For better or for worse, every collegiette has a sQuAd. Sometimes, your squad happens to all go abroad at the same time, choosing to meet up in the freezing rain to camp in Munich for 3 days (honorary mention, 3 hours of snow). On Gossip Girl, you are either a Serena or a Blair, with Sex and the City, a Samantha, Carrie, or Charlotte (sorry Miranda, but no one has ever chosen to be a Miranda). However, in the confusing and enlightening world of being an abroad student, every American student must choose between being a Kaitie or a Margaret, a Kalli or a Claire, or most difficult of all, a Laura or a Patrick. #TUABROAD2016
THE KAITIE
Though you occasionally appear to have just crawled out of a trash can, you are in fact a high achieving super star. A Kaitie can typically be found standing on a bar stool or any elevated surface, waving her hands rapidly whilst simultaneously holding a cell phone 2 inches from her face. Would you rather backpack around Europe than stay in a 5 star hotel? Do you love sprinting everywhere? Are you a social butterfly with a remarkably calm demeanor? Do you run into random childhood friends in almost every major European city? If so, then you are a Lil K, a Kaitie.
THE CLAIRE
Have you ever been so angry you wanted to punch someone? Have you ever actually put this punch into action? Does your intense fear of being alone also make you an extraordinarily loyal friend, causing you to become very emotional at the thought of leaving your besties? Do you feud often with the Kalli in your life, while also being close best friends with the Kalli in your life? Do you bleed political science and Hillary Clinton? Does this annoy the Kalli in your life? Are you more of homebody in your host city than a traveler, choosing to chill out with your friends at the closest Spanish bar rather than try to see all of Europe in 5 months? Are you Poot Lovato? If so, you are probably a Claire.
THE KALLI
Have you ever missed Texas so much that you start crying? Are you allergic to cold weather? Do you pretend to be annoyed with your Claire and Patrick but secretly love them? Could you ever receive an award for being a good friend? Are Europeans confused by your ~*mysterious*~ attitude? Are you afflicted with extreme travel bug, spending almost every weekend abroad in a different European city, slowly sipping wine in your sunglasses due to a permanent hang over? If you love to travel, and love the Lone Star state, then you are 5000% a K-Dog.
THE LAURA
Do you always have a beer in your hand? Do you have an auto-pilot setting that allows you to spend the first half of your day in a low power, pre-hungover, post-5 am chug state? Does every foreign man you’ve ever met fall in love with you? Do you sometimes move so slowly while getting ready that your friends have referred to you as an oblivious grandmother? Have you instagrammed less than 5 times in the last 10 months? Can you turn any situation into a party, even when you’re camping outside and it just started snowing? If so, you are 100% a Gram.
THE LAUREN
If you have ever had your phone stolen in a foreign country and instead of getting upset and throwing a pity party, you immediately got a new random European phone for the sole purpose of keeping your snap game strong then you are a Lauren. Bonus L Travioli points if you also have the meanest side eye in the game and are a warrior who goes abroad completely solo.
THE MARGARET
Do you try to turn every conversation into a discussion about the differences in mental health between Europe and the States? Have you ever spent more than 3 hours searching for a drunk person? Are you typically the person in charge, militantly leading your friends (troops) back home? Do you worship Carly Rae Jepsen and get upset when European bars will not play her? Do you bring up women’s issues in conversation with almost every European male? Do these conversations usually end with them walking away? If so, you are definitely a Margaret.
THE PATRICK
Do you always have a bottle of cheap champagne in your back pocket? Are you impeccably well dressed even whilst camping? Do you own more than two scarves? Do you keep an almost obsessive-compulsive travel journal and collection of tourist art prints to rival the collection of an 80-year-old woman? Do you have a seemingly unbreakable positive attitude at all times? Have you ever screamed the word “RAGE” at the top of your lungs in a completely silent room? If so, you are a Patrick.
THE JONNY
Do you wear at least one article of San Francisco area sports apparel every day? Do you refuse to assimilate into European culture by blatantly advertising your sports fanaticism? Do you have unbreakable bonds with your ~*home friends*~? Are you as comfortable singing Britney Spears karaoke in cat eye sunglasses as you are at a Giants game? Do you sometimes wish the Kaitie in your life would stop sprinting into the darkness? If so, you are 100% a Jonny.
THE ALANNA
If you have ever given someone the advice “say yes to everything!” or have at least 3 decal wall quotations that have the words “friends,” “love,” or “coffee” in them on your wall, then you are an Alanna. If you can be found jumping out of planes and hiking through South Africa while looking flawless in a lululemon workout top, then you are Alanna. If you are the most beautiful person in the world and rainbows erupt from the ground when you walk on it, then you are absolutely 100% definitely a Mama Lan.