That being said, it can sometimes be pretty obvious when someone is at a bar for the first time. No matter how hard you might be trying to fit in, that’s probably exactly what’s making you stand out. And trust me, you don’t want to be that girl. Sometimes, no matter how much everyone drinks, there are some things people just don’t forget.

Here are a few handy little tips on how to handle yourself the first time you make an appearance at a bar — from one bar veteran to a bar virgin, trust me on these.

Dress appropriately. I can’t stress this enough. You might think you’ve finally found a place to wear that skin-tight, super-short, leopard print dress you got at Too Cute, but consider your surroundings first. Most bars are relatively casual, especially local ones. I can’t tell you how many bars I’ve been to where everyone is in jeans and a cute top, and in walks an 18-year-old girl in a tiny dress and sky-high heels looking completely out of place and completely 18. Those outfits are usually better suited for a club. Not that you can’t look cute at a bar — you should. But I would say it’s definitely more of a casual environment.

Maybe don’t get on top of the bar. Everyone has those blackout drunk nights that end in waking up in the morning and seeing a hundred pictures of themselves dancing on top of a bar tagged on Facebook. All of my friends, myself included, have found ourselves up there at one point of another. But you probably don’t want to get the reputation as the girl who’s always slutting it up there. You know, the girl who goes up there in one of those really short little dresses so that everyone can see her underwear (or lack thereof), and clumsily pours shots down guys’ throats and shirts and then proceeds to dance like she thinks she’s J-Lo. It’s not the best look…for anyone.

Not everyone cares how drunk you are. You don’t need to loudly proclaim how wasted you are to everyone in your vicinity every five minutes. I can guarantee that no one cares, except for maybe that creepy guy in the corner who’s been watching you. In other words, keep the screeching to a minimum. Nothing is worse than a group of underage girls shrieking about how much they drank and how they don’t know how they’re going to get home.

Keep your friends close. Yes, what your mom has always told you is true – you should definitely use the buddy system when you’re out at a bar. You’ll have to deal with a lot of creepy guys — guys who don’t know what the word ‘no’ means, those guys that just hang around looking at you and muttering under their breath. Or maybe you’re not sober enough to realize the guy you’re eagerly chatting up is actually NOT cute (this is where a friend comes in). Or maybe you’ll get lucky and find a cute guy who needs someone to entertain his friend — hello wing-woman! Also, you just shouldn’t sit alone in a bar. It’s sad.

Try not to spend the night in the bathroom. Don’t get so wasted that you’re leaning over a disgusting bar toilet bowl for hours on end. This one is helpful for you and your girls — none of your friends want their night out wasted by having to hold your hair back as you puke. And you don’t need to be seen looking like the definition of a hot mess when you walk out at the end of the night, dried vomit on your cute shirt, your hair stringy, and looking like you’re about to hook up with death.

Tip generously. Especially if you plan on returning. You will learn that building a friendship with your bartender will be one of the most important relationships of your college career. No, but seriously, being buddy-buddy with the bartenders can only be a good thing. Not only will they make your drinks extra strong, but you’ll usually get free drinks and shots out of it, and they’ll also notice you even when it’s super crowded. Not to mention they make for some pretty great conversation at the end of the night.

And as a seasoned house partier, here are some tips to help you survive the first big house party of the year:

Do show up fashionably late.  Nothing in the college party scene starts before 10:30pm.  And nothing says freshman more than showing up at the party at 9pm eager for the festivities to start.  You are not in high school anymore!  So please, if you want to look like you know what’s going on, pre-drink in your room don’t show up until after 11pm.  Trust me, you won’t miss a thing. In fact, you’ll get there just as the party gets pumpin’.

Don’t wear heels! If you’re going to a house party, you will be way overdressed.  House parties attract all types of people and there will most likely be hundreds of them there.  Large amounts of grinding people means hot temperatures.  You will be sweating…profusely! So for those back-to-school bashes, leave your new skinny jeans at home and wear shorts, a cute flowy tank top or even a sundress, and sandals. You’ll thank me later, when the floor is filled with mud (or questionable bodily fluids) and your favorite suede pumps are ruined!

