Valentines Day

Valentines Day at BCS; a rather different affair from that which I'm used to.

I spent the morning of my day off this week making 25 valentines cards (once I got out of bed). The ,ost I've ever sent before is one and that was only when I was sure it would be well received. I made one for each child in my dorm and a small handful of staff who I'm close to. A BCS valentines card is much more an expression of friendship than of any kind of romantic intention. It's commonplace for girls to send to girls and boys to boys (although obviously boys don't send quite so many).

Everyone placed their cards in a box in the dining room and they were sorted and set out on our plates at lunchtime. I received 11 cards, all of them anonymous. We also had a DJ over lunch playing dedications for various people.

The yr8s send a valentine on my behalf (without my knowledge) to one of the teachers who they're currently trying to set me up with. My dorm kids dedicated a song to me and Jacqui, our other dorm helper, the first line of which was the opening sentences of a traditional English wedding ceremony.

This evening we dressed up for dinner and set the tables out especially to make a dancefloor in the middle of the room. The boys and girls lined up outside and entered the room in couples. I was at the back of the boys queue and so walked in with four female staff members on my arm; I wasn't complaining.

After dinner the music continued and there was ballroom dancing on the dancefloor. I had seen Vinicius dancing in the dorm the previous day so I asked him to give me quick lesson before tea. He taught me to waltz which came in very handy tonight and then Fran taught me to cha-cha-cha so that I had no excuse for skipping those dances. Add to those the macarena and that's quite a lot of dancing for one evening (although the majority of my partners were looking me in the stomach rather than the eyes).

Definitely the best way of celebrating Valentines day I've ever seen. Everyone had a great day, even the boys.