Guus Bosman

Yesterday morning I woke up at 6:30. It's good that I asked for a wake-up call, because the alarm didn't go off very loud and I'm not sure if I would have woken up without the ringing of the phone.

Thursday evening we stayed late at work, till 20:30 o'clock or so, and we went straight to the restaurant. Thursday was May 5th, a national holiday in Mexico, so we went to a Mexican restaurant. There were eight people in our party, both from my company and from the customer. Had a real fun evening, with one rule: no talking about work, or you'll pay a round of drinks. Great rule.

The hotel that I stayed in is close to San Juan's international airport, and it was only 10 minutes by cab. Half-way I remembered that I had forgotten to empty the safe in the hotel room, so I had to go back. I was traveling alone, other colleagues were also flying back to DC but with different flights and different departure times.

On the way to Puerto Rico I had a direct flight, but this time my iternary called for a stop-over in Chicago. Not exactly a very efficient route: it took me eight hours to travel from San Juan to Washington, whereas a direct flight takes only four hours.

It was nice to see the Chicago airport, O'Hare again. I was there with Sasha in 1999, when we returned from our job in Six Flags, Great America. Incredible, how things change over time.

I arrived just before 5.00 o'clock in Washington National. At 5.00 o'clock we always have a conference call for our project, so I joined the call from the airport, which was interesting. Then I quickly went home and met with Sasha who was just coming home from a course she had at work. Great to be together.

It was curious if I would feel the house as "home", after have been away for three weeks. After all, we've been here only about six months. But it certainly felt nice to enter our building, and then our apartment, and yes, it's my home, even though it's far from Holland. It also felt nice to see the city again -- I took a cab from the airport, and the road home passes by the Potomac, Rosslyn, and DC in the distance.

We went out for dinner together to an Asian restaurant. A lot of things have happened in the weeks that I've been away: a new pope, Queensday and Liberation Day in Holland, and the strike in the Puerto Rico university has been resolved.