We had happened to get back from Morocco on February 14th, more commonly referred to as Valentine’s Day. Never really understood the whole concept of the holiday or where it came from, but truly applaud the genius behind it and many other ridiculous created American holidays that stimulate oh so much unnecessary spending.

Anyhow, as it was Valentine’s Day and all Ollie had the brilliant idea of doing residencia valentines. We did residencia valentines in a fashion very similar to that of Secret Santa, with all the girls names being out in a bag, and all of the boys grabbing a name. It was quite an entertaining process, and we all ended up with “our valentines.” I was fortunate enough to paired up with my homegirl Caitlin, who is by far one of the most entertaining people I have ever met, and is an instant quote factory as she has the unique ability to recall some of the ridiculous song lyrics you will ever hear at the drop of a dime. The rest of the pairings were Nikita and Ollie, Nick and Kari, Hirsh and Becca, Sean and Katie, and Robby and Steph.

After unpacking our bags from Morocco and getting settled in at home, we all sat down for dinner and that was when the valentine madness began. Caitlin, being the creative, unique, and eccentric person she is had told me that she was planning on writing and singing me a song for valentine’s day which I had been looking forward to all day. As talented as Caitlin is in so many random ways, singing was not one of the gifts she was blessed with haha. As we all sat down, Caitlin entered wearing a pink wig and sang what I believe to be one of the best live performances I ever saw.

Best Valentine Ever haha!

She re-created Lady Gaga’s popular song “Bad Romance” and changed it to be “Brown Romance” just for me haha. It started with a great Rah-Rah-rah rah Rahmann, and proceeded to get better from that point on. She had some of the funniest and most creative lyrics I had ever heard, and fortunately Hirsh got it on video so I will be able to re-live it for years.

Right after Caitlin’s performance, everyone began exchanging gifts within the residencia. It was rather amusing as almost every gift turned out to be some sort of inside joke involving food, as most everyone happens to have their strange eating quirks and habits. Right before the end of dinner, Kari got up and busted out a great, funny poem she had written for Nick to cap off a delicious Valentine’s Day meal.

Next Day

Since it was Tuesday, thanks to our incredible schedule none of us had classes so I spent pretty much the entire day attempting to update the blog as much as I could and banged out the Morocco and Granada trips finally. While I was doing that, Ollie and Nick were busy cooking up Ollie’s belated Valentines day present to Nikita.

Men at Work

Nikita has this weird, somewhat disturbing obsession with eating junk food, and her favorite of them all happens to be Cheese Cake. As a result, to follow up with the theme of food related gifts, Ollie figured it would be nice to make her a cake. With his sue chef Nick by his side, they were busy baking some dank cake in mama rosa’s kitchen. On a side note, when Nick and Ollie went to Corte Ingles (Spanish Upscale Wal-Mart basically) they picked up a printer we all chipped in for which has been so nice to have already.

At dinner that night, after everyone had finished eating their meals Ollie brought out Nikita’s cake. It looked better that I could have imagined, as it had an oreo crust and Ollie used Strawberries to make a heart for Valentines Day, and Nikita was more than excited to see and eat it. We all dug in and pounded some cheesecake, marking an end to our rather interesting and amusing Valentine’s day.

Valentine’s with the delicious cheesecake!

The Residencia Valentine turned out to be a great idea, and after Caitlin’s hilarious performance for me it will one I will never forget. Here’s to hoping that everyone’s Valentine’s Day back home was as entertaining as mine.

Cheers,

-Sahil