[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. We love a strong woman, so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like the ever controversial jeggings!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

The time has come once again to start picking classes for spring semester (really? didn’t we just do this?) and my mind turns to places that won’t be covered in grey slush come January. Places with warm, sunny vistas and boys with sexy accents. In other words, places abroad.

The appeal, of course, of study abroad is distinctly held in the ”abroad” part. It’s a chance to go off and live somewhere exotic, and yet, have the safety net of a very specific purpose and time period (not to mention a built-in group of people who speak your language). With study abroad, you get the chance to soak up a new culture and really be a part of it, instead of the way you rush through on vacations. Plus, you can go to a place you’d never really be able to afford to live in and because of the school, you can make it work. Read More »

Let’s just hope you never have to know how to say this one. Although, from our experiences with guys abroad, this convo is a given.

[Photo courtesy of failblog.org]

If you’re lucky, you’ll be studying abroad this summer instead of taking a load off and “relaxing” (aka being unemployed) or working at Barnes and Noble (which is how my summers typically go). To avoid such occupational plagues, I decided to go to France last summer even though I didn’t really know French and I hate cheese. Nevertheless, I learned a thing or two about our neighbors overseas and being an American on old, foreign soil.

1. Blend in. The problem with studying abroad is that the experience tends to lack authenticity — You go abroad only to find yourself surrounded by more Americans than in America. And these Americans can be fairly “exotic” themselves (in my program there was a tribe of Mormons).

In many cases American students abroad make no bones about their nationality and flaunt it by traveling in large, loud groups, bumping and grinding in discotheques, speaking odd Franglish and buying bottles of champagne by the crate to drink in the streets. My best advice is to stray from the American wolf pack and try to pass as a native. It’s a fun challenge that prompted a man to feel me up on a bus in Paris because he thought I was German. Close enough. Read More »