So today was the UCU Sportdag, meaning we spent the day in our "families" (that's what they call the groups we're divided up into) moving from station to station, doing all different sports. I missed the first two activities (dodgeball and tug-of-war) because I had to go meet Martin at Utrecht Centraal to pick up Jolanda's cell phone (which I now have, with 22 euro beltegoed, so it's 06-14170962 if you feel like calling me!) But I was there for the rest, which were: American football (actually a weird simplified made-up version of it), Ultimate Frisbee, basketball, soccer, volleyball, sumo wrestling (in giant heavy suits) and 'Gladiator', where you stand facing each other on two stumplike protrusion (above one of those rubber bouncy things like at KidZone) and use big soft heavy sticks to try to knock each other off. Everything was a lot of fun except for this one game where we had to run a lap around the quad all tied together, racing another team. We ran at such different speeds that it didn't work very well at the start, and my string actually ended up breaking - which was actually a relief, since I felt like I was being pulled forward and was going to fall any second. So the last three of us (me and the two girls behind me, Mierta (sp?) and Doortje) sort of disconnected and finished by ourselves, meaning that even though our team crossed the finish line first, we lost because we weren't all together. We lost at American football, too, but won everything else.

As for me personally, I won my rounds of Gladiator and sumo wrestling, got a couple of hot streaks of serving at volleyball, and also did really well at basketball and Ultimate Frisbee. (Ultimate Frisbee's apparently not a normal game here, but it went down big - a couple people actually asked me about starting a team!) And I loved the basketball game; it was just the way I like it: full-court and fast-paced, but played with people who are just average, not really stars, meaning I wasn't out of my league by any means. I was the only girl on the court, but I made several baskets and had some good plays. (Nobody seemed to know about picks, which made them a pretty effective strategy, except for the fact that my teammates almost never hung onto the ball long enough to give me the chance to pick their defender, LOL! The one time I did, the guy I picked was so much taller than me that his shoulder slammed into my jaw. It's a little tender, but it'll heal.) Anyway, in summary, it was a great day. I could have carried on playing basketball all day! All the other girls in the group (except for one, Linda) were sort of negative about having a sports day - for the past few days a couple of them were talking about how much they weren't looking forward to it, and most of them didn't try to join in a whole lot - but I thought it was the best day we'd had so far. Sigh. I miss swimming.

Anyway, so that took up the whole day, and then we all showered and met up again for dinner - fried fish, French fries, salad, peas/carrots/peppers, and chocolate pudding. The food isn't bad, but I do hate the fact that they don't serve milk with dinner. (And when they do serve it - only at breakfast - it's two percent, not skim.) But I'm going to the grocery store tomorrow and I'll get some milk and orange juice then (plus tea, shampoo, and a couple of other things).

Speaking of buying things, I've decided that I'm going to write down absolutely everything I spend money on - to keep myself accountable. It's been four days and here's my list:

8/25 €07.10 train ticket from Schiphol to Utrecht
8/25 €19.20 one long strippenkaart
8/25 €66.00 bed linens
8/25 €25.00 key deposit
8/25 €03.00 two glasses of wine (at the first party)
8/26 €2812.00 University College fees
8/26 €01.50 slice of pizza from my old favorite stand (while touring the city)
8/26 €70.00 bike
8/27 €29.90 thin dark brown coat (H&M)
8/27 €09.49 Internet cable
8/28 €20.00 T-Mobile pre-paid internet card

Total: €3063.19 (without UCU fees, only €251.19 ... not bad!)

(By the way, does anyone know how to make the Euro symbol on a laptop keyboard? I had to jack it from a random site.)

One last comment: Mom, you will love my jacket. It's exactly the one you'd have picked out for me if you'd been there, I know it. No, I don't have a picture, but I'll try to remedy that soon. I'm working on a UCU picture folder in my Flickr account, but it's only got three pictures in it so far, haha. More to come!