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Well, not right now, but soon. Like, every Thursday.

Rachel Paula:
Every now and again a blog comes along that you just. can’t. stop. reading. Before you know it, it’s 4am and you’ve read every entry. TWICE. Your midterm paper sure as hell isn’t going to write itself, but, hey, it was worth it.

That’s how I feel about Rachel Paula. A single girl tackling the big-bad-real-world in the biggest, baddest more real worldest place of all: New York City. But for entries of glitz, glamor and fabulousity, you will need to look elsewhere. While the blogger herself reeks of fabulousity, it’s because she is so candid, funny and, for once, honest about life and love in the big city. You will laugh, you will cry and you will feel like you want to be her BFF. Read More »

Halloween in NY brings out all the freaks.

I despised Halloween in college because I refused to be a sexy nurse or a sexy goat or a sexy window-washer. Instead of buying those bagged costumes I would put hours into brainstorming and creating a witty costume only to have it fail because no one “got it.” I figured that the one good thing about graduating was that I would never again have to enter a crowded, sweaty frat party and be stared down by 150 sexy firefighters.

As I was stuffed into a subway car this weekend (that was at least 200 people over capacity) and stabbed in the eyes by fairy wings and other assorted accessories that do not belong on public transportation, I realized Halloween never ends. I will have to spend the rest of my life dressing up in costumes and pretending to be charmed by men who at 45 years old still think it’s funny to dress as a gyno. Read More »

"OMG! I forgot I packed all these empty Bacardi bottles!"

At the end of senior year I shoved all my belongings into boxes and garbage bags without using any kind of rational order or logic. Whatever could fit in my boxes went in — and whatever couldn’t fit got thrown away.

Perfectly good pots and pans ended up in the dumpster (and soon after in a dumpster diver’s kitchen) while perfectly useless items like homemade off the shoulder t-shirts got rolled in bubble wrap and packed away.

This past weekend I moved into my new apartment and began unpacking all my boxes. It was like 8 nights of Hanukkah all rolled into one. I had forgotten I owned half of that stuff so each time I reached into a box and pulled something out it was like winning a raffle. The kind of raffle where you win prizes that are good for a laugh, yet have no purpose…a broken shower radio, a dirty mug, stolen freshman year dorm posters, a lime green shoe bag, 75,000 dryer sheets.

Basically nothing useful or even decorative for my new apartment. But they come from college and even though they should have been thrown out months ago, I can’t bear to part with them now. I held up every item and explained to my mother what each one meant to me. However she was increasingly less entertained as my stories got more personal. She finally cut me off at  “oh here’s the pregnancy test I – I mean my roommate – used one time she thought she was pregnant.” Read More »

Every once in a while I’m faced with making a big adult decision with huge consequences. I’m at the point where I’m spending my own money and should technically be able to handle life on my own, yet that doesn’t mean I have any idea what I’m doing.

This past week I went apartment hunting (much more fun than job hunting, but slightly less fun than duck hunting) and I learned that Realtors are not only the most desperate/clingy people ever to walk this earth, but they’re also willing to take advantage of anyone who doesn’t know what’s going on.

And that someone was most definitely me.

I toured Manhattan with my Realtor and nodded my head to everything he said. I wanted him to think I knew what I was doing. I should have noticed that the more I said yes to his requests, the more he was taking advantage of me. By the time I got to the last apartment he had me convinced that it’s standard procedure for doormen to fondle me as I walked in to different apartments and that my rent was actually going to be 1.5 what they said because he got half of my rent check every month. Read More »

The dating life was so simple in college… and that’s mostly because it was nonexistent.

There were more consecutive sunny days in Syracuse then there were couples during my four year stay. Most guys would sprint and leap into oncoming traffic before they would admit to dating a girl and relationship terms like “committed” came to mean a situation in which the guy you were hooking up with (NOT dating) would be a gentleman by driving you home instead of making you do a walk of shame through a subzero blizzard.

However in the real world things are a little different. Guys not only call you back during daylight hours but they also take you on dates to crazy places like sit-down restaurants and the movies. I’m not going to lie, that’s a concept I had begun to assume was made up by Hollywood and the liberal media to sell movie tickets. And the craziest thing of all is that a lot of these guys are looking for relationships and commitment.

Unlike college, there’s a much wider range of men here in the city and it’s much harder to figure out who could be your soul mate and who could take you home and kill you. I’ve learned there’s a big difference between a guy asking you back to his dorm and a guy asking you to get on a train to New Jersey with him because he lives just right outside the city. A guy from class offers to pour you a beer from his pitcher and you chug it down; a guy in the city offers you a drink and you have to send it to toxicology labs first to make sure it isn’t Roofied. Read More »

Thank you, television Gods.

