Swimming finally felt good again tonight. I don't know why it's taken so long to get into the swing of this team, whether it's the irritating wavy pool, the fact that I haven't been in the water anywhere near as regularly as usual, or what, but tonight I finally felt like I was back to my old self a bit. And I was leading the lane the whole time, which was great. Hope it lasts. There are some people - Angela and Sarah Sue from UF, for example - who can be out of the water for months and then hop in and break pool records during a meet - but I am not one of them. If I don't swim for a while, I get slow. When my shoulders were messed up after Key West and I didn't use my arms for 2-3 weeks, my speed was way down when I could finally use them again. (One good thing about my lack of pool time for the past couple weeks, though - my shoulders don't even twinge anymore, not at all, even when I'm lying on my stomach propped on my elbows reading, which I couldn't do comfortably before.) I can't wait until the 19th, though, when the Krommerijn opens, because then I can start going there in the mornings and then do my Waddinxveen team and the Utrecht student swim club in the evenings. It's hard to explain, but I just don't feel like me unless I'm swimming at least 20k a week. My appetite is off (I have to eat when the dining hall is open, so I'm being forced to eat when I'm not hungry), my sleeping patterns are off (it's harder to go to sleep at night and I wake up around 6 in the morning)... et cetera. So I'm glad things felt good today for a change. I'll sleep tonight.

My newest thing: finding a new apartment for spring. La Mancha is jacking their rent up by $100 a month, since they're turning into condos, and there's no way I'm paying $505 for my itty-bitty room. The only reason it was worth $405 is because of the proximity to campus; $505 is just not happening. Monique, awesome chick that she is, needs someone to share her rent with for spring and is trying to move from her one-bedroom into a two-bedroom, but her complex says they may not have space for her to do that and for her to check back in November. Well, that's obviously too long to wait. Anna also has a bedroom and bathroom in the house she and her brother share; it would be $395 plus utilities. Beyond those two tips, I've heard about Rockwood Villas and Oakbrook Walk (thank you Hayley and Annie), so I'll be checking those out too. If any of you Gvillers hear anything about a free apartment/bedroom/cardboard box for spring semester, please let me know!

One more random note. In a land of tall, blond, slender people, I am short, brunette, and, well, muscular. With the insane height of some of these people (like the guy I played basketball with yesterday, who could simply stand in the middle of the court and hold the ball above his head and make the rest of us helpless to do anything), you would think that they'd be big milk drinkers. And yet their milk is packaged in liters (quarts, or 1/4 of a gallon). I can drink a liter in a day. Actually, I can drink a liter at one meal. Or, if you prefer, I can drink a liter while walking to University College, as I did tonight.

Last random note: No matter how un-American it may make me, I love the homemade Dutch pizza. I don't know what they do to it - or don't do to it - but it's a thousand times better than ours. Especially the kind with peppers on it. Bakkerij Barts has it and so does the famous stand at the Oudegracht with the broodjes Mario. Yum, yum, yum.