So you’re home for break. And it’s wonderful. But what are you going to do with all that downtime for the next three weeks?

How about do a little reading for pleasure? You know what I’m talking about, right? The kind of reading you can do without a highlighter. Without making annotations. Without a 12lb textbook that hurts your arms as you attempt to read it in bed.

Yeah, that’s right. The good kind. For a reader like me, winter break means catching up on all those books I’ve been missing out on thanks to the hundreds of pages of History reading my professors assign nightly. If you’re looking for some good books to pass that time at home (or on a warm beach somewhere) with the parentals, allow me to recommend a few of my favorites. If you do anything over this break (besides watch TV and eat leftovers) you must pick up at least one of these: Read More »

I know the Olympics are supposed to be exciting to watch, but, let’s be honest, besides scoping out the hotties, sometimes the excitement just isn’t there. But, of course, you have to watch because it’s a huge deal and you want to see if the US can dominate in ways other than invading countries and water boarding.

How to turn a quiet evening of competition into something a little more….fun? Why not do what college students have been doing for centuries: add alcohol.

We at CollegeCandy love alcohol (almost as much as we love bad TV) and try to add it to everything (except driving…and voting), so we did some research and came up with quite a fantastic game that goes well with booze and the Olympic games.

Grab some friends, stock the fridge with the bevy of your choice (though we recommend beer, as the games could go all night) and let the games begin. Note: A couple bags of chips aren’t a bad idea either. Or, I don’t know, a cake?

Now, be advised that this game is very adaptable to whatever sport you happen to be watching. That means you can play again and again! And here are the rules: Read More »

Sure, if you want to go to the Olympics, you’ve got to be the best at your sport. But for some, even that isn’t enough.

This year’s Beijing Olympics are possibly the most politicized Olympics to go down on the planet in decades. It’s always ugly when politics enter into something supposed to be as pure an ideal as the excellence of sport, but the polluted skies over Beijing aren’t the only source of dirt and grime these days.

Everyone knows about the furious and polarizing debates and protests over Tibet. It’s hardly news anymore that there are monks on the march, and Chinese police cracking down on them. What I find even more disturbing, however, is the crushing influence of the Chinese government over people’s free speech. When so-called public opinion polls emerge saying that over 90% of all Chinese people are wholeheartedly in favor of every aspect of the Chinese government, as I’ve been reading about in the New York Times, you know something’s wrong.

No country likes their government that much, unless they’re too frightened to say differently. And now, this strong tendency to crack down on opposing opinions has gone one step further: it entered the olympics.

Princeton student Joey Cheek, class of 2011, a world champion speed skater and former Olympian (who was only going to the Olympics to support his team) has had his visa revoked by the Chinese government. The reason? Cheek is an outspoken activist for the genocide in Darfur, and has been critical of China’s many investments in the Sudan. Read More »

The first few minutes of Oxfam International (a “confederation of 13 organizations working together with over 3,000 partners in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice“)’s new exhibit seem normal enough: multimedia presentations detailing refugee experiences, timelines of various conflicts, and lots of photos. Suddenly, however, things drastically change—the model house you are standing in seems to be under attack!

While some group members hide, you and a few others escape into what appears to be a jungle of sorts. Still in disbelief at this turn of events, you stumble on into what looks like a desert… full of land mines. You successfully avoid the explosions and make it to a border crossing. The guards hassle your group ruthlessly, you get pulled aside for questioning, but, finally, after what seems like an eternity, they allow you into the country.

Just beyond the border is a refugee camp where you are told you will be able to stay temporarily. At the entrance you register and formally ask the government for asylum… unreality hits—you are a refugee, no home, no nationality, and most likely not even a complete family.

Freaky right? To be honest I’m not sure I would be able to deal with it. But according to the project’s director Stephanie Cousins, that is the desired effect; Read More »