Dinner for Two
Having a dinner with a cultural twist in Los Angeles is like throwing a stick in South Campus and hoping to find a pre-med student. Not too difficult and, really, not worth bragging about to your friends.
Just because Los Angeles boasts more nations per capita dining-wise doesn’t mean it should be used as a crutch when planning a date. Making your own dinner together turns a typical Saturday night date into one that may actually be remembered come Monday morning.
On a college budget: YouTube instructions on how to make pizza and shop for toppings together.
Doing the shopping together means no embarrassing “but I had no idea you were allergic to ____” moments followed by trips to the emergency room. It also serves as an ice breaker for potentially awkward first dates that would otherwise be spent fiddling with napkins and fishing for a conversation topic. Also, Trader Joe’s offers a variety of convenient, ready-made pizza dough for you and your date to choose from.
When it comes time to actually make dinner, inexperienced pizza dough throwers will probably end up having the best time with this date option. Nothing says the start of a strong relationship than surviving dough being flung around the room and ending up covered in flour from head to toe. Either way, making dinner together is a great way to get to know each other while sharing an experience far more interesting than your typical sit-down dinner.
To get off campus: Try the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles located on Hilgard Avenue.
Located just off the UCLA campus, the Italian Cultural Institute is an official Italian government center that offers programs to promote the Italian culture and language. Its cooking classes are pricey ($85 for its recent one-day class on Tuscan cuisine), but the experience of taking a cooking class is great for those who wish to provide an air of authenticity to their cooking and maybe an anniversary idea they should have been planning weeks ago.
Dancing Delight
If figuring out how to roll sushi doesn’t get your heart a-racing, dance lessons can give your cultural date night a twist that’s sure to exhaust both you and your date.
UCLA has great hidden resources for anyone who wants to learn to tango or salsa the night away, and these resources can easily be exploited by date planners looking to impress a girl (or guy) with their willingness to try something new.
On a college budget: Visit the UCLA Salsa Club Society
You know you’ve seen them by the Bruin statue on Thursday nights. They’re a mix of seasoned dancers and novices teetering in stiletto heels. If you ever wanted to learn salsa, especially with a special someone, they provide the opportunity to do so for the cheapest of prices: free. Without paying a dime, even the most left-footed dance partner will get their money’s worth, and couples can use the opportunity to get a little closer and have fun trying something new.
To get off campus: Visit John Cassese’s Dance Doctor Studio in Santa Monica
When campus begins to be synonymous with midterms and tension headaches, it’s nice to take a date somewhere with less academic connotations. The Dance Doctor Studio on Fourth Street in Santa Monica offers hour-long lessons for the relatively reasonable price of $15 a person. If you want to stick with salsa, lessons are offered Friday and Saturday evenings. However, Saturday afternoon Argentine Tango may better fit your style if you’re looking to prove it takes two to tango.
Foreign Movie
The Friday night movie date is a timeless staple in any dating repertoire, but it’s not the most imaginative of ideas.
Even if the movie is well chosen, it’s still two hours spent in a theater not looking at or speaking to one another. When you’re first dating someone, it’s about as far as you can get from trying to get to know them. If you’ve been dating for a while … well, it might be fun but really not all that ground-breaking. Watching a foreign film gives the default date a twist that makes it more memorable than the latest Nicholas Sparks blockbuster.
On a college budget: Rent a movie and make it a night in
There are plenty of romantic foreign films that you can find near the top of foreign film recommendations.”Paris, je t’aime” and “Like Water for Chocolate” are just two that come to mind. But the really great thing about foreign films is that they ramp up a date to romantic status simply because they’re different from the usual dating fare. This means you and your date can rent something like “Let the Right One In” and it’s still date-appropriate.
To get off campus: Visit one of Los Angeles’ many niche theaters
The great thing about living in Los Angeles is that if you want to see a specific movie, even if it’s 15 years old and in Latin, it’s probably playing somewhere nearby. This makes seeing a good foreign film in a movie theater pretty easy.
Santa Monica Boulevard boasts two theaters known for showing foreign films on a fairly regular basis: Laemmle’s Royal Theatre and Nuart Theatre. There are also plenty of country-specific foreign film festivals that take place throughout Los Angeles. Attend one and give you and your date the chance to experience a different country’s film culture.