Date: Saturday, October 1\nTime: 8 p.m.\nLocation: Littlejohn's
Ashley:\nMajors: Film/Italian
Sexual orientation: heterosexual
U.Va. Involvement and Activities: Young Life - lead a Bible study at Buford Middle School
Ideal date: Brunette, female (just to be clear). Adventurous and outgoing personality. Laughs at jokes.
Ideal celebrity: Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman
Typical weekend plans: I participate in Young Life, usually involving bowling, movies and hanging out. I do not drink or smoke or party in the way you mean.
How important is physical fitness?: I play soccer, I work as a lifeguard five days a week and swim. I am a physically fit person. Also I run.
Favorite Cville Restaurant: Littlejohn's
Best five minutes: Getting my solo pilot's license in high school. My first solo flight to earn the license was one of the scariest/most invigorating rides of my life.
What makes you a good catch?: I'm handsome, I know how to make a girl smile, also I know how to smile at a girl, which is not always the same thing. And I can make a girl's night without ever going too far, by anybody's standards.
What would you want your date to have in common with you?: Religion: Christianity.
Dance skills: A willingness to boogie the night away.
Deal breakers in a date: Smoker, heavy drinker, huge age difference. Also, preferably [my date would be] Christian.
Post-graduation plans: I want to be a director in the film industry and make movies that tell the truth about the world.
How would biggest enemy describe you: I have no enemies left. But if they could have, probably "intimidating."
Christiana:\nSexual orientation: straight
U.Va. Involvement and Activities: Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Class Council, VACURH conference planning committee, IM Sports
Hobbies: playing sports, singing, traveling
Ideal date: (event) something active, not just your typical dinner and a movie; (person) athletic, adventurous, musically inclined and witty.
Ideal celebrity: Ryan Gosling
How important is physical fitness?: pretty important
Favorite TV shows: "White Collar," "Covert Affairs," "So You Think You Can Dance," "The Bachelor"
Favorite Cville restaurant: Lemongrass
Best five minutes: Starting the hike down from Pan's cave in Delphi, Greece at sunset
What makes you a good catch?: I am outgoing and personable and will laugh at pretty much any joke.
What would you want your date to have in common with you?: I'd want him to be adventurous and athletic and I'd want his beliefs to be similar to mine.
Deal breakers in a date: smokers
Best and Least Favorite Part of U.Va.: I love the history and architecture of Grounds and all the U.Va. events that make "the college experience." I don't like the pressure to be overly involved and perfect.
If you could time travel to any period, when would it be and why?: I think I'd visit the roaring '20s to see if life then was really as glamorous as it is made out to be.
Christiana: I applied for Love Connection because it just sounded fun. I was surprised I was actually going on a Love Connection date. It's always a little nerve-wracking to meet someone you've never met before, especially when you're alone. Normally when you meet people it's through mutual friends. You aren't normally set up with someone that you intentionally don't know, a stranger.
Ashley: My friends originally signed me up for Love Connection. [When I was contacted for a date], I said yes. They were laughing like crazy, but I was just excited to meet a new person. I'd never been on a blind date before.
Christiana: I got to the Rotunda at five after 8, and I didn't see anyone at the TJ statute [where we were supposed to meet]. At first when he wasn't there, I felt kind of awkward waiting alone. It definitely crossed my mind that he might not show, but then he approached me. He apologized for being late and explained that he'd had been waiting on the wrong side.
Ashley: As I was coming down the steps, she was on the phone. I was like, "Christiana?" She was like, "yeah." It was nice to actually get to see who it was because I had already asked two other people on the other side of the Rotunda.
Christiana: Ashley asked me if I was Christiana and if he'd said it right. He did. He seemed friendly and nice. It was dark at the Rotunda, so I didn't really get a strong first impression, but I guess I was expecting someone more stereotypically "U.Va."
Ashley: We were down for something chill, not too nice I guess. I said something about sandwiches, so she said let's start walking. As we were walking and talking, we decided to go to Littlejohn's because they have good sandwiches.
Christiana: I thought it was really funny, because last time I ate that salad at Littlejohn's, my friends warned me that I should never eat salad on a date. I can't eat bread, so salad was my only option.
Ashley: We talked about things we like, about food, about root beer, about things we do here on Grounds. She's in Intervarsity and she's an engineer, so those two things alone take up a lot of her time.
Christiana: We talked about our interests and what we're involved in at U.Va. He is a lifeguard for Charlottesville city pools, or something like that. He is involved in Young Life as a leader for a community middle school. He is a studio art, with a focus in film, and Italian double major. He's really into film. We talked about our families a little too.
Ashley: Her dad was in the Air Force - I'm not sure if he still is or was - but I was in Air Force ROTC first year. That has always been a goal of mine. We're both Christians, and we both enjoy sports.
Christiana: There was nothing super awkward that stuck out. The conversation flowed really well. There weren't any awkward pauses. The only thing that was awkward for me was I was worried that he would think I was super girly for ordering a salad and not eating a cookie, but I just can't eat gluten.
Ashley: There weren't any awkward moments. There weren't even any awkward pauses.
Christiana: We talked for a little bit after we finished eating. He asked if I was ready to go and where I was headed. I told him that I was just going home. I told him that I just live down Rugby, so I could walk by myself, but he said he wasn't going to let me walk home alone.
Ashley: I walked her back to her place. By the time we started walking, it was raining, but I live pretty nearby, on the same side.
Christiana: On our walk home, we passed Beta Bridge. He said he wanted to show me something on it. We looked over the bridge and he and a bunch of his friends had spray painted their initials there. They painted them on the back, so they would stay there for a long time. They wanted to be able to come back and see it for a long time. I thanked him for walking me home. It was very gentlemanly. We just said goodbye and left it friendly. We have a lot of mutual friends so we'll probably run into each other again.
Ashley: I'd say it was a 7. It was fun. It was good to get to know her, but I'm not lovestruck.
Christiana: I guess would rank it a 7. The conversation flowed pretty well, but it wasn't a romantic date. We left it as friends.
The day after their date, Ashley and Christiana ran into each other at Runk. They said hello, but didn't talk because they were both there with their own groups of friends.
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