Bryce and Kalea met in front of Poe’s room at 11 a.m. on Tuesday and decided to grab Roots and eat on the Lawn.
Kalea: So, I signed up for Love Connection because it was like 2 a.m., and my friend and I had just found out about it, so we decided to fill out each other’s surveys. So, she filled out mine, and I filled out hers, and we checked it over and sent them in. It was just kind of like a bucket list kind of thing to do.
Bryce: It was Valentine’s Day and I was lonely so my friend told me to do it.
Kalea: When I was picked, I immediately called my friend who filled out my form and kind of freaked out because I didn’t expect to get chosen because I thought the answers were really weird.
Bryce: I got the text that I was picked when I was doing my math homework, so it put me in a better mood. It was a pleasant surprise.
Kalea: So, this other guy came up, and he looked into Poe’s room, and I was thinking, “Oh, is this him?” and then his family came up behind him, and I realized that he was a DOTL person and not my date. But, he was actually coming from the same class as me, and we didn’t know. He was just two or three minutes behind me.
Bryce: I saw somebody sitting there, and I asked if she was the Love Connection blind date, and she said yes, so we introduced ourselves.
Kalea: He seemed like a really cool dude. He was really nice and definitely kept the conversation going which I appreciated. I’m the type of person who fills awkward spaces with talking, but he always had something to say which was nice.
Bryce: She seemed like a very friendly person. She was very smiley which was an important key. I knew right away that it wouldn’t be awkward at all.
Kalea: So, he suggested going to Roots and eating it on the Lawn, so that’s what we did amidst all of the DOTL tours. There weren’t that many people around that were U.Va. students, so it was a quiet environment which was cool.
Bryce: The conversation was fairly even. We went back and forth a lot, learned a lot about each other. I learned that she is from Manassas, and she calls it Manasty which is funny. She lives in the IRC which is cool because she wanted to have a new diverse group of friends from all over the world, so that was really interesting. And we asked each other a bunch of “Would You Rather” questions which was definitely a ton of fun.
Kalea: We played “Would You Rather” for awhile. It would never work out with us — he thinks ketchup is a smoothie. His reasoning was that there is a fruit involved. He also said nachos were a salad, and I was like “no, no, no.”
Bryce: We both put Spongebob references on our applications for Love Connection, so that was a pretty big thing we had in common.
Kalea: I dared him to go dance behind a tour because he said he was going to do that one day, but he didn’t, and I wouldn’t have expected him to.
Bryce: It was definitely a friend vibe.
Kalea: It was more a friend vibe, but we did become Facebook friends after!
Bryce: I could possibly see us hanging out again. She lives in the IRC, and I don’t know where that is, so that’s a pretty big obstacle right there.
Kalea: He’s definitely a friendly face to wave to, but if he wanted to hang out, I definitely would.
Bryce: At the end, we both had to walk [to] similar places for classes, so we walked together. We gave each other a hug and said goodbye.
Kalea: I would give it a 7 because it was really friendly and great conversation despite not having romantic feelings involved.
Bryce: I would give it a 12 out of 10. She was pretty fun to hang out with, and Roots is great. And the Lawn is great!
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