Sent by Estela Alvarez, a fourth year student.
A long time ago single women who had a romantic meeting always went with a chaperone who kept an eye on the couple, whereas nowadays people can flirt from their personal computer while they are surfing the Internet because there are websites where they chat possible partners up. It seems incredible, but there are people who go out with someone without having ever seen them .
Certainly, we live in a stressful world and some people are too busy to look for love. As a result, new ways of meeting the person of your dreams are coming along. Actually, travel agencies arrange special trips only for single people and TV programmes organize blind dates for their contestants. But one of the most original systems to meet your Mr or Miss Right is a speed date, which is becoming more and more popular in different countries, especially among young people. 
It consists of a group of people, where there is the same number of men and women, who are gathered together in a room where they have a few minutes to find out as much information as they can about each other in order to see if some of them is their perfect soul mate. At a speed date a person talks one to one to a member of the opposite sex during a while and as soon as a bell rings the participants have to move on to the next person and then, they start a conversation again. At the end of the event they submit to the organizers a list with people they fancy and they would like to see again because they believe they could be compatible. If the other person also feels the same attraction the organizers will get them in touch .
In Spain a sort of “speed date” is becoming fashionable between university students, although this way to meet a possible pick-up is slightly different. It is called «traffic lights party» and it is usually celebrated in discos. It consists of wearing a sticker with the shape of a traffic light in the lapel and the colours of the signal have different meanings, so if you are wearing the green light switched on, it means you are not engaged; the yellow light means you are single but you are not especially interested in meeting anybody; and the red colour means you already have a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Funny , isn’t it?
