My girlfriend is studying abroad?

[Brendan]

A little background- me and my girlfriend have been going out for 4 years, we have a great relationship, her family loves me, etc. She just left about a week ago to study abroad in Istanbul and London, and while I support her getting that experience, and learning about different cultures, I don't know how I feel about her having unbridled freedom in a foreign country with a mixed group of guys and girls. She has been texting me sporadically throughout her time there, and we talked on the phone once for 5 minutes. I'm really not a jealous type of person, but this is a pretty extreme situation. I also noticed via her facebook that she spends a lot of time with this one other girl and 3 guys- also the girl and two of the guys went out for drinks on her second night there. She also has seemed a little distant since she went over- My question is I am over reacting, or do I have a legitimate reason to worry?

[Brandon]

I'd be worried man. If you trust her judgment then it should be no problem. Recently I traveled to South America (I am American) for studying and met a nice girl (Latina) there,. We dated for 8 months and just ended a few days ago because I found her cheating with another man deliberately going behind my back and talking about love with someone she had never even met in another country. I had to come back to the U.S. because I didn't have the visa to stay more time than I wanted and we just grew distant with less and less communication. I would worry too because if you really care about her that's normal in a relationship and women see it as overbearing and jealousy. However, women are very sly and not sure at times what they want in life so they could cheat (sad but true).My situation is different from yours in that your girlfriend will eventually come back to the U.S. Ask yourself some practical questions, and really think about the situation.

1. Can you trust her? have you trusted her in the past?
2. Is she going to dedicate her time only to you?
3. Is she only looking for a good time?
4. If you are angry? why so? how can you fix this?
Just be careful that's all