In Bakersfield College’s Fireside Room, students were getting a lesson in Relationships 101.

The room held six tables with white tablecloths and an assortment of candies on the tables, survey sheets and prize drawing slips.

There was a table next to the speaker’s podium set up to look like a homemade picnic with the dishes, tablecloth and a basket that speaker Ken Christensen had set up.

There were students of all ages and races in attendance and there was even a sign-language interpreter for the deaf, all occupying the tables with candy.

The topics were dating and romance with each covered by a different speaker.

The Relationships 101 is an organization owned by both speakers, Dawn Swidorski and Christensen, both experts in their fields, but with Swidorski on the West Coast and Christensen covering the East Coast.

The first topic covered at the seminar was dating, but Swidorski wanted to focus more on college dating because she felt it was more relevant to the current audience.

Dawn spoke about the “dating scripts,” which America has been utilizing for centuries.

“College students are mostly following the ‘hook-up script,’ which is two people after a group event, concert or campus sports game branching off to do something private,” Swidorski explained.

The seminar was not about the “hook-up script,” but about “dating practices,” which is the traditional style of dating used over centuries where the two people take each other out and get know each other.

Swidorski also covered the reasons people date such as physical attraction, companionship and marriage. She went on to talk about things men should learn about men and vice versa.

“There are things that dating people should be looking for and aware of, something I called ‘fatal flaws.’ High maintenance, addict, hysteric, energy vampire and controller are the most common types of people you might encounter while dating,” she said.

She defined those terms and talked more about personality traits and tips on how to protect yourself and ways to make a relationship work when people choose a relationship.

“One of the most important things you should remember is relationships that are built on friendships last forever,” Swidorski finished.

Her partner Christensen began his speech about romance and how to communicate on a regular basis and understand each other’s interests. “Romance can be looked at so many different ways,” he stated.

Christensen listed ways to create romantic dinners with light budgets and how to be caring and creative with the ideas. Driving around town on nice nights and watching the sunset or moonrise would be a great and easy way to get quality time.

He suggested especially for the younger student attendees this important fact: If they had to meet a date’s parents then they should be prepared. “They should dress nice, and they should pick up a newspaper to see what’s going on, so they can have something to talk about with the parents.”

A very inexpensive way Christensen suggested students should think about when choosing a place to spend quality time is checking out restaurants ahead of time and asking questions about seats and menus. “I have found that ordering about two appetizers or sharing a salad is less expensive,” he stated.

He finished his speech with a few more tips on being romantic, like flowers, notes, walks on the beach and rides around town with a full moon and soothing music. They passed out fliers of romantic things to do in and around Bakersfield.

They had a guide they had created titled “Making the Most of Your High-end Date: Dining Out at a Restaurant” that can only be reached at their Web site.