You lived, you learned, you loved. Now you are back at your home campus and in a total funk.  What happened to the campus you used to love and why is everyone rolling their eyes when you start telling hilarious study abroad stories? Coming back home after going abroad can be a surprisingly weird experience and it’s normal to experience reverse culture shock. While it’s great to look back fondly on your time abroad, it’s not okay to spend the next semester sitting on your couch all day, wearing a beret and watching Eiffel Tower specials on TV.

So, wow, can you reconcile your international experience with your stateside college life?

You first need to discard the expectation of total familiarity. Some things have likely changed at your college/home while you were away and you will have some catching up to do. Some changes are positive (a new dining hall or library) and some will be negative (a falling out in your old group of friends, your crush dating what’s-her-face). Remember that spending a semester in a foreign country required some sacrifice, but the experience was worth it.

The most important thing is to find a way to incorporate the positive aspects of your time abroad with the positive aspects of your campus or home life. You can join a culture club or conversation group, share your experiences with other returning students, or broaden your academic interests. I changed my minor to French and Francophone studies as a result of my time in Paris. This decision permitted me to keep practicing my French and benefit academically from the social and cultural knowledge I acquired while abroad.

Talking about your experience abroad can also present some challenges. The first thing to remember is to remind your friends and family that even though you enjoyed your experience, they were missed. Don’t forget to ask them about their semester since they surely have adventures of their own to share with you. Also, remember that not everyone has the opportunity to study abroad and factor this in to your conversation so that you sound appreciative about your experience — and not like you’re bragging.

If there are common misconceptions about the place where you were, it may be a good idea to prepare short answers to frequently asked questions. This way you won’t be caught off guard when people ask you questions that may sound ignorant (“Does everyone eat French fries in Paris?!”) or somewhat offensive.

While this might seem obvious, remind yourself that not everyone wants to hear about your semester abroad non-stop. You should generally wait until you are asked before you bring it up, or at the very least, only talk about it in moderation. If you really feel home-away-from-home sick, find places where you can talk about your experience with other students with international experiences. You might also think about counseling students going abroad next semester by participating in a panel or forum. You are a valuable source of information for your fellow jet-setting classmates!

You can also trade your non-stop commentary for more fun ways to share your experience with friends and family. Cook them traditional dishes you enjoyed, teach them a card game you learned, or share some new music with them.

Lastly, seize the opportunity to see your campus with a fresh set of eyes. You have most likely developed new attitudes, habits, beliefs and goals. Use your experience to see your campus life more objectively and to make even better decisions.

As long as you accept that things won’t be exactly the same when you come back home and incorporate the best aspects of both experiences into your life, you can minimize reverse culture-shock.

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Wine is cheap in Europe, super cheap. I made that discovery early on during my semester abroad, and took advantage of it during my spring break in Italy. As all college students know, boxed wine in the States is a great invention which allows for portable drinking, but this idea has been one-upped in Europe, with the creation of what my friends and I would lovingly refer to as “wine boxes.” One liter of “table” (ie. awful) wine in a pouch, with an oh-so convenient pop tab opening which allows you to reseal your wine and take it on the go! They’re adult juice boxes, with alarming consequences I would eventually realize.

One night, my friends and I decided to have an adventure and escape the stuffy hostel. Needless to say, we brought along our wine boxes, now complete with bendy straws to make our drinking experience that. much. easier. College students really do have drive and creativity when it comes to protecting their laziness.

I was feeling great after a meal of pasta and boxed wine. Maybe a little too great, since those straws are the last thing I remember until I was awoken by the bright rays of sun that only a hangover can truly appreciate. Looking over at my friends, I saw their shocked faces, and my stomach sank. Looking down I see that my new Roma tee shirt, that I had decided to wear to bed, was soaked in red wine. In fact, the entire bed was soaked in table wine. I glanced at the floor and saw the culprit: a large wine box was lying crushed in a pool. In my drunken stupor the night before, I had sat on my beloved wine box, that I had hastily left on my bed, consequently ruining the sheets, my new favorite souvenir t-shirt, and ensuring that I would never see my security deposit.

Think that’s bad? Throw in a broken phone, (who knows how?) a mega hangover that brought tears to my eyes, and a flight to Amsterdam leaving in an hour, having not yet packed. How I made it alive, I’ll never know, but that was the day I officially retired from wine boxes.

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Being an international student is kind of like being a celebrity. No, seriously, hear me out. Everybody wants to talk to you. Everybody think you’re really interesting. Everybody is fascinated by you. At first.

Everyone wants to hear about your lifestyle and your culture, and they find everything you say hilarious. Like celebrities, everybody already has their own ideas about you. Everybody already thinks they know you because of what they’ve seen on the TV or what they’ve been told. And then they’re disappointed when you aren’t exactly how they imagined. They realize you’re not exotic or exciting. They realize, well, you’re just like them really.

