You can learn a lot while abroad. Culture, academics, what it’s like to be in a sweaty dark room blaring some European trap music you don’t know. By far the most pressing lesson I have learned is that Americans really are the “True Gentlemen” or “Resolute Men” they claim to be. Don’t let the fake news tell you otherwise because this hot take is coming from real life experience.
Do you know how often I’m catcalled at my university with 40,000 students and over 50 fraternities? Never. I don’t remember the amount of times I’ve been catcalled here walking alone during the day in a suit as I’ve learned to block it out or walk with my head down to avoid the looks I get but I do remember being shouted that I have a nice ass from a man driving a Vespa as I was walking up a hill.
Now let’s get into nightlife. Frat guys obviously say a lot of stupid things about girls. “Locker room talk” it’ll be called. Usually along the lines of saying something to a friend about a girl’s body. Not condoning that at all, it’s quite hard to hear. Though I don’t believe I’ve ever heard “don’t get the girls vodka because they’ll throw up on our dicks later when they give us head” in a fraternity. In Ireland, I heard it shouted while trying to order drinks.
Sure, European men are generous with the drinks. Unlike in America, one drink is your commitment to staying with them the entire night and leaving with them as I learned quickly after being followed on a bar crawl. Guess who saved me from my stalker? Some nice Delta Sigs from UGA.
Also make sure to add to your abroad bucket list casually dancing (standing with your friends will work too) in a bar and not having a guy come up and try to grind on you. If you can achieve this, go for the advanced version which involves standing in a bar and not being grabbed by someone walking by. Mastery is going out and not receiving extremely unsettling looks.
I could say this is an American phenomenon. But I can only speak for the college age group. Guess what Europe’s missing there? Fraternities. The media hates fraternities. Sure, some guys in fraternities do a lot of horrible things. The amount of times you hear “guys in frats are such idiots” while living in a sorority is remarkable. The world we live in however is relative. And most fraternity guys know god damn well or at least better how to respect women. I don’t know if this is the missing piece to the puzzle of why European guys are such creeps but it’s continent of geeds..