If you’re like me, Valentine’s Day was a pink-painted horror show. If you want to avoid a repeat next year, take off those flannel jammies and get back in the saddle! Now that we’re back on campus, here are the best places to perfect that cinematic romance at UBC.
Museum of Anthropology
This one should not be surprising. If you want to come across as alluring, to anyone, not even in an inherently sensual way, you GO TO THE MOA. It’s the perfect combination of niche and education, while still maintaining that enigmatic enticement. Like, why are you at the MOA? Who else goes to the MOA? I went once in the summer when campus was sparse and I still definitely made eyes with a few potential suitors amongst my roamings.
AMS Nest (Roof)
The roof of the Nest contains all the ingredients to find that movie magic match. Rain or shine (not the ice cream but the literal weather), this is the place to find the cutest meet!
Rain: A little drizzle? Sure. It adds character. But I’m talking rain absolutely bucketing down from the sky, hair astray and glossy (wet, but cute), and you see someone else up there engulfing themselves in this monsoon and enjoying it just as much as you are. Cute.
Shine: Obviously ideal, the roof of The Nest is infamous for golden hour. Perhaps a little breeze saunters through, making your homemade curtain bangs wispy and enchanting. You turn around and see someone, the sun glints and sparkles in your eyes, and the next thing you know, you’re boarding the bus to the most iconic date spot in the city (The Cheshire Cheese Inn, but that’s a different list.)
Stir it Up Cafe (Interchangeable with Ike’s Cafe)
The beauty of Stir it Up Café is the absolute volume of people lurking in the damp Buchanan halls scouting out a cup of plain ol’ drip coffee, paired with an insulting lack of seating. But take advantage of the limit! Approach a customer of your liking who is sitting independently at a squishy, two-seater table. Ask if anyone is sitting there. Then, instead of dragging the seat away to sit somewhere else like your instincts are telling you, you — with consent, sit with them. Strike up a conversation, get to know them. Topics like ‘favourite place to go swimming on campus’ (fountain, ocean, etc.) will really help escalate the relationship.
North Parkade
Picture it. You’re in your little vehicle, trying to find a spot that you pay a little too much money for in the jam-packed parking lot on a Tuesday morning, 10 minutes to go til your class starts at least a 12-minute walk away, and you finally find a tight nook that you can squeeze your car into. Just as you’re about to turn in, another car (a Jeep) snags the spot, leaving you even more frazzled. The Jeep individual however, emerges from said Jeep and makes that little hand gesture to roll down your window. You do, and — albeit this person is likely a schmuck, they are cute. And you just met them. Boom — meet cute.
Triple O Tuesday
What perhaps has the most potential for the cutest meet-cute on campus is where you least expect it. Sure, coffee shops and rooftops reek of amorous possibilities, but the ultimate idyllic scenario is the one with the least amount of anticipated sensuality. I give you: Triple O Tuesday. Seriously, who would expect to find love in a place where students and faculty alike charge the building for a $5, cheese not-included burger, Triple O sauce dripping from their fingers and seeping from their lips. And that is exactly why you should be prepared to find it. Triple O’s is not only an absolutely quintessential asset to the UBC campus, but it also has a dedicated, almost-religious fanbase — truly admirable qualities to seek out in a significant other.
So don’t let love look for you this Valentine’s Day, go looking for love in these semi-niche, even conceivably-hazardous locations that would have rom com veterans alike beaming with approval.