Do get your creative juices flowing. Theme parties are super popular in college.  Whether you’re attending a Toga party, ABC party, the Beer Olympics (the list goes on and on…), get creative with your costume.  I’ll guarantee you’ll be the talk of the night (and for the right reasons).   That’s not such a bad thing, eh?

Don’t bring a posse of boys.  It sounds shallow, but college dudes hate when a girl shows up with an entourage of men.  Here’s something lame, if you show up with a bunch of guys (and they didn’t bring their own alcohol) they may not let you in! This means no free drinks, and not even batting your full, voluminous lashes will get you out of that one.  Of course, your guy friends are welcome at the party, but be smart—walk into the party first.  A sure-fire-way of getting into the party is to show up with a bunch of your girlfriends. Nothing else will make those single college boys happier.

Do befriend the house owners.  You will get special treatment—the first to know about house parties, better booze, and – just in case – a special hideout place when the Po Po come to break up the party.  Take my word for it: just saying hi a couple times or striking up a conversation with the owners definitely pays off in the end!

Don’t be shy. House parties are only one part of the college party scene so don’t be scared to try all college party venues.  Hit up the bars on Thursday, brave the frat house on Friday, and shake your groove thang at the club on Saturday.  After a couple weekends, you’ll figure out what you like best and where you like to get your party on.

"Oh, I'm kicking that guy's ass? Poor guy..."

There are some things you should always apologize for, like being late to meet a friend, bumping into someone on the street, or accidentally running over your ex-boyfriend’s foot with your car (whoops).

But there are also some things that, as a woman, you shouldn’t have to say sorry for.  I don’t care what anyone says, but you should not be left feeling guilty for any of the following.

Beating a Guy at Sports: Sunk the winning shot in a battle of the sexes?  Poker faced your way to a win?  We’ve all been told not to beat men at sports so we don’t bruise their precious egos, but this is also not 1950, so don’t hold back and don’t apologize.

Bypassing Lines at Clubs: Don’t let the haters have you giving looks of remorse as the velvet ropes are lifted.  Flaunt it if you’ve got it!

Intelligence: Today’s “role models” may cultivate dumb blonde stereotypes, but a woman who hides her intelligence is not attractive.  Be proud of your smarts and don’t shy away from speaking your mind!

PMS: I’m not saying storm around like a juiced-up Godzilla, but don’t apologize for being a little testy when it’s the time of the month.  It’s not our fault Eve ate that apple, so curl up in the fetal position and bitch away.

Your Twilight Obsession: Don’t be ashamed that you obsess over a man that sparkles.  Who cares if you’re over the age of 16 and in love with Edward?

[One of the greatest aspects of college life is the morning-after recap with friends. You stumble out of bed, grab your liquid of choice, and gather around the living room to replay (and remind yourself of) the events of last night. You laugh, you cringe and you share the highest of highs...and the rock-bottom lowest of lows. We thought we'd bring the fun of the recap to CollegeCandy, so grab that coffee and take part in the deliciously awkward moments your CC friends have to share.]

We’ve all seen how boys act when they want to make out with you at a club. First, they come up behind you and begin to dance. Maybe you introduce yourselves, maybe you don’t. If they are a good dancer, you continue dancing, and if they suck, you text your friend that you have to go to the bathroom and she comes and pretends that she has to use the facilities at that exact second.

However, if you have decided that this guy is worth your dancing time, about five-ten minutes into the encounter (2-4 songs) he will likely turn you around so that it is only natural that your faces are near each other, therefore giving him the opportunity to make out with you.

One of my first weekends of college, this guy came up to dance behind me at a party. After getting the thumbs up from my friend across the dance floor, we proceeded to dance (or tried to between the other 200 people on the floor). At the exact right moment, about 3 songs into our encounter, he turned me around to hook up with him. However, instead of turning me around by my shoulder like I assumed he meant to, his drunken self turned me around to him by the eye.

