyfriend or if I was in love. After talking to one teacher, she told me that Valentine’s Day wasn’t that big, and that sometimes couples celebrate it, but usually only if it falls on the weekend. I told another teacher how superficial the day can be, and how materialistic some people can get and she told me that it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. She said that’s one thing that she liked about America; that we seem to celebrate everything bigger and better. “Spaniards don’t really care about most holidays,” she said (in Spanish), “To me, you guys show much more of an appreciation for life, and I like that.”

Well, I couldn’t argue with her about that.