It’s Valentine’s Day and over the past weeks, I was wondering, what my boyfriend and I could do on Valentine’s Day. As we’ve spent the last two Valentine’s Days apart from each other, we should make it something special this time! However, it is not that easy to come up with a plan, because when you travel long-term, you basically have dates every day. So how can we make it special now?
When do you consider a date a date?
When you are not yet living together with your partner, it is fairly easy to determine a date as such. You are probably texting beforehand or call to set up a dinner date or to meet for the movies etc. How do you know, if you are going on a date when you live together though? That’s already more tricky. Is it, when you go out for dinner or movie night? Are you actually saying: “Let’s go on a date tonight?” I highly doubt that!
So how do you keep track of dates?
The whole thinking started last week when we walked away from a Chinese New Year Street Fest and my boyfriend said: “Wasn’t this a great date I took you to?!”. My jaw dropped and I was confused – did I miss something this morning? I responded perplexed: “When did we decide that this is a date?? I didn’t even dress up! Shouldn’t I at least dress up for a date?” I didn’t consider it a date the whole time, because dates should be something special. He asked me, what else he had to do to make it a date. I was speechless for a second because he totally pointed out something I had ignored the whole time. My desperate answer was: “When you pay?!” and I started laughing. I don’t believe in this rule that men have to pay the bill, so this never was a measurement for me. However, I couldn’t really think of anything, that he could do to make it a date… because it was already a date and we have dates every single day when I look at it closely. So it is difficult to keep track of all these amazing dates!
When you travel long-term with your partner every day seems like a date
We go out for lunch or dinner, we visit temples and other attractions, go diving, go out for a beer and play darts, go to the movies, attend festivals, go hiking, and so on and so on. For other people, all these things could be dates. And we see it as our normal life already.
Is a date not as valuable anymore? No, no, no! Because these dates are even greater! We mostly explore something new and don’t even have to dress up for hours. It’s easier, more eventful and better! I guess, Valentine’s Day – and of course my boyfriend himself – made me appreciate our daily dates more. Couples that travel together share something truly amazing and sometimes it needs certain events to not forget about these things. That’s what Valentine’s Day is about: To remind couples of showing love. I always thought it was stupid to have one single day to show love to the people you love. In my opinion, you should show it every day and now I am the one, who needs a special day to realize it.
So what do we do on Valentine’s Day?
If you have daily dates, Valentine’s date should be something special, you think? To be honest: I would also enjoy a dinner at a little Malaysian food court here in Penang. Not just because the food is super delicious, but because I know that I just wanna spend time with the man I love, the man I travel with, the man I live with and spend almost every second with, but take for granted way too often.