Yes, the eye.

And he didn’t just brush my baby blue – he literally grabbed it, forcing my -10.0 contact fall out of its home. (For those of you with perfect vision, I qualify as legally blind without any help.) My contact then proceeded to drop to the floor where drunk sweaty people coming in from the rain (yes, it was raining) had been stepping all night.

Instead of swaying back and forth with this hottie’s tongue in my mouth, then, I was on my hands and knees in a mini skirt (giving that boy quite a show) patting down the sticky floor while avoiding the sharp heels of drunk girls dancing around me. And, convinced that I would be blind for life, I was sobbing.

I dragged the boy to the floor, further convincing him of the fact that he had found the psycho freshman girl of the new class. While he pondered ways to avoid the situation, I was trying to figure out how I was going to half-blindly find a dorm that I couldn’t find in the daylight.

I ultimately found the contact and, convinced I needed it to make it home alive, rinsed it off and stuck it back in my eye. Then ran home, threw it out and stood with my eyes open in the shower for 10 minutes.

I never did get to make out with that guy. Nor did I ever see him again. Too bad, too; despite his awful hand/eye coordination, the guy was hot. At least I think he was. I only had one eye.

My only wish was that the next twelve months whizz by so I can finally be 21.

Don’t get me wrong – I was excited that I will no longer be labelled as a teenager. But being 20 still means that I can’t get into most clubs without using my sister’s ID, or drink myself to oblivion (without my sister’s ID).

I’m tired of my friends having to plan their birthdays or events around the fact that I’m not yet 21 and can’t get into a 21 and above club. Sure, some clubs don’t check IDs when the bouncers think you look older, but  I’m a 20 year old who looks like a 16 year old, so there’s no way that works for me. And the few times I tried, I spent the whole time stressing about whether the bouncer would notice that I wasn’t looking him in the eye, or wearing layers and layers of makeup that made me look like a drag queen.

Once I did get in, I would be so paranoid that someone would notice that I was under age and would have me kicked out of the club that I never had much fun. Not to mention the fact that nervousness, adrenalin, those disco lights and the 2,000 other sweaty people gyrating on the dance floor created a serious drag makeup meltdown.

So I stopped trying. And now here I am: an adult, yet still a full year away from taking advantage of that new title. And all my friends are out living it up.

I know that there’s nothing I can do to make time move faster, so I guess I will spend the next 12 months convincing my older friends to hang out at home with me. Maybe I should pick up knitting? That’s an adult activity….

Being 20 sucks.

Blair is still hell-bent on going to Yale, even though her little tiff with S. a couple of weeks ago may have maimed her chances. The solution? Serena gets Blair to babysit the Dean’s niece to earn brownie points. Only problem (and who didn’t see this one coming?) is that little Emma is on a mission to lose her virginity.

Gossip Girl put it quite poetically: Lady B…outsoxed by a young fox. Because, of course, if there’s a young, horny virgin on the prowl, she’s bound to get intercepted by the one and only Chuck Bass.

Favorite line of the night, courtesy of Mr. Bass: “The only thing I like aged is my scotch.” LOVE it.

However, Mr. Bass laments to Blair that he holds very few things sacred, and one of those things is humping in the back of a limo. How sweet, in a pervy Chuck Bass kind of way. Needless to say, the jailbait bounced and hit up a club in search of Mr. Right Now.

Meanwhile, Little J. is planning her big, risque fashion debut… at a charity gala being thrown in honor of Lily and Bart. Like that doesn’t have “disaster” written all over it. She pulls the “Do you care about me?” card with Nate…isn’t it a little early to try to whip your new boy toy, Little J.? Nonetheless, Nate takes the bait and the next thing we know, GG is loading Jenny and Nate’s second kiss into an RSS feed.

