Everyone I’ve ever met has a dark past with tequila. Just the mention of it makes their face go sour–the shots, the smell, the blinding drunk, and a hellacious hangover the next morning. For some reason, I am not one of those people. But after my family vacation to Mexico last week, I learned a bit about another South-of-the-Border brew: Mezcal.

Like tequila (which is actually a type of mezcal), mezcal is made from agave, a cactus-like plant, native to Mexico. Mezcals are often aged, in oak barrels, for two months to seven years, giving the alcohol a brown coloration and woody flavor, but are available un-aged and clear.

Connoisseurs will tell you the best mezcals come from the Mexican state of Oaxaca (wah-hock-ah). To fully enjoy the complexities of this subtle liquor, go to the city of Oaxaca, the state’s capital, who’s colonial architecture and friendly people only add to the liquor’s historic mystic. Read More »

Imagine combining the joys of Aladdin’s ‘Whole New World’ with the hedonism of Huxley’s ‘Brave New World‘ and you’ll be feeling pretty good about your post-college-in-my-own-apartment-sweet-life. Well au contraire, my friend whom I occasionally speak French with: before you start buying cool things like solo cups and Franzia, follow these basic financial rules:

Make a Budget

First of all, if you own your own jet or flying car, stop reading this column immediately and buy me something awesome (like a flying car). If you are, however, with the rest of us, you might want to consider making a budget: a list of all planned expenses and revenues. Read More »

Being a writer for a college aged audience, I feel that you can understand my plight about socks. Socks themselves are tremendous. They provide comfort and keep me blister free during the five minutes of physical excersize I do a week as well as keep my extensive sneaker collection stench-free. However, when it comes to doing laundry, I always come out with one extra sock. I guess extra is the wrong word, I should say that I always lose one sock and there is one left over with no partner. This is more than just a metaphor for the members’ of Fall Out Boys‘ love lives, it is a conspiracy. Laundromats, college and apartment building’s laundry rooms, and sock companies are clearly in cahoots with each other. Every load of laundry someone in our situation does, these evil machines steal one of our socks, ship them to a warehouse, and they repackage them and resell them in department stores everywhere. I know this is not exactly a fashion article, but I am sick and tired of being taken advantage of by the Maytag Man and it is time for us self-sufficient, laundry-doing men to do something about this. Sock wearers of the world unite.

When I was a sophomore living in my sorority house, I was blessed with the honor of living in a quad. Not only did I have to share a room with three other girls (who all had way too much stuff), but the room was also tiny, and there was absolutely no privacy.

But after living there for a few months, I realized that there were some perks to this unwanted living situation. For one thing, the girls I lived with were hilarious. We were always having a good time drinking, watching movies or just hanging out. They were also nice to have around in a time of crisis, kind of a 24-hour support system. Even with all these perks, though, the small space created many issues, the least of which was a lack of drawer space.

My all-time-worst moment in this itty-bitty box of a room happened after a sorority date-party. For those of you who don't know, a sorority date-party consists of asking guys to join you at a bar where everyone gets very, very drunk. Unlike every other night of the week, date-parties also involve dressing up, “dark buses” (buses that have no lights on in them) and a photographer. Anyway, needless to say, my roommates and I got quite intoxicated. Upon returning to the sorority house, everyone proceeded to leave her man outside and completely pass out, fully clothed.

At some point during the night, I suddenly woke up and inhaled: something smelled really bad. It took me awhile to figure out where I was, why I was still wearing heels and why there was a slice of pizza in my hand. I also noticed that my roommate Jamie (whose bottom bunk was a mere 4 inches away from mine) was also up and sniffing the air with a not-so-happy look on her face.

'Dude, what is that smell?' she said, sniffing the air like a puppy in heat. I began looking around the room, trying to figure out what was going on. Considering the small size of our living quarters, it took only a second to find the culprit: at 5:30 in the morning, wearing a beautiful black BCBG dress, my roommate was squatting over the bottom drawer (MY DRAWER!) of the dresser … taking a dump.

'MARISSA!!' I screamed, 'What the hell are you doing in my underwear drawer!?'
'What?' She responded, confused. 'Why are you in the bathroom stall with me?'
'You are not in the bathroom, you moron, you are in our bedroom … taking a crap on my thongs!' I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or throw up all over myself. A moment later, I was ready to do all three.

As Marissa finally realized what she was doing, she (in a still-drunken stupor) attempted to clean up her mess, effectively wiping her excrement on every wall from the room to the bathroom. I couldn't help but scream. And kick. And cry. And throw up a little in my mouth. Soon the entire sorority was awake and screaming along with me. Thank God for our house mother; she sent us all to sleep in another sorority house for the day, while she called in a cleaning crew to fix the mess.

I ended up living in a triple for the end of my sophomore year. Marissa ended up living alone. Normally, a single would be impossible to get for a sophomore, but as it turns out, no one wanted to live with the pooper.

I found out the hard way that food can spell disaster for a freshman dorm. There'll be a lot of it floating in and out of your room, so make sure you have the proper garbage receptacles (with bags!) and recycle bins handy. I didn't. My freshman roommate ordered some Chinese one night and then chucked the container (well, at least I thought he did). Weeks later, there was an awful smell in the room, which I took to be his body odor (he didn't shower all that much, but that's a different story). I didn't want to confront him about it, so I just let the problem persist. One night, I was cleaning up the room and noticed the container jutting out from underneath some of his clothes in the corner. I reached down for it and shrank away in disgust. I had found the smell. There, sitting in the middle of the container, was a weeks-old piece of moldy broccoli. Ugh.

So a word to the wise: If you eat a meal in your room, put your leftovers in your mini-fridge, give them away or throw them out (in the laundry or garbage room).

WHEN TO GO
'Make your decision early so you won't get caught in tight situations.'
Tenisha Davidson
Georgetown University to Bowie State University

WHY YOU SHOULD LEAVE
'I loved everything (at UConn) except the classes here are a lot more interesting because they have the ones I want to take for my major. I like the classes and the people I work with. But UConn is ten times better.'
Sean Fish
University of Connecticut to University of Delaware

'If you didn't get into your first-choice school, you should re-apply. It's easier to get in as a transfer student than it is as a freshman, since most schools' admittance restrictions are a lot less when considering transfers. Most schools won't even look at your SAT scores after you have completed a certain amount of credits.'
Adzio Czerski
Emerson College to Chapman College

WHAT TO CONSIDER
'The school you pick is probably the last undergrad college you will attend. Make a confident decision and stick with it, but first review all of your options. Adjusting to a new school is easy if you get involved right away.'
J. Austin Cobb
Hendrix College to University of Arkansas-Fayetteville

DIFFICULT MOVES
'I got placed on a primarily freshman floor as a transfer sophomore. It's hard when you are placed on a freshman floor because you're new to the school, but you are not new to college life. I had a rough first year transitioning, but I eventually found my niche by applying to be an RA.'
Erin Elias
Salve Regina University to Syracuse University

'Adjusting to the new school is like your freshman year all over again so learn from your freshman year and you should be OK.'
Laura Critcher
Cedar Crest College to Buffalo State University

'Be open to the good and the bad. In my new school, I made friends through the theater department. Now, I hang out with theater people and people that don't go to school at all.'
Monica Solc
University of Nebraska to University of Southern California