For a week there, I thought that my beloved Gossip Girl was destined to go the way of The O.C., becoming a drama where the only superior things were wardrobe choices. But after watching episode two of the season, it seems that the drama and romance we cannot live without is here to stay and growing better by the week.

And the guys are looking so. much. hotter. College did those boys gooood.

Well, for some. For Chuck Bass it was that businessman/entrepreneurial drive that turned up his sexy factor. That boy looks good when he’s holding meetings with rich old guys to get his restaurant/sex club off the ground. Too bad dear old stepsister Serena seems to thwart him at every turn. Poor Chuck finally has a vision and a plan to do something great in the future and Serena goes and ruins it for him.

If she didn’t have such an amazing wardrobe (that orange romper? I die) I’d totally hate her. She’s become the annoying little sister and has a knack for messing everything up. I’m pretty sure the same will be said (in 4 episodes, max) of her new relationship with super hottie, Carter Basin. Read More »

Who's Queen B now!?

Like some of my fellow College Candies, I was not smitten with the season 3 premiere of Gossip Girl. In fact, I felt lost, upset and alone after the show ended. All I wanted was the simplicity of Season 1, which got me thinking about just curling up on the couch, diving into a box of Godivas and rewatching my box set of that first glorious season.

For the 4th time.

Luckily, before I reached that point of desperation, our friends at On Location tours gave me a far better option to rekindle my love affair with GG. In the form of a bus tour of Manhattan, showing off the hot spots of the show. So. much. better. and only slightly less caloric than my original plan. Mostly because I brought some Godiva for the road(iva).

OK, so the tour was pretty touristy. So touristy that me and my friend were two of the five Americans on the bus. Pretty much everyone else was a visitor from another country. But I guess Gossip Girl and a love for all things WASPy and UES are the only things people around the globe can agree on. And despite the mix of languages and accents, we all came together to see the sites and scenes of our favorite TV show.

The tour kicked off at the Palace hotel, home of the Van Der Woodsens (and now Chuck Bass), in addition to being the office of the former Bart Bass (RIP, BB boy). As we moved on to each of the famed GG locales, our bubbly redheaded guide explained the significance of each location and spiced things up by showing us clips of the show featuring the very site we were visiting. (So I got to enjoy my Season 1 marathon afterall!) Read More »

It’s finally here: week ten of my summer internship at Magazine X in New York City. I’m proud to report that I’ve made it through numerous days of unpaid labor and braved the horrible commuting conditions (apparently Mother Nature decided that this summer was going to be characterized by either torrential downpours or blazing heat, and nothing in between), and I actually managed to have a pretty good time while doing so. I only had to get someone coffee twice (and I could get myself one too, so leaving the office for a Starbucks run wasn’t too awful), and I have a ton of good clips to add to my resume.

So what have I learned? Read More »

Welcome to a brand-new College Candy feature: The Rival Rundown! We’ll be taking a look at the oldest, fiercest, and even funniest rivalries between colleges and universities all over the country. We’re going to be examining everything from mascots to mess halls to the most obnoxious traditions, all with the intent of determining which schools are ballin’ out of control.

And if you’ve always wanted to give props to your school on CC, now’s your chance! Shoot us an email explaining what’s awesome and unique about your school (or what stinks about Rival U) at rivalrundown@collegecandy.com!

What better rivalry is there to begin with than arguably the oldest and most prestigious in the country? That’s right, its Harvard versus Yale, baby! The two Ivy League institutions have been duking it out since 1852 at the inception of the first Harvard-Yale Regatta.  Now, their rivalry extends beyond crew to who gets the top US News & World Report ranking and the largest endowment. Let the hysteria begin!

1. Mascot Matchup

Harvard- The Crimson are…well, a deep red color. Unless you’re hematophobic (fearful of blood), there isn’t much that is particularly intimidating about Crimson. And the “mascot” is technically a charicature of John Harvard, the founder of the institution. Interesting.
Yale- Yalies are ever faithful to their Bulldogs, which has been proudly carried on by seventeen generations of live bulldogs, each named “Handsome Dan.”

Three credits to: Yale–bulldogs are more intimidating and, well…tangible. Read More »

I made a very interesting discovery at work yesterday (we’re researching investigative story ideas), and if any of you readers live in NYC and spend time outside of the Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods in Union Square, you may have witnessed what I’m about to discuss: The Freegan Movement.

Freegans are people (sometimes homeless, but often not) who commit to living a life of limited participation in the conventional economy. They believe that food and shelter are a right as opposed to a privilege, and they are opposed to the fact that homeless people live on the city streets when there are vacant apartments that exist under the grip of capitalist landlords.

So they go scavenging, or “dumpster diving,” for unspoiled food that has been thrown away, and they often recover non-food items like toiletries and electronics. Freegans (a combination of the words “free” and “vegan”) essentially oppose the purchase of any item in attempt to boycott the corporations responsible for human rights violations, environmental destruction, and animal abuse. Read More »