Last night, the Vancouver Winter Olympics ended with a flourish–including comedy from William Shatner, performances by Avril Lavigne and Nickelback, and yes, giant inflatable beavers. With the Olympic flame extinguished, and dreams of Sochi 2014 barely blooming, let’s take a look at Vancouver’s biggest winners.

Canada
The Canadians accomplished their two most important goals in Vancouver: to bring home gold, and specifically to win the men’s hockey competition on home soil. Alexandre Bilodeau broke the Canadian gold-medal draught with his win in moguls skiing early in the Games. But perhaps the single most important event in Canadian history was their win in the gold-medal hockey game over arch-rival the United States. In a nail-biting sudden death overtime, the Canadians broke through with the win and fulfilled the dreams of everyone young and old  in the hockey-obsessed nation. (Editor’s Note: And their hockey team is pretty damn hot.) And as if that weren’t enough, Canada walks away with the most gold medals–14–ever won by a single nation in the Winter Olympics. Read More »

Is anyone else slightly concerned March is nipping at our ankle booties?  I can’t believe February has gone by so fast. It seems like only yesterday I was crying into a heart shaped tray of chocolates and shopping for cats online. (OK, so maybe I was…)

I’m sad to see February go (although quite happy to see Spring Break on the horizon!), especially considering the last action packed week filled with Olympic sports, a Tiger Woods apology, and absurd Chris Brown statements.

Did anyone else feel like it took especially long for this week to putter out?  I did, but maybe it had a little something with my sinuses (ew, I know).  Things are a whole lot different when you’re nursing a stuffy nose in college. Somehow, sick days just aren’t as fun as they used to be.

Luckily, with much sleep, tea and a serious Mad Men marathon, I’m feeling better already… and just in time for this weekend’s festivities. But before we get too excited to jump back into the world where sneezing is at a minimum (thank goodness) let’s focus on a week that was:

- (Sad face) Fashion Week has come to a runway strutting close.  We looked back on the five biggest trends that took over the catwalk.

- Although Fashion Week has ended, however, the Olympics (and my lack of production) has not.  Which has allowed us to ponder over a few ‘sports related’ arguments pertaining to The Games.  Namely, are those men on ice, sporting plunging neckline v-necks, really athletes? Read More »

Why you gotta hate on Johnny Weir, Canada?

Ryan Cabrera: your career is officially over.

J.R. Celski (and some other Olympians) shirtless!!

Looking for the perfect parka?

Lady Gaga’s greatest revenge.

What you didn’t know about The Bachelor’s Ali.

Figure skating: the marquee event of the Winter Olympics. Characterized by grace, agility, skill, charisma and intense facial expressions, figure skaters capture the hearts of fans around the world once every four years. Top skaters can earn more than $5 million in endorsements and grace more magazine covers in a year than Gemma Ward.

There’s no question that the spectacle of figure skating is enchanting, but given recent criticism of its methods– is it a sport?

A sport should require athleticism, of which figure skating has plenty.  Training for figure skating requires hours of strength training and conditioning. The skills executed in programs, from jumps to spins to spirals, are not easily acquired. Take away the glittery costumes and lilting music, and figure skating programs appear grittier and tougher.

But athleticism means nothing if there isn’t an objective and regimented manner to determine winners. At the moment, all competitions operated under the International Skating Union (including the Olympic Games) adhere to a scoring system that assigns points for the difficulty of skill and the quality of their execution.  But consider that in this year’s men’s singles division at the Olympics, Evan Lysacek captured the gold medal despite his failure to attempt any quadruple jumps (the most difficult skill to execute). Other skaters, including silver medalist Evgeny Plushenko, successfully landed quadruple jumps. Some argue that Lysacek’s win is fair, because artistry should be just as crucial to scoring as difficulty, while others believe the Olympic champion should be someone who performs to world-class standards, quad jumps and all. Read More »

Gosh, I’m tired. I guess that’s what happens when you stay up late watching Bode Miller/eating a tray of brownies and then you’re so wired from the excitement/insane amount of sugar you just ingested, you can’t fall asleep until 3am. And then you wake up and discover there’s still one brownie left so you eat it, feel great for about 30 minutes, and then completely crash.

Ugh, and there’s still two more days to go this week?

I’m going to need some major coffee just to get out of bed, and then a few 5 Hour Energy’s to get to the gym to work off the brownie binge. But before I go into a caffeine rage (similar to ‘roid rage, only with many more trips to the bathroom), let me take a moment to myself to consider the following disturbing scenario.