Like a celebrity representing their brand, I feel like I’m constantly representing my country. Sometimes I force myself to conform to stereotypes and revel in my Britishness far more than I would do at home.

Being an international student is kind of a double-edged sword. A lot of time I love the attention. I know that all I have to do is open my mouth and people will be all over me with “ohemgee, where are you from?” It’s especially fun in my Shakespeare class, where my teacher is always making comments only I’ll understand, or apologizing for generalizations. Everywhere I go people strike up conversations with me the minute they find out I’m English.

But it’s not always fun. Like a celebrity, sometimes I wish I’d just be treated like a normal person. I sometimes hate being classified differently because I’m not American. And then there are the times that things I say or do are completely misunderstood. I once had to repeat the phrase “I want to borrow a camera” so many times I almost burst into tears. People find it really funny to be like “what do you call this?” (think of the scene in Love Actually), and pretend they don’t know what I mean when I say “jumper.” People often brush aside what I say as “oh she’s British” or try to force stereotypes upon me. The worst is when people assume that everything I do is a “British thing”; nope, me leaving my ketchup un-refrigerated is just a Charlotte thing (I like it at room temperature, okay!).

Then there’s the culture shock. Unlike my friends spending their school years in France or Germany, I didn’t expect to find much of a difference. It’s only America, I thought, we speak the same language, we watch the same TV shows, and listen to the same music. But the culture shock can be tough. Everything from food to the schooling system is different. My classes are different, my essays are different, and my grading is different. I even have to get used to an almost new language; store instead of shop, jumper instead of sweater, trunk instead of boot.

Even the spelling is different here, which causes me to have a constant internal debate- do I spell the American way? Is that sacrificing my British-ness? What happens when I get back home to England? For now I am including all my ‘U’s and my ‘S’s have not yet become ‘Z’s. I’m not sure if it’s only a matter of time.

Don’t get me wrong though, it’s a great experience. Being different means I can get away with asking stupid questions, or using my foreignness as an excuse to make mistakes or get confused. And people do generally view me with a sense of awe and wonder, which is something I will miss when I get home. Plus, more than anything else, it’s really made me internalize the way the Americans feel about the British. Okay, there are exceptions, but most people are fascinated by my country and who I am. Which, coupled with nostalgia and homesickness, makes me really damn proud to be British. I’m having a great time here.  I’m not sure if I’d want to feel like I was famous forever, but it definitely is exciting when everybody wants to talk to you at a party.

But then again, I’m not sure if I’m going to miss being asked questions like “so, what language do they speak in England?”

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[Everyone’s got a morning after story (though some are WAY worse than others) and we wanna hear yours! Send it over to us and we’ll post it – anonymously, of course – right here!]

I am currently studying abroad in an unspecified location in the world. We’ll just say… not in the U.S. (really narrowing it down there). My host university always organizes events at bars and such for students, but my roommates and I usually just pass on them because they just wind up being these huge all-American fests. But the other night we actually decided to go because this particular bar, in the red-light district, was serving unlimited free wine and beer between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. and, honestly, who could pass that up?

We did our usual pregame before the bar and all 4 out of my 4 roommates wound up getting wasted. Literally, couldn’t stand up, needed-to-borrow-the-flip-flops-I-conveniently-had-in-my-purse wasted. Mind you, it was only around 8 p.m. We hadn’t even left the house and I was already fully concerned about my roommates’ well-being, mainly because bouncers in this particular city are extremely strict with blatantly belligerent people trying to enter into their clubs (I wonder why…).

But I was worrying for nothing. Somehow all of us managed to get let in and the real (free) drinking quickly began. After we all scurried over to the bar to grab some drinks I wound up chatting it up with an adorable American guy for a really long time while all my roommates disappeared into another adjacent room. I wasn’t too worried though; it was a pretty small place. Only when I finally made my way over there, let’s say around 9:30 p.m., 2 out of the 4 girls were missing.

The 2 girls I actually found (we’ll call them Christine and Ally) were pretty much too drunk to notice/care that the other 2 girls (Kaitlin and Jane) had vanished and were nowhere to be found. Soon after, Christine started making out with some short, relatively unattractive man (something extremely uncharacteristic of her) and Ally was on the dance floor with some guy.

I tried to awkwardly interfere and bother them a couple times about our lost roommates, but they just kind of told me to not worry about it. So, I went to find a quiet spot in the bar to call Jane, one of the MIAs. After I talked to her, I found out she decided to just up and leave for home without telling any of us. I kind of thought she sounded a bit strange because she wasn’t responding to most of my questions, but I (wrongly) assumed I just woke her. Ally then frantically grabbed me and told me we needed to leave because she just got a call from a nearby police station that said they were with our other lost roommate, Kaitlin.

