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Traveling Abroad This Summer? Become A Triptrotter Before You Go!

Any well-traveled collegiette™ knows the best memories abroad come from the times you spent with the locals. Locals are inevitably your key to a complete cultural immersion. Do as the locals do, and your experience will be completely different than doing as the tourists do. Because in all honesty, you can only embrace your inner-awkward tourist for so long. Getting lost and being uncomfortably starred at because you order French fries is all fun and games the first time around, but after a couple of repeat offenders, you’ll be hoping to switch roles with the starrers in no time. Confession: I went as far as cutting bangs into my hair in an attempt to become a Sevillana woman when I studied abroad. I have curly blonde hair; it was not the best look. Save yourself the bad haircut, and any other acts of desperation to roll with the locals abroad, and sign up for Triptrotting now. 


It’s  a really awesome  website that will set you up with a local in your host country, alleviating the fear of having to figure it all our on your own. This will also decrease the number of nights you’ll be wandering around aimlessly trying to find out where all the cute guys are hiding, or where the best tiramisu can be devoured on a collegiette’s™  budget. 

And don’t worry about getting setup with someone who has different interests or motives than you. Triptrotting takes connecting travelers with locals very seriously. You are matched with people based on your common interests. You’re bound to find the perfect local match whether  you’re looking for a friend to tutor you the native language, or just a pal to show you around. Triptrotting guarantees they’ll connect you with a like-minded local, allowing you to bring home a friendship, in addition to your other souveneirs

Now that you’re hooked, you’re probably wondering what’s next. Well, other than visiting the site and signing up ASAP, Triptrotting is also searching for the “Ultimate Triptrotter.”  This contest can give any lucky collegiette ™ the chance to travel around the globe and meet up with local Triptrotters. Just visit their Facebook page here for more details. Hopefully, you’ll be able to  ditch the summer job and grab your passport if you’re not planning on going abroad already.

What do you think traveling collegiettes™ ? Are you going to become a Triptrotter or what?!

Nicole is a senior at the University of Iowa majoring in journalism and Spanish. A native of the Chicago suburbs, she is an editor for the metro section at the Daily Iowan and writes Monday night recaps of her favorite TV show (and guilty pleasure) 'Gossip Girl' on Hollywoodlife.com. She spent this last summer in New York City interning at Hollywoodlife.com and a New York-based lifestyle and travel magazine, the Resident. She's exclusively interviewed several celebrities such as Bethenny Frankel, Margaret Cho, Joel Madden & Cheryl Burke. After graduation Nicole plans on returning to NYC and pursuing her career in journalism. In her free time she enjoys doing yoga, reading, and spending time with family and friends.