Gossip Girl actually played quite the role in tonight’s episode – as everyone was running around trying to figure out who was where (and with whom), they all kept going back to GG, and finally, Chuck managed to lure Emma (the young virgin) back to Blair by getting GG to post some fake story about Emma’s rival, Muffy. If you’re lost here, don’t worry. It was all just some filler material, though it did raise the question of how the hell Chuck can pull even the mysterious Gossip Girl’s strings.

My favorite part of the night? Blair tries to have a heart-to-heart with Emma about how her first time should be special, and finally mutters the L-word, in reference to Chuck. I squealed a bit here, though I don’t know if I believe that Blair knew she loved C-Bass during the limo trysts. Oh well, B. Saying it once opens the flood gates for more confessions in the future.

BTW, Blair got some juice on Emma’s mom, but decided not to blackmail her, and karma came back around: it looks like B’s going to Yale after all. Jenny’s fashion show was a success, though Rufus tried to get her arrested for her shenanigans, which prompted Jenny to flee (and it looks like she’ll be getting in way too deep in the coming weeks); Dan kicked Nate out of the house; Vanessa threw a temper tantrum over Jenny and Nate; Jenny dumped Nate out of respect for V (though she promptly bounced anyway); and Aaron the art dude may or may not have a harem of girlfriends. We’ll find out when he takes S to dinner next week.

What to look for next week: Dan finally grows some balls (or thinks he does), and it looks like his Chuck Bass story is going to press…which can’t be good for anyone on the Upper East Side.

Well, tonight’s episode of The Hills definitely made up for last week’s lackluster performance. Big things happened! Audrina moved out! Heidi got drunk! And then she got fired!

OMFG it’s like drama overload.

Ok, breathe, Lauren. Let’s start from the beginning.

So, Audrina decides she wants to move out of the house and – poof! – she finds a place. And not just any place; a beautiful, huge, brand new place. What luck?! I mean, I spent 2 months looking for an apartment in NY before I found one…that was in Queens…and I shared with a girl who got drunk and ate in the bathroom and another girl who abused Ambien. Did I mention the lack of A/C?

But Audrina finds a beautiful house and buys it with all that money she makes as an assistant. At first I was happy for her to finally be getting out of the LC and Lo Love Pad, until I realized that she bought it for Justin Bobby. I bought a Green Day CD for the boy I loved once and that was the biggest regret of my life (and he didn’t wear a cut off denim shirt/dirty beanies); I just hope Audrina didn’t make the worst financial mistake of her lifetime.

I just wish I could smack that girl around and make her see that a house with lots of candles and white flowy sh*t is not going to get that boy to commit. He likes to speak in riddles and sound intelligent when he’s really just dumb. HE IS NOT GOING TO COMMIT TO YOU.

While Audrina was out house hunting (and LC was crying to Whitney about losing another roommate), Heidi was busy getting sh*tfaced at work. Obviously the girl was gonna get hammered off of two drinks – she hasn’t eaten in 4 years. What isn’t so obvious is why she thought it was a good idea to get drunk at work after pissing her boss off the last time he was around.

“Hm,” she thinks to herself. “I’m already on his bad side, so I totally have to impress him….I’m gonna invite my douchey boyfriend to the party. That I am working at. The most important party ever for this company. But that’s not all; I will also invite Audrina and her sister with the tat sleeves and THEN I am gonna get drunk on top of that! This will surely do the trick! Promotion!”

Looks like that one backfired, Heidi. Too bad your boyfriend ruins everything; he took you away from your friends, your family and now your job. What’s next? Your Botox specialist? Your personal shopper at Neimans? When will you learn, Heidi Montag? WHEN?

What am I going to be using it for? If you’re buying a fake primarily just to buy your friends booze every once in awhile, it’s probably not worth it to go through the whole process of getting one. It would be easier to just find an older friend to buy for you. If you want one to get into concerts, bars, clubs, comedy clubs, etc., with friends who also have fakes or who are older, then it’s more beneficial for you to have one. This way you’re at least getting your money’s worth, and you know for sure you have others who can join you in your illegal adventures.

