The Bard said `Love is not love, Which alters when it alteration finds...'
Janvier Villegas, second-year PhD student (Colombia), Applied Mathematics:
I have been together with my Irish girlfriend for a year and a half. Being away from her is difficult. I miss her a lot, especially since we were used to seeing each other every day in Ireland. Now we can see each other only once a month. Ever since I came to the Netherlands, we have been chatting on the internet and talking on the phone almost every day but it is simply not the same. It just makes me miss her more!! As for Valentine's Day, I am of those people who does not care too much about it. We do not celebrate it in Columbia and we never did in Ireland.
Gheorghe Popovici, third-year PhD student (Romania), Mechanical Engineering:
Isabela encouraged me to follow my dreams by accepting this position and living away from her in the Netherlands. She convinced me that our love would sustain itself over the distance. But as soon as I started working, the first sign of problems showed up. Gradually I began considering splitting up, but I realized what a colossal blunder it would have been when she visited me. Just seeing her through the glass at the airport made me fall in love with her again! Ever since, we have been trying to be together. We are trying to get her medical diploma recognized here. We got married in January and currently she is in Romania. Valentine's Day is special for us, but I think it has become way too commercialized. Long distance relationships are very difficult to maintain. It is hard when you cannot look into the other person's eyes, touch or feel their breath or talk face to face, but we try.
There you have it! It may seem impossible and require superhuman effort, but sometimes deep feelings of love prevail.
