[You got a big, bad internship this summer? Living in a big, bad city? Not a clue what to do? CollegeCandy's got you covered. We've got ladies in all pockets of the U.S.A. and we're gonna be your private guides to the biggest internship destination cities around: New York, Chicago, D.C. and Los Angeles. If you're looking for the best place for a deal, the best weekend excursion, or best bars to drink (with a fake), stick with us.

Welcome to New York City! Whether you’re here to intern, take summer classes, or escape with friends, you are undoubtedly excited to rock your chicest fashions, crank “Empire State of Mind,” and take advantage of everything we have to offer in the greatest city in the world.

The New York Bucket Lists of many out-of-towners often consist of doing things/going to places popularized in the media (i.e. chilling on the steps of the Met, getting into a tussle with Detective Stabler), which are obviously all musts. BUT, if you wanna navigate the city like a native and score some amazing deals, check out this handy guide!

Best Brunch: Regional (98th and Broadway, take the 1, 2, or 3 trains to 96th st). The food is gourmet but at diner prices, unlimited mimosas or bloody Marys from 11-3 on Sat and Sun!
Runner Up: The Sunburnt Calf (79th and Broadway, take the 1 to 79th). Pricier, but every waiter there is hot and Australian!

Best Groceries: Fairway or West Side Market (multiple locations). Whole Foods is shiny, Trader Joes has epic lines (No joke – you gotta wait in line down the block!); save yourself the hassle and extra $ by going to Fairway or West Side.

Best China Wine: Sunny (3rd Ave btw 80th and 81st, take the 6 to 77th St). Everyone goes to Pearl or Silk Road for indulgent Chinese food and all the free wine you can stomach, but Sunny doesn’t card, there’s no 3+ hour wait, and you’ll skip the crowds of rowdy, obnoxious bros. Just drink tons of water to stave off that massive hangover!

Best Cupcakes: Crumbs beats Magnolia’s. Every. Time. Also, the cupcake truck has some tasty treats and it pops up all over the city!

Best Late Night Food: Big Daddy Diner (19th and Park Ave., take the 4, 5 or 6 to Union Square). It’s like your neighborhood greasy spoon on steroids. Whether you’re looking for a so-thick-you-can’t-suck-it-down milkshake, a juicy burger or some walk of shame pancakes (try the Granola Pancakes – to. die. for.), this place has it all.

Best Museum: The Rubin Museum (17th and 7th Ave, take the 1 to 18th St). Totally underrated museum of Buddhist and Tibetan Art, with an amaaaaazing eat-in cafe and gift shop. Sweet student discount of just $2 with valid student ID!

Best Neighborhood for Finding Good Eats: Hell’s Kitchen, specifically 9th Ave between 43rd and 57th. Walk along this stretch. Your mouth will water. Your wallet will thank you.

Best Chance of Bar Hopping Without a Fake: While it would be highly illegal of me to name bars that serve the underage, I can tell you that scoping out events, like Trivia Night, bolster your chances of avoiding the dreaded bouncer.  These events usually start early, around 8 or 9, so bars pull in more customers for the length of the evening. Look for dive-y bars and pubs, especially in collegiate neighborhoods near Columbia or downtown in Murray Hill or St. Marks. Added bonus? It’s a great way to assemble a group of new friends and network with other interns in the city!

Best Events for Free: Another reason we’re the greatest city in the world? Lots of free stuff to do in the summer! Check out Shakespeare in the Park where Al Pacino will be performing The Merchant of Venice this season. The River to River Festival boasts free concerts, dance performances, and exhibitions in locations all over lower Manhattan throughout the summer. And if you’re a film junkie, the awesometastic Rooftop Films series, which showcases underground films on (you guessed it) rooftops throughout the city, occasionally offers free screenings. Schwing!

Best Gym Alternatives (Also for Free): Ever wonder how Tory Burch and Kyra Sedgwick keep in such great shape? They’re fanatics about SoulCycle, a series of spinning studios scattered across greater New York that blend ass-kicking (no, really. I couldn’t walk for two days after my first class) spinning routines with inspirational instructors and a pulsing soundtrack.  Though classes usually run for $30+, the West 72nd location is offering free classes on Fridays at 1pm. And if you’re the outdoorsy type, the Downtown Boathouse offers free kayaking in the Hudson every weekend and holiday from 10am till 5pm through October. (Both locations: 1, 2, or 3 trains to 72nd St)

General Tips: Don’t buy a monthly Metrocard unless you’re using it more than 3 or 4 times a day. ALWAYS check the signs in the station before you swipe, because the MTA is on crack and changes service at the last minute sometimes. Seriously try not to text-and-walk, especially at night, because people do get hit by cars. Always carry your purse over your shoulder, or better yet across your body (rather than in the crook of your arm) because you’ll be less likely to be mugged. If someone comes up to you and asks you what time it is, DO NOT pull out your cellphone to check (this is how a lot of peoples’ cell phones get stolen). Just say you don’t have a watch and move on. (I know these tips sound weird but I know people who’ve been affected by all of them!) Most of all, enjoy every moment in the city, there is so much to do!

