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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2010
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VOLUME 121 ISSUE 97
Romance can either bloom or bust on Valentine's Day
BY NANCY WOLENS nwolens@kansan.com
"Valentine's Day poses an opportunity for people to initiate romantic relationships," said Kunkel. "In terms of intensifying a relationship, it also poses a good opportunity because people feel like it's a time to be romantic."
Whether you're in a relationship or not, Valentine's Day can be a great time to stimulate romance. But sometimes the day is more stressful than sentimental.
Although the day can be a great opportunity to further a romantic relationship, Kunkel said holidays like Valentine's Day can put additional tension on newer couples.
Adrianne Kunkel, associate professor of communication studies, has researched how people negotiate different phases of their romantic relationships, specifically those phases within new relationships.
"It can put extra pressure on daters to advance a relationship emotionally or sexually when they may not be ready to do so". Kunkel said. "Thus, post-holiday angst can cause some daters to have regrets or feelings of sadness and disappointment."
Kunkel said the way people express romantic feelings through gifts can vary. Sometimes the small stuff or the special card can be much more meaningful than the fancy gift or extensive dinner, especially from a college student's perspective, she said.
Kunkel said our society advocates romance during Valentine's Day, which creates cultural expectations that there will be some form of gift giving.
"I think it can be a really great thing," Kunkel said. "But it could also be really hard on some people who are alone, who don't have an opportunity to be with someone."
— Edited by Cory Bunting
Students talk about Valentine's Day at kansan.com/videos
VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIALS
KU students seek Valentine's Day dates at SUA speed dating event. | 8B
If you and your loved one are having trouble deciding where to dine out on Valentine's Day, here are a couple of restaurants offering a special treat.
WHERE: Genovese Italian Restaurant
WHEN: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 5-10 p.m.
WHAT: A special Valentine's Day four-course menu
■ $59 per person (tax and gratuity not included)
■ Choice of antipasti, pasta, entrée and dessert
■ For reservations, call (785) 842-0300
WHERE: Pachamama's (Valentine's Day 'Love Bites')
WHAT: A four-course, Valentine's Day "pris fixe" menu and complimentary glass of champagne.
- $60 per person (tax and gratuity not included) and $15 for wine pairings
- For reservations call (785) 841-0990
If you're single and want to hit the town to find that special someone, there are plenty of deals happening on Valentine's Day; just go out and make it happen.
WHERE: Eighth St. Taproom
WHEN: Sunday, 10 p.m.
WHAT: Valentine's Day make-out and grind session with the Jet Set Bachelor
$1 off all drafts
$63.34
Partners will drop an average of $63.34 on gifts for their loved ones, in contrast to the $67.22 surveyed in 2009.
The average person will spend $103 on Valentine's Day products, close to the $102.50 totaled in 2009.
VALENTINE'S DAY STATISTICS
Men are expected to spend almost twice as much as women this Valentine's Day. Where men said they would splurge $135.35 just to make an impression on people, women said they would spend only $72.28.
The overall Valentine's Day expenses are anticipated to rise to $14.1 billion.
$135.35
54. 9%
$103
The percentage of people who will give greeting cards as a present, 47.2% will give candy and 35.6% will give flowers. (The total is greater than 100% because respondents were able to select more than one answer.)
$14.1 billion
35. 6%
What are your plans for Valentine's Day?
— National Retail Federation's Valentine's Day Consumer Intentions and Action
The percentage of people who said they would celebrate with an evening out, about a 24% decrease from the 47% last year.
ALI FREE
Blue Springs, Mo. freshman "it's probably just going to be a day like any other day."
MIKE CLAMAN
Salina freshman
"I'll probably eat some chocolate be cause I like it and it's a good excuse to, but otherwise I have no plans."
JORDAN SNYDER
Shawnee sophomore "I'm working on Valentine's day. I'm a server, so I'll make really good money"
CAMPUS
Aerospace class builds plane for California competition
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
Andrew Noyes grew up in Wichita, a city nicknamed the Air Capital of the World.
Living in a city that houses a number of business aviation companies - Beechcraft and Cessna, two forces in the private aviation world, both call Wichita home planted a seed in Noyes' head from a young age. He wanted to design and build airplanes.
Wichita, and having people in the industry always around and just hearing stories from them, this has always been what I wanted to do," said Noyes, a senior.
Noyes and 11 other team members have been designing and building a remote control airplane they named "Double Hawk" since September. They'll fly in the Society of Automotive Engineer's Aero Design West competition
"Ever since, growing up in
Now, in his Aerospace Engineering 522 class, he gets to do it.
"It's great to get to compete," Nate Wilke, a senior from Dallas, said. "We've had opportunities to, but never gone, so to get to do this in my fifth year with this team and a supervisor that's taking us out there is really cool."
March 5-7 in Van Nuys, Calif. They will compete against schools from as far away as India, and as nearby as Kansas State. There are 44 teams registered for this year's competition.
Class supervisor Ron Garrett said students have been going to
competitions like this for about 15 years. In those 15 trips they've come away with nine victories.
Garrett said the real thrill for the students was building the airplane entirely on their own.
"These students will actually build the plane that will go to competition, which is fun for them," Garrett said. "It's not allowed to receive help from a practicing professional."
The first step of designing the aircraft is putting together a prototype. This team designed and
Brian Cordes, a senior from Lansing, holds his team's prototype airplane. Cordes, the project manager, and the team will compete on March 5-7.
Spencer Walish/KANSAN
See a KUJH-TV story at kansan.com/videos
index
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All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2010 The University Daily Kansan
ASSOCIATED PRESS
East-coast florists battle weather
Recent back-to-back blizzards make holiday deliveries tricky. VALENTINE'S DAY | 3A
weather
TODAY
39 22
AM dawn/PM sun
SATURDAY
42 24
SUNDAY
26 17
Few snow showers/wind
weather.com