AEGEE- Utrecht has its very own local event committee: MestadCie (which translates to something like ‘my own little city’), which regularly organises local events that are not only fun, but also often have a deeper meaning behind them.
Maartje Natrop, President of the Mestadcie: “In this way, we keep members of our antenna entertained but also inform them about recent matters in Europe. We also pay attention to important themes of AEGEE-Europe, like social inclusion. Last week, we had a Visual Handicapped Night where we had blind food tastings and young, visually impaired speakers.”
In April the MestadCie organised a Smugglers game: an outdoor game that informed members about the 
work of the Visa Freedom Working Group (VFWG) in a fun way. On a warm spring evening, some members of AEGEE-Utrecht gathered in a big park in Utrecht and played a game that goes as follows: there is one ‘king’ who sits on his ‘throne’ – or in this case: spot in the grass – waiting for his subjects to bring him as much money as possible. These subjects have to pick up the money at check-points where the ‘writers’ are writing euro bills for them and deliver them to the king without getting caught. In the meanwhile, ‘customer service employees,’ or ‘boarder guardians’ if you will, have to try to stop them from getting to the king. If you get caught by a boarder guardian, you loose all your money.
The fun part of the game was of course running around in the park and feeling the excitement and the tension: ‘can we safely cross the boarder without being caught?’ Major doses of adrenaline, heart pumping and red cheeks where the physical product of this game.
In the end, all participants received flyers with information about the work of the VFWG and their contact information. The lesson that was remembered by all: it is not so easy to cross boarders for everybody, especially for people from Eastern European AEGEE locals.
In short, a night to remember: a lot of fun with a serious conclusion, typically AEGEE!
Written by Maartje Natrop, AEGEE-Utrecht
Remark by The AEGEEan: This article is republished in The AEGEEan with approval of the Eastern Partnership Project.