Would you rather walk in on your boyfriend trying on your underwear OR be forced to watch a one hour long video of your sibling/parent having sex?

Things to consider: your boyfriend in a lacy thong, your boyshorts getting stretched out, your parents having sex. Read More »

With the Winter Olympics in full swing, all of the world’s attention is focused on Canada. And in addition to figure skating and snowboarding and skeleton (?!) a new Olympic sport has arisen—one that we plebeians can play from our couches!

I like to call it “Canadian CelebSpotting.”

All of a sudden, celebrities are coming out of the woodwork to display their native Canadian pride, and they’re popping up in travel advertisements, Today Show interviews, and in the audience at Olympic events. In addition to well-known Canadians such as Nelly Furtado and Celine Dion, check out which other personalities (should) know all the words to “O Canada!” Read More »

Seeing as the Olympics are being held on my home soil, I should be paying closer attention. But last week I was distracted by my real love: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Though I’m craving spring clothes more than anything else right now, NYFW kept me on the edge of my seat as I excitedly began planning next fall’s outfits.

As always, there were a lot of amazing collections during Fashion Week, but there were five designer gold medalists that really blew the rest away. Their designs were sexy, sleek and wearable…. and assuming I somehow make $1 million between now and September, I will be grabbing every last one of their pieces. Read More »

In this new series we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer for a month as she takes on a personal challenge. This month we’re following Lauren from University of Michigan. She’s going sober for the month of February and will be sharing her ups and downs with us each Saturday. Last week she tackled the bar scene sober. Let’s see how she handled week numero 3.

Another week.
Another drinkless week.

And it almost wasn’t that way. On Monday my friend’s parents were in town and took us out to a nice dinner. I was looking at the menu deciding between steak and fish (these decisions are incredibly difficult when all you’ve eaten for the past 3 weeks is Easy Mac and Chili) when the waiter began pouring wine around the table.

I was so excited at the prospect of free alcohol that I completely forgot about Sober February. It wasn’t until the cup of wine was at my lips that I woke up and realized what I was doing. Quickly, I put it down, apologized to my friend’s parents for wasting wine and explained my situation.

They, like everyone else I’ve encountered in the past three weeks, applauded my decision. Even bartenders and waitresses don’t give me crap for going sober. In fact, I’ve inspired four of my friends and the hot bartender I met last weekend to follow suit next month! Read More »

I don’t know about you, but I could not stop watching the thrill of moguls, downhill skiing, and the hockey hunks tear it up over the ice this week.  Something about the Olympics just brings me back to when I wanted to be Kristi Yamaguchi (but not Tonya Harding), and now that the weekend is gracing my fingertips, I have more time to watch the Games and use the long commercial breaks to daydream about prancing around the quad this spring in style.

Is it April yet?
OK, it was only just Mardi Gras this week. Clearly I’m getting too ahead of myself.

In the meantime, here are some interesting points to chew on:

- While Spring Break is inching closer and you are hitting the tanning beds for that ideal bikini base-tan (hello, beer in Mexico!) you may want to keep this in mind.

- Men let their penis insecurities get in the way of safety and birth control. True story.

- Oh Cosmopolitan, you say some pretty ridiculous things sometimes; it’s amazing some of us can still rope in a man.

- Is smiling a required accessory? Read More »

We’ve got Olympic fever around here. Not only are the games exciting to watch (what up, J.R. Celski), but those Olympians are truly inspirational. We can only imagine what it feels like to be so good at something that you are chosen to represent your country on a global stage.

Too bad we’re not good at anything. Well, anything that matters, anyway. It’s not like they’re going to be adding beer pong to the Summer Games anytime soon, or giving out golds for walking through the snow in heels. Both of which would surely earn us a medal and maybe even a Wheaties box.

And that got us thinking. If we were Olympians, what would we medal in? After all, if Curling can be considered a sport (isn’t that just Swiffering?), why not these:

Rachael – University of Miami: Definitely klutziness, socializing, and anything relating to rhetoric/debate. Clearly, athletics is not my strong point. . . .

Lauren H – The New School: My guy always says I’d take the gold in sleeping – I can nap anywhere, anytime, and I don’t drool or snore! Bring it on!

Jessica – Hofstra: I would get a gold medal for whining until I get my way, procrastinating, and shopping.

Sarabeth – University of Texas: I’d get a gold medal in baking. Not gonna lie, my low fat cheesecake is pretty much the shiz.

Melanie – Northeastern University: I’d take the gold in exaggerating and pounding Starbucks ice cream. Read More »