Valentine's Day Came Early

We've never been Valentine's Day people. We've always both thought the holiday was a little silly and did our best to bypass the gift giving. Even while dating we both convinced one another it'd be best to save what little money we had as college students and just go out to eat and see a movie. So living in the 'Big Chicken' we both knew the non-gift-giving would continue, especially since this year we won't be surrounded by stuffed lips that read 'I love you', bouquets of 2 dozen roses, or the Hallmark magnetic lipped bears. We'd actually already decided weeks ago that we've got double the reason not to celebrate this year because within two days of the 'holiday' we're leaving for a neighboring country. So, this year no Valentines day for us.

.........until yesterday.

While out seeing some of the city yesterday we stumbled across a cute little flower shop. Thinking, "we've got a few weeks before we're leaving...if I get some flowers now they'll have long enough to look pretty on my kitchen table for awhile before we have to toss em out" we ventured in.

Now in America at this time of year if you were to purchase 2 dozen roses I'm guessing they'd cost at least $100...and that's probably just in an ordinary arrangement. However, when you live in the Big Chicken you can easily purchase 2 dozen roses including a glass vase without spending more than 50 kuai = $6. So we splurged. After we paid for them the shopkeeper asked us if roses were expensive where we're from. We told him how much it would be in America if we'd gotten 2 dozen roses there. I thought he was going to faint. Probably because he thought that was absurd but also because he just realized he could have charged us quite a bit more and we still would have bought them.

So, my friends, this being the first official year of us 'gift-giving' for Valentine's Day, I'd say we did pretty well with our spending limit. In return for the $6 roses Brandon splurged at Fu Mart today when he saw that they just imported some Reeses Pieces! He also reminded me that he'll probably never buy me that many roses when in America.