It’s September 2nd, which means we must tuck our bikinis back in their drawers, slather ourselves in aloe vera, and hang our heads low as we mourn the coming end of summer. This also means that school is starting again, and for incoming college freshmen this brings a whole new kind of dread.

Sure, you’re excited to meet new people, take classes you chose out of your course catalog, and maybe even explore a new city. But there are things to worry about. A lot of them. Maybe it’s that you’re living away from home for the first time, or living across the country. There are more things you need to be prepared for than just athlete’s foot in the communal showers (plastic sandals will take care of that).

As someone who survived four years and two colleges and managed to graduate with all four of my limbs and at least a bit of dignity, I feel I should imbue on you, humble reader, ten important lessons and tips to help you enjoy college safely and happily, from picking classes to surviving alcohol poisoning.

1. Make orientation week count. I skipped a lot of the activities scheduled for orientation week and later came to regret it. I didn’t want to wake up at 9 AM to go on a tour of Boston, but what I didn’t realize is that a lot of people did wake up at 9 AM to go on a tour of Boston and, in doing so, met all those other people who got up at 9 AM to go on a tour of Boston. You’re not going to meet people if you hole up in your room, so go out as often as you can.

2. Taste-test classes. So you didn’t get into that History of Watching TV class you really wanted to take, go to the first class or two anyway. You’ll be amazed at how many people drop out of the class and a space for you may become available. The same goes for a class with a bad teacher. If sucky prof is teaching a general ed class you have to take, visit the same class taught by a different teacher. In my experience, a great teacher can make any class interesting and enjoyable. Read More »

Not everyone in college likes to drink. In fact, for the majority of our freshman year, one of my roommates refused to go to parties because she doesn’t like the taste of alcohol. Unfortunately, she didn’t immediately tell me this. For the first couple weeks of school, she would find excuses not to come out. For example, come Friday or Saturday night, she had a paper to write or a TV show that she just had to watch.

After about two months of coming back to find that she hadn’t even started the paper or that she hadn’t even watched the show, I realized that there was another reason. When I asked her about it, she admitted that she simply couldn’t bring herself to drink, and she did not want to be the odd one out at parties.

About three weeks before school ended, my friend finally decided that she was going to come to a party with the rest of us roomies. And you know what, she had more fun than we did! Plus, she actually remembered the details of our enjoyable outing (she could recount in detail how we made complete fools of ourselves the following morning).

As a matter of fact, my roommate had such a good time that she came along to every party that we attended for the rest of the year, wishing that she hadn’t wasted so many nights back at the dorm doing nothing.

Now, I’m not saying that parties are the only way to have a good time on the weekends. However, if you do want to go out to parties with your friends but fear that you will be considered a social pariah if you don’t drink, here is some helpful advice: Read More »

I used to joke that I could measure the amount of fun I had at a party by how many bruises I woke up with the next day. I’m not trying to sound sadistic, but I bruise easily and am incredibly clumsy; I party hard, and I fall even harder. I haven’t even been too out of control in the past few weeks, yet my legs are still littered with black and blue marks that seem to have appeared out of nowhere.

I’ve seen a lot of drunken injuries in my day. Some are funny; some not so much. You really shouldn’t need to wear hard hats or protective armor to a party, so here’s a brief list of some potentially painful injuries, and how to avoid them.

Injury: Cigarette burns.
Avoid them by: Not drunkenly smoking your cigs all the way through the band; not giving someone with a lit cigarette your hand; not putting the wrong side of your lit cigarette into your mouth.

Injury: First, second, or third degree burns.
Avoid them by: Being conscious of where the bonfire pit is at a keg party on a cool autumn night; not attempting to walk through said pit in an effort to reunite with your friends after peeing in the woods.

Injury: Stitches on your scalp.
Avoid them by: Not jumping up and down on your lofted bed and cracking your head open on the ceiling; not falling out of a lofted bed after sloppy, drunken, sex, and cracking your head open on your f*ck buddy’s desk.

Injury: A shiner the color of an eggplant.
Avoid it by: Not chugging straight Bacardi and proceeding to faceplant your nightstand. These actions may or may not also have a negative effect on the nightstand, which may or may not break apart from the impact of your face. Read More »

So it’s official: you’ve Facebooked your roommate, scheduled your orientation and practiced your “I’m gonna miss you guys!” speech for all your family and friends. You’re either shrieking for joy or curled up in a ball with fear and anxiety.

Don’t worry: It’s perfectly normal to experience all of these mixed emotions before you even make that trip to campus. But no fear! I’m here to give dish out tips not included in the orientation guide or one of those “Tips to Surviving College” books you got as a graduation gift.

1. Orientation: The friendship goldmine! Orientation is a great way to make friends since everyone there is going through that same, “I’m excited about college, but scared sh*tless” phase too. Plus you never know if you’ll meet your next boyfriend or dining hall buddies, so get out there and network, girl! But be warned, everyone you meet there WILL NOT become your new bff. Everyone’s nice at orientation, but everyone begins to show their true colors after a couple of weeks (or drinks) into the semester. This brings me to my next point…

2. Get to know the upperclassmen. They have tons of useful information, plus they tend to be a bit more mature than your freshie counterparts. Read More »

Q: What’s more summery than sangria?
A: Absofrickinlutely nothing!

Sangria is the perfect summer drink: Cold, fruity, and ideal for sharing. (Actually, that sounds like an exboyfriend of mine. But, I digress.)

Anyway, cold, fruity, share-able boys aside, here is an awesome sangria recipe that is a mid-August must. Enjoy, and share only with people you adore.

