The Americans have military power and McDonalds. The French have baguettes and Carla Bruni. What do the Swiss have?
It's 10:04 a.m. and the University of Auckland is watching me at the Munchy Mart. Six eyes - four human and two electronic - follow the movements of my body, gazing intently as I navigate the campus convenience store.
Oscar Major? Mechanical engineering Sexual Orientation? Straight What extracurriculars do you participate in? Squash Club Team, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers What are the physical and personality attributes you are looking for in a date? Nice and humble personality.
From what I've gleaned about the dating atmosphere right now, the smoke finally has begun to dissipate, after a hectic coming of age story for first-year students and a nostalgic back to the grind reunion for upperclassmen.
The exponential increase of wedding photo albums on my Facebook newsfeed during the past couple of years has been truly astounding.
Fall is a time University students associate with football, pumpkin carving and, of course, pancakes.
During the past few months, I have acquired a newfound interest in gardening, growing my own produce and learning about farmers' daily lives.
It's hard to be me. Lingering stares as eyes touch on my perfectly proportioned face and tan, chiseled body.
It's the time of year when many University students start to feel the drudge of work and the insatiable desire to play.
"Hey girl, you want to go to the gym with me?" "You mean, 'Do I want to go to the gym and have my self-esteem reduced to -12 on a scale of 1 to 10 because that girl has been running for 40 minutes straight and I get winded walking up stairs?
It all started on a baseball field. Not a typical field with freshly trimmed grass and carefully drawn lines, but a field of solid blacktop with a skate park interrupting right field.
When one of my housemates mentioned a drive-in movie theater, all I could picture was John Travolta as Danny in "Grease" singing about how Sandy left him.
Practice makes perfect Let's be honest, everybody wants to show up to an interview with Northrop Grumman or Wachovia with a few tricks up their sleeves.
For most students, filing tax returns ranks right up there with taking the world’s worst take-home test. But for this exam, the score is measured in cash.
Hearing the unnerving sound of squish, squish, squish beneath my feet was not the triumphant return to Charlottesville I had imagined after last year's Winter Break.
It is not every day that a Nobel Prize winner comes to Charlottesville.
The one thing I have with me at all times isn't a notebook, or my laptop or underwear - it's my cell phone.
Guess who's legitimately 21? That's right, yours truly. I've been anxiously awaiting this day for a long time, for what feels like eons.
Gelato, 2 Euros; gondola ride in Venice, 70 Euros (divided among seven people); feeding a camel named Michael Jackson in Egypt, 2 Egyptian pounds; getting to watch the movie "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" in Turkey - absolutely priceless. By the time the 2009 Semester at Sea Cruise ship, the MV Explorer, set sail June 16, just about everyone I had spoken to about the trip already told me I was about have the "experience of a lifetime." But with eight different countries on the agenda and a ship full of college students from around the world, all I expected was something different.