Bottom Line: WALK as much as you can! New York is a terrific city to walk, and chances are you’ll encounter your own best-kept secrets on your travels. I’ve lived here for years and I’m still discovering new things to do, so in a few short weeks you might be writing one of these posts on your own!

I grew up in the kind of town where you can’t walk down the street without seeing someone you know, and, of course, everyone knows your business. But as great as that all sounds, the time had come for me to spread my hard-partying, college-going, moving-to-the-city wings.

After being accepted to college just outside of Toronto, I thought “why should I wait until September to move?” So I packed up my things and began my life as an adult. I found a gorgeous 2 bedroom apartment right beside my future school to share with a couple friends – the only catch was that the lease started in July, my friends weren’t moving until September, and I would be on my own for two months. I moved in last week, and not only have I learned the joys of being able to walk around naked, I’ve also learned a thing or two about living on your own for the first time.

1. Save yourself the hassle – pack smartly. I got to my new place and decided to unpack dishes and the things I would need for my kitchen first. While this is a great idea, having zero labels on any boxes has left me completely forkless. Spoons? Knives? The cool egg timer I bought for the “once-in-a-blue-moon” occasions I want hard boiled eggs? Yes. But forks? No clue where they went! And it will take me days to dig through every last box in this mess of an apartment to find them. It may be annoying to organize and label your stuff when you pack, but it is not nearly as annoying as attempting to eat spaghetti with a spoon.

2. It won’t kill you to wear the same pair of jeans 2 or 3 times before washing them. Living at home, most of us don’t have to pay $1.90 for wash and $1.60 for dry, but being on your own means shoveling out the cash for clean clothes. Wearing the same outfit twice before washing it is not going to kill us (gasp, I know), and I hate to admit it, but no one else will probably notice. Plus, jeans are always more comfy after they’ve been worn-in for a day…or month (you know it’s true).

3. The novelty of unpacking wears off fast. Sure, I’ll admit, unpacking the first few boxes was reminiscent of Christmas morning. Forgetting the little trinkets from my room that I had packed away months ago gave me a bit of a thrill, but after doing this for 3 hours – it’s just not so much fun anymore. My solution is to tackle each room one at a time, starting with the most important. First the kitchen, then the bedroom, living room, bathroom, etc. This way, things get done efficiently, and by the time you’re sick of unpacking your 2,384th novelty mug, it’s time to put together your bed and re-fold your high school clothes.

4. Black bed sheets are a bad idea. All excited about getting to decorate a new room, I came up with a classy palate of purple and black. To go along with it, I bought a super cute purple duvet and some elegant black sheets. All was well (and looked awesome), until I reconnected with my ex (long story) and… well, let’s just say that having sex on black sheets means I have to spend the money I’ve been saving on washing my jeans to wash my sheets. Sure, they look great, but they aren’t very practical if you plan on getting freaky.

5. I really can do it on my own. Living with the parentals for the last 18 years of my life and having most things done for me had me seriously doubting my cleaning, cooking, and all-around independent living skills. But other than one almost-leaving-the-stove-on-all-night fiasco, things have been going smoothly. Sure, the water in my building was shut off for 8 hours the day after I moved in, but it was dealt with and all was well.

I was terrified leading up to the big move, but things worked out, as they almost always do. I feel like a grown up now and I’m excited to see what other challenges come my way once school starts next month.

Learning the ropes of an internship is one thing, but becoming accustomed to a big city for the first time while starting an internship can make those first few days all the more nerve wracking.

After scoring two internships in New York City last summer, I couldn’t have been more excited – and then the realization of living alone in a city I didn’t know anything about terrified me. From the moment my plane landed at La Guardia, I was a nervous wreck until I made it through my first few days.

By the end of my time as a summer intern, though, I had the interning and city gag down pat. In fact, I couldn’t get enough, so I decided to come back to New York in January to intern again. With three different internships under my belt in one of the biggest cities in the world, here are some tips that helped me become a big city intern faster than I thought was possible.

