I want you...Justin Bieber

You would think that with Peru being a conservative Catholic country, the level of PDA would be minimal. At least that’s what I thought..

But I was wrong. Apparently, parents here are so strict that young couples are forced to do all of their snogging and hand holding and other mushy gushy gross stuff in the streets for me to see.

Go away, I don’t want to look at you laying all over each other in a public park. And anyways, aren’t you like 15?

So considering I am writing this on February 15, you can assume that this post is about Valentines Day.

The second week of February was such an improvement on the same week in the United States where every store is on pink and red teddy bear steroids. Everything in Peru was normal leading up to the dreaded February 14^th. No ridiculous love songs, no teddy bears. Although, I was a bit down because at that moment I wanted cheap valentines day candy. But none was to be found.

And that brings me to Valentines Day…naturally, everyone here, including the 12 year old boy and girl who think that they are each others soulmates, takes valentines day seriously. It should be a national holiday because rather than doing something productive with their time, say going to English class…instead, they skip out on class to carry on with DOUBLE the snogging in the streets and to walk around holding hands in the Plaza del Armas. And then the boy will give the girl one rose. Or a balloon that says “Te quiero” which directly translates to….I want you. How romantic.

Naturally, my friends and I decided to have our own Valentines day fun because my Valentine, James Franco, was unable to fly to Peru as he was probably probably preparing to host the Oscars. But back to me and the girls…our V-Day consisted of me and my friends going to eat dinner at Tacos y Tequila. Given its name, you would think that this Mexican restaurant wouldn’t be the romantic getaway for Valentines day celebrations. But we were wrong. At the door, we were greeted with balloons, gift bags overflowing with hideous bears and ridiculous gifts. Gone were the typical decorations of Tacos y Tequila which consist of a map of Mexico and some National Geographics hung on the wall. In their places were the Te Quiero balloons in the shape of an archway to greet all of the young lovers as the walked through the door. At first it was just Claire and I, everyone probably thought we were together as we shared a jar of wine and listened to Justin Bieber’s song Baby play on the speakers which was soon followed by the Backstreet Boys.

Despite being surrounded by fools, the night was fun. And if anyone had asked me who my lover was that day, perhaps I could have pointed at Claire, just to get the Peruvians riled up. That would have been classic entertainment.