I somehow pried Christine away from her man and the two of us wound up waiting up against this pillar in the bar while Ally quickly ran to the bathroom. I then noticed Christine’s eyes were kind of closing and she appeared to be taking a bit of a nap. The security guards were apparently not big fans of this kind of behavior because they kindly escorted her out of the bar. I obviously followed closely behind.

Once Ally met us outside, we took a cab to the police station, where we were told that the cops had already taken Kaitlin home.

So we grabbed a cab back to our apartment. Everything was going just fine until I felt a few wet drops hit me on both my neck and chest. At first, I assumed it was just rain or something (even though the windows weren’t open. I was full of all sorts of interesting assumptions that night). But then I saw Ally put her hand on Christine’s back as she opened the window.

Between that and the rancid smell, what was really going on was becoming all too clear.

The cab driver was surprisingly pretty cool at first and didn’t seem to mind that there was literally puke all over his backseat. Ally and Christine were also covered in quite a decent amount of it as well. Having just been splattered, I guess I lucked out. But as he finally realized what was going on, the cabbie mumbled something about a “cleaning fee for our troubles” and hiked the meter up to EIGHTY DOLLARS.

We all got out and were making our way down the street towards our apartment when Christine decided to just take her puke-covered dress off in public. She walked into our apartment complex in nothing but a bra and some lacy underwear. Fine, I guess; it was late and no one was awake to see the show. Only when we got to our floor, the elevator doors opened up to who else but two (fairly young, attractive) cops.

“What are you covered in?” They asked, eyes darting back and forth from my nearly-naked roommate to my covered in red-wine puke roommate.

I casually pushed Ally and Christine towards the direction of our apartment (while managing to get my hand covered in puke from Ally’s back) to try to keep us all out of any more trouble. I did my best to ignore my disgust and sweet talk the officers by saying something like, “Oh, you know. We’re fine! Long night. Uh… I’ll take care of them. Thanks for everything! Have a goodnight!”

We finally got into our apartment. There was glass shattered all over the floor leading to my bathroom and very few lights on (we later discovered this was Jane’s drunken doing). I took a peak into my bathroom and found Jane hovering over the toilet bowl while Kaitlin was safely tucked away in bed, courtesy of the fine police.

It was 11:15 p.m.

[You think that's bad? Check out our other cringe-worthy Morning After stories.]

Here’s their big finding: “Students who go abroad while in college are likely to increase or even double their alcohol intake while they’re away.”

Wow, I know.  Let that sink in for a minute.  Would you have ever guessed that while visiting countries with lower drinking ages, things called discotheques, and a plethora of town pubs, college students would have the balls to increase their booze consumption?  Color me shocked.

As someone who’s now very interested in subscribing to this extremely scientific journal, I just want to alert the editors of a few more studies they might be interested in conducting (but really don’t need to).

Just Discovered: Drunk Students Eat More Pizza than Sober Students
Drunk munchies happen.  Usually around 3AM as the bars are closing and that pizza place across the street is still open.  Two slices with pepperoni and extra cheese sound like a brilliant investment in your health, so you stumble to the counter, place your order, and throw down the $2.50.  For some reason, going through these same motions in broad daylight really doesn’t hold the same appeal (unless it’s post-kegs and eggs on game day).

Standards Lowered After Six Hours in Bar, “Beer Goggles” Found as Cause
It’s late, you’re drunk, and that extra-long single is going to be mighty lonely when you get back to the dorm.  What’s a girl to do?  Chat up that mediocre-looking, possibly younger dude standing at the end of the bar, that’s what.  His eyes are a little off center and his nose hooks to the left, but your room’s dark.  No biggie.

Breaking News: Most Papers Written Only Twelve Hours Prior to Deadline
Two weeks to write six pages on Charlotte Bronte?  Please, you can knock that thing out in an afternoon.  Except one afternoon interrupted by “something better” leads to another and before you know it, you’re staring at a blank word document, a setting sun, and a clock you swear is six hours fast.  Procrastination is a bitch, but it’s better than being responsible and missing out on all those hours you spent Facebook stalking.

Solving the Pre-Game Mystery: Why Students Drink Before They Drink
Have you ever tried to explain the concept of pre-gaming to an adult?  Did they look at you like you had a problem and throw around words like “addict” and “AA meeting”?  If you’re in college, it makes sense to drink before you go out drinking.  Imagine walking into a bar completely sober.  Yikes!  All those strangers, that loud music…what am I supposed to do with my hands!?  I’m getting social anxiety just thinking about it.