Timing is everything: Since most big cities rely on public transportation, you will need to leave earlier than you normally would anywhere else. For example, if it takes you ten minutes to walk from your residence to your company’s building, you should leave twenty minutes early – at least for the first few days – to make sure you get there on time. Also, who knows what can happen on any given day. Traffic could hold you up one day, a morning rain shower could crowd the subways, or a longer than anticipated line at Starbucks might hold you back while waiting for your morning Venti Mocha. Always give yourself some leeway because this way, you won’t be late and you will save yourself the stress of worrying about getting to the job on time.

Transportation shortcuts exist: Most transportation systems, such as the subway and buses in major cities from New York to San Francisco, have websites that you can find all the information you will ever need at. However, most helpful is the popular HopStop, a website that will tell you what subway trains to take, what bus to transfer to, and how many blocks you need to walk to make it to your destination and how long all of that moving and shaking will take you. It not only informs you about maintenance hold-ups, but it will give you different routes for you to pick from. And to top it all off, you can use HopStop on your cell phone. You won’t get lost with this website in your life, I promise.

Make friends with the doormen: Whether your company’s office has a doorman or you are running errands for an author out of her apartment, get to know the people working the front desk or building doors. Not only will you have a smiling face to greet you in the morning, but you will have someone that knows the city well to direct you in a time of need. This past January, the doormen at the apartment building I constantly ran errands out of were some of the nicest people I met my entire internship. Constantly helpful, they always made me laugh no matter how cold it was in New York or how many boxes I had to carry blocks away. They will brighten your day, and by talking to them, you will brighten their day.

Band-Aids make good friends, too: I can’t begin to count the amount of band-aids I went through during all my internships. It didn’t matter how old and broken in my shoes were, they gave me big, ugly blisters. Why? Well, because the amount of walking I did while interning was far beyond the normal amount of any day around a college campus. I learned quickly to keep a box of Band-aids in my over-sized bag and everyone should do the same. Trust me, you don’t want to be the girl limping with a bloody shoe. Also, since interns usually deal with a lot of paper, nasty paper cuts are guaranteed and you won’t want to have bloody fingers when handing faxes into your boss.

Keep a detailed notebook: Purchase a small spiral notebook and keep it in your bag the entire internship experience. While you write tasks or errands you need to run throughout the day in it, you can also keep addresses of locations you visit, phone numbers and other contact information, and any thoughts you feel need to be recorded all in the same place. If the notebook has pockets, slide in all the business cards you get. Notebooks also come in handy because you can write directions down in it, which saves you time and embarrassment from opening a huge subway map in the middle of a metro station to see where you need to go. At the end of your internship, you will have pages filled of duties you completed (which will make you feel good about yourself) along with a lot of other information that could one day come in handy (for example, a lot of the locations I visited during my summer internships were places I wanted to go again – and I was able to reference them from my notes during my winter internship). This is a good way to keep all your stuff organized so you aren’t leaving things all over the place.

Keep up the pace: Internships in big cities tend to go at a very fast pace. Make sure you keep up. Some days it will honestly suck and you will probably hate it – but you are there to learn. Soak everything in – the good, the bad, the bloody socks from your new shoes, the compliments from your new boss – everything. You were picked to be an intern for a reason, and as long as you remember that, you shouldn’t stop working hard to show that you really do belong there.

Make the most of it: A major perk of interning in a big city is actually being in a big city! You will have a ton of culture and excitement at your finger tips, so live it up! Although working may wear you out, make sure you spend time seeing what the city has to offer. Not only will you gain immense amounts of work experience, but you will do so in a cultural environment – there really isn’t much more you can ask for during an internship!

Hey Single Ladies,

Did you just graduate?

Trying to pick a school?

Just looking for a new place to call home?

Perhaps you should choose one of these cities: the best in the country for the singles.

I live in Detroit, a city far better known for its murder rate than an endless sea of eligible bachelors. Sounds to me like it’s time to start packing. Cities chock-full of single men?

Count me in!

In his new book, Who’s Your City, Richard Florida examines which American cities have surpluses of single men or women and what that means for the country…and us.

Basically, Richard Florida is telling us that New York City girls are screwed. Attention NYC girls: If you already have a boyfriend, hold on tight. And if you don’t, you might want to consider moving. In New York City, single girls outnumber single men by 210,000. That’s a whole lot of competition.

Apparently I live in one of the most balanced cities, there only being 1,600 more single women than men in Boston. So hell, if I can’t find a boyfriend here, I’m highly likely to die an old maid in New York.

If I really want to move, I’m going to have to consider Los Angeles, where there are 90,000 more single men than women. But then I’ll be really depressed if I’m living in L.A, surrounded by single men, and am still single. At least if I move to New York City, I’ll have a good excuse.

So, watch out girls of NYC, single women could soon outnumber single men by 210,001.

And I promise to be some pretty stiff competition.