The stuff that goes in it:

1 bottle of red wine (preferably dry)
1/2 cup of brandy
1/2 cup of triple sec
1/3 cup of frozen lemonade concentrate
1/3 cup of orange juice
1/4 cup of lemon juice
1/4 cup of sugar
1 lemon
1 lime
1 orange Read More »

I know the Olympics are supposed to be exciting to watch, but, let’s be honest, besides scoping out the hotties, sometimes the excitement just isn’t there. But, of course, you have to watch because it’s a huge deal and you want to see if the US can dominate in ways other than invading countries and water boarding.

How to turn a quiet evening of competition into something a little more….fun? Why not do what college students have been doing for centuries: add alcohol.

We at CollegeCandy love alcohol (almost as much as we love bad TV) and try to add it to everything (except driving…and voting), so we did some research and came up with quite a fantastic game that goes well with booze and the Olympic games.

Grab some friends, stock the fridge with the bevy of your choice (though we recommend beer, as the games could go all night) and let the games begin. Note: A couple bags of chips aren’t a bad idea either. Or, I don’t know, a cake?

Now, be advised that this game is very adaptable to whatever sport you happen to be watching. That means you can play again and again! And here are the rules: Read More »

It’s no secret that the infamous “freshman fifteen” weight gain is often attributed to the increased consumption of alcohol that comes with newfound freedom in college, especially if the alcohol is accompanied by high-calorie mixers. In general, drinking some of the “tastier” beverages out there, whether they are alcoholic or non-alcoholic, can slip some unwanted floods of extra calories into your diet (Did you know that the average Long Island Iced Tea has 780 calories? Eek.).

Fortunately, thanks to some recipes from Hungry Girl (nutritionist Lisa Lillen), I’ve compiled a few seriously good low-cal cocktails and other yummy drinks that won’t make you feel deprived, but won’t wreak havoc on your diet.

“Magical Low-Calorie Margarita”

Ingredients:
6 ounces diet lemon-lime soda
1 1/2 ounces of tequila
1 packet (two 5-cal) servings of sugar-free powdered lemonade drink mix (use half if you want your drink less sweet!)
2 tablespoons lime juice
5-8 ice cubes or 1 cup of crushed ice
Optional: lime wedge (for a cute garnish!) Read More »

Women’s social issues have been treated in programs geared towards teens for ages. Remember when DJ Tanner went on a crash diet so she could look good in a bathing suit, and then passed out on a stairclimber?

On Saved by the Bell, Elizabeth Berkley gained pre-Showgirls notoriety, for the famous Jessie Spano Caffeine Pill Breakdown (I’m so excited! I’m so scared!). Of course, Full House and SBTB were heart-warming sitcoms, where everyone learns their lesson in the end, and move away from their self-destructive behavior, never to mention anorexia, bullimia, or drug abuse ever again.

The breakout Canadian teen sensation, Degrassi, which airs in the US on The N network, covers a variety of teen issues, without the cavity-inducing sugary sweetness of the stuff we grew up on. Among the kids who dabble in drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, and bi-polar disorder, Degrassi introduced the world to Ellie Nash, who is a cutter.

I’m too old for Degrassi, but I don’t care. I’m pretty much obsessed with it. The best part about the show is that it doesn’t sweep the issues under the rug at the end of each 22-minute episode. And because the writers have the balls to “Go There.” I mean, come on: we all know the caffeine-pill incident was a stand-in for a harder drug, like speed or something, but hard drugs don’t exist at Bayside High.

I remember when the cutting craze swept my middle school. I have no idea who started it, or why it caught on, but at my school, cutting was the iPhone of the late 90’s. Read More »

August 1st. Can you believe it? Where has time gone?

Perhaps it’s time to stop blacking out/macking on totally unavailable men and start enjoying the summer days. Although, with all the crazy sh*t that went down this week (earthquakes? lumps? embarassing doctor’s appointments?) can you blame me?

Alcohol seems to be the best (and only) remedy for forgetting things I wish I never saw, getting over the fact that he didn’t call and, of course, my growing credit card bill. (I guess I should be glad I didn’t fork over the cash for that cosmetic surgery.)

Usually I would turn to music to get me through the tough times, but even that has been ruined for me.

With only 4 weeks left of summer, I better get crackin’ on finding a summer fling. It has been far too long since anyone has parked their beef bus in my tuna town. Yeah, I said it. I guess that’s what the weekend is for. Well, that and movie marathons.

I frantically searched for my phone in my mess of blankets. Must make it stop ringing before head explodes. “Hello,” I croaked when I found it, barely able to get the words out of my parched mouth.

“We are ridiculous,” Sara groaned from the other end, sounding equally as down for the count as me.

“This needs to stop,” I agreed, as I knocked over the glass of water on my nightstand. The glass of water I had meant to down before I passed out with my clothes still on (somehow I took my contact lenses out, go me!).

Yet again Sara and I had gone out agreeing we wouldn’t drink a lot, and yet again some kind stranger had bought us round after round of shots. And we accepted (because I’m pretty sure there’s a law that says you can’t turn down free alcohol). And yet again we were paying for it; and regretting it.

So, we decided we’d go two full weeks without drinking. Two weeks proving we could have fun without going out and going crazy. Two weeks without waking up with pounding headaches and feeling like we need to stay in bed the entire day. Two weeks without having to call each other first thing in the morning to find out exactly what happened the night before and wondering just how big of fools we had made of ourselves. We are getting too old for this ridiculousness. We wanted to see if we could go two weeks without drinking at all. Read More »