After 2:45 AM and Five Shots of Jim Beam, Everyone Becomes a Culinary Arts Major
Some nights, pizza just doesn’t scratch the itch.  And that’s when you run back to your apartment or dorm, flip on the Food Network, and check out what’s in your fridge.  Ravioli Lean Cuisine, salted cashews, soy sauce packets, and one lone gummy worm become a cornucopia of international flavors when stirred together in a solo cup.  Leftover dining hall chicken fingers, a clam chowder Soup-at-Hand, and stale Ritz crackers morph into a potpie even Jamie Oliver would be proud of.

Going abroad for the semester is full of new sights, new sweets and new stories to tell, but the abroad experience does not have everyone’s name on it.  Some apply for the passport while others just pass all together on the international experience.

But what happens when our friends go abroad without us?

How do we possibly survive when our closest pals board those planes and we are back in the states being red, white and totally blue?

Let’s put those old words into practice and let the distance make our hearts (and friendships) grow stronger through these simple ways to survive the semester apart.

My best friend Skype: We thought Jefferson was pretty clever with the light bulb, but this innovation blows electricity away. A free service that allows people to communicate through web cam, this handy messenger has changed the face of long distance relationships and is easy to use as well. Grab a cup of coffee and make a date with your friend abroad to catch up face to face.

Traveling pants and other random belongings: Sewing the gap between countries can be so much easier when you form a common thread; a journal that you pass between friends, a shirt that gets mailed from person to person… all of these things can be mailed back and forth to one another in order to keep in touch with something tangible. Currently, my best friend and I purposely leave juicy stories out of our emails and write them in a journal that we mail back and forth to each other. It makes for something exciting to look forward to in the mail.

Growing closer by growing apart: I took for granted the fact that I could call my best friend at a second’s notice to meet up and talk on campus. Now that she is gone I realize the amount of time that I have on my hands, no longer filled with coffee dates and shopping excursions. Instead of wallowing over the open gaps in the planner, fill those slots with new and exciting things you have always wanted to do. Go out and do things that will make those emails to your abroad buddies even more interesting. Salsa dancing, blogging, pottery painting, meeting new people – the possibilities are endless.

They are off seeing the world, not stopping ours: Seeing your friends off to the airport can be brutal, but as they go off to find some new adventures it is important to carry on and find our own adventures. Don’t stay stationed at that computer waiting for the Skype call or constantly refreshing your inbox to see if a new email awaits. Get out there and enjoy that semester! You’re on a college campus, not in jail! No matter where you are, be it twenty thousand miles away or in the same place you have been for three years, each day holds an immense amount of potential for great things to happen.

It is no shocker, the distance is tough. Some days will hit harder than ever as you wish your friend was there to pick up the phone when you call or meet you to sort through a midterm break down. But let’s pick ourselves up, cheer our traveling friends on and seek our own adventures. With letters and emails and a little care package here and there, our friendships have the potential to go above and abroad.

[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.

And even putting aside the sights, the food, and the boys with sexy accents, there is one other major perk of study abroad. Just like when you first moved off to college, you get a new start, a chance to reinvent yourself with people who probably didn’t see that time you made the walk of shame with your underwear hanging out of your purse.

But even things involving boys with sexy accents (did I mention that already?) have their downsides, and it’s true for study abroad too. Going off to another country is a much bigger move than most of us make for college, and it’s not just leaving behind those weekend trips home (and the way your mom lovingly folds your laundry when you visit) or all the memories your friends back on campus are making together. Without you. Just like moving to college the first time, you’ll be starting over, having to make new friends in a strange new place and this time you might not even speak the language. If you had freshman depression, this might not be a road you want to travel. And there is also an expense involved in doing some study abroad programs. Though most schools do their best to make it viable for all students, if you’re trying to put yourself through school, it just might be out of reach.

What do you think, ladies? Would you want to try your hand at school in a foreign country? Have you? Or do you think that going abroad might be a little more than you’re looking for from college? Duke. It. Out.

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]

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.

2. Don’t fall in love. I knew my friend Cameron was in trouble three weeks after she arrived in Ireland and in all of her Facebook pictures began to appear a strapping lad named Liam. Needless to say, the semester ended and Liam was one souvenir Cameron could not claim at customs. He remains in Ireland, living with his grandmother and playing football, and Cameron is totally crushed.

Apparently, obtaining a visa isn’t as easy as everyone says it is! Also, I’m no xenophobe, but from my experience, the French men I encountered after – hours were wayyyy sleazy. I’m talking gelled – hair sleazy. So. Beware!

3. Go somewhere different. Yeah, France was a foreign experience and all, but I regret not going “all the way” with my study abroad sojourn. All things considered, it was still American in many ways — besides all the Americans I was with in school everyday, I drank Coke, slept in a nice bed and swam in my host mom’s swimming pool in the French suburbs — not much of a departure from summers in my hometown, except with more croissants. If I had really wanted a working summer, I should have gone to Burma.