Who am I buying one off of? Some of my friends have gotten fakes from a random sketchy place down in Chinatown. Even though they only paid 60 bucks for it, the ID says that it’s not government issued and a lot of places haven’t accepted them. Needless to say, they got sh*tty fakes.

It’s better to buy a fake ID off of someone who will show you what his fakes look like and who has some references so you know how the IDs have held up. Even better is someone who will replace your ID if it doesn’t end up scanning or if you don’t like the end result.

Keep in mind, some good fake IDs are pricey. I know of friends who make un-scannable IDs for 80 bucks while certain ID’s that do scan cost between $100-$150.

Am I ready to deal with the consequences if I get caught? This is a HUGE question to ask yourself before buying a fake because you never know what can happen or how your area deals with IDs. My friend was caught with a fake ID in my small hometown and arrested for it while two of my friends caught in NYC just had their’s taken away with a slap on the wrists. Depending on who catches you, there can be major consequences that could seriously eff up the rest of your life. NEVER take buying a fake lightly.

All in all, my friends who have fakes have been happy and understand the risks involved. Mine has held up for more then a year with no problems (knock on wood) — although I am very picky about where I go with it.

Two more details to keep in mind: know what the real state ID of your fake looks like and ALWAYS have your real name on the fake. Using a fake name is identity theft and if caught, your charges will be worse.

If you’re not up to getting a fake, using an older friend’s ID works too. Or…you know, just wait until you’re 21.

Any thoughts or advice on fakes? Would you get one?

Saturday night: You’re at a frat party. You just won three consecutive games of beer pong. You don’t think twice about drinking your cups, despite the fact that you’ve seen the ball land in other peoples’ used cups, roll along the basement floor, and watched the ball pass between thirty-something unwashed hands.

What gives?!?

Obviously, beer pong isn’t the most sanitary party game out there. But you have the “water cup,” right? That cup of tepid, dirty water is totes gonna disinfect that old, recycled ping pong ball (that was most likely found under someone’s bed 10 minutes before party time). Or not.

Some microbiology students at George Washington University decided to test exactly how detrimental to your health beer pong can be. If you like beer pong, you may want to skip this article.

After a somewhat mild night of beer pong, consisting of eight students and thirty beers, the budding scientists collected samples from each of the beer pong cups and the water cup. What’d they find? A haven for germs. Bacteria from the E. Coli, salmonella, and pneumonia families were present in every single test tube containing samples from the game. Oh, and that water cup that everyone used to clean the balls? That was the most infected, and housed the most bacteria growth over night.

This study centered on beer pong only, but what about other potentially sickening games? When’s the last time you did a kegstand, putting your mouth on the tap that’s been who-knows-where after a dozen other people slurped down a few seconds worth of brew? How about the time you stood in for flip cup, and rotated through other peoples’ cups round after round?

We put our mouths everywhere when there’s cheap beer involved (and some of us really put our mouths everywhere), but we’re super cautious about where we place our ASS when we’re in a public place? Just some food for thought.

Not that you have to quit beer pong — hell, no! To be just a tad cleaner, change out the water cups and beer pong balls throughout the night, and keep your own beer cup to drink out of after the ball hits (just dump the shot’s worth of beer into your own cup).

Alcohol is bad enough for your immune system; don’t give germs a better opportunity to take up residence in your body.

They are comfortable, they suck in the fat on my thighs and they look cute for class or a club. That being said, I am a little confused about a trend I just learned about this morning: leather leggings.

I have never tried them, but the first thing that comes to mind when someone even puts “leather” and “leggings” into a single sentence is that time Ross Gellar tried leather pants and couldn’t get them back on.

I mean, how do you even put these one? And don’t your legs make a really weird squeaky noise when you walk? (Note: If you have actual thighs, unlike Lindsay Lohan.) I don’t know; the whole trend just seems to “wannabe biker chick” for me.

What do you think?