Guus Bosman

software engineering director

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travelling

The Capitol & the Supreme Court

Thu, 10/09/2003 - 3:11pm

The Capitol.On my first day here I saw the White House. Today it was time for the other 2 branches of government: Congress and the Supreme Court.

I went for a tour through the Capitol, the building where the Senate and House of Representatives are. It was really very nice, the guide had good stories about the history and present of the Capitol. After the tour I went to see the Chamber of the House of Representatives, which is the room where the President holds his State of the Union speech.

The Supreme Court.After wards I went to the Supreme Court. I was there yesterday afternoon as well, but the main hall (where the judges work) was closed, because there was a session. Today it was open to the public, and a lady gave a short lecture on how things work at the Supreme Court. It was very nice to be inside such an important institution.

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travelling

Library of Congress

Thu, 10/09/2003 - 2:56pm

I went to the Library of Congress Wednesday afternoon. It's a must for somebody like me, who loves books and reading.

Next to the building, which is really pretty (see the picture on the left of
the main reading hall), there is also a museum inside. They had a lot of special items on display. I particularly like the notebook of Edison, with sketches and drawings of his design for a phone.

In the evening we went to see a movie, Once Upon a Time In Mexico. It was nice, but not all the actors were very good. The music was wonderful though.

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guusbosmannl

Harddisk...

Thu, 10/09/2003 - 2:47pm

It looks like the hard drive of Guus Bosman.nl is really reaching the end of its life.

The website itself still works (obviously, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this), but I'm afraid the situation isn't very stable.

I hope the site will keep working until I'm in the Netherlands again.

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travelling

At the World Bank

Wed, 10/08/2003 - 11:46am

I am writing this from the main World Bank building, in the center of Washington. It's really interesting to be inside here. I got a
visitor's badge, with my picture on it, that allows me to go around in the building. Before you enter there's a security check, like in most public places here.

The building is made with a lot of glass. The main hall is very light and it's huge. I saw the place where Sasha is working, on the 4th floor. She has her own office, very convenient.

Monday we had lunch together in the Bank. There are more than 120 different nationalities working here, so there's a enormous wide variety of food to choose from. I had an Etheopian meal. The chicken was very delicious, it was made with some spices I didn't know. It came with a small portion of vegetables (I thought). When I tasted it, it was some sort of sour sambal: extremely sharp and spicy. It's nice to experiment a bit...

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travelling

Mount Vernon

Wed, 10/08/2003 - 11:22am

Yesterday I made a trip outside Washington. I went to Mount Vernon, which is the mountain where George Washington lived.

It's about 25 kilometers from the city; I went there by metro and then I took a local bus. It's a long trip, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. I bought a newspaper (the Washington Post of course), and read it entirely. It's really big; it's the size of Saturday newspaper in the Netherlands.

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travelling

US National Archive

Mon, 10/06/2003 - 5:26pm

I made a long trip through old town Washington today. I started in the US National Archive, which was really interesting. I saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (the real ones!). They also have online versions.

I visited the National History museum as well. That place is just enormous, and I'll definitely go back there again this week. The cool things is that all these museums are free. This makes it very easy to walk in for just a while, without the feeling that I'm wasting my money.

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travelling

Alexandria and Baltimore

Mon, 10/06/2003 - 11:36am

Yesterday we traveled a lot. Rosa, a friend, brought us to a town called Alexandria. It's an old harbor city with a rich history. Robert E. Lee, the General of the Confederates in the Civil War lived there. We had lunch in a Tavern where George Washington and John Adams used to visit. The town is carefully preserved, and many house are in the old style, really pretty. Next to his Tavern we also saw the church where Washington used to go, and the house he used to live in (before he moved to a bigger place on a hill near the city Washington).

In the afternoon we went to Baltimore; a city north of Washington. We saw the harbor there, which is a beautiful place with many bars and cafes. Regular readers will know that I love books and reading. There was a wonderful, huge bookstore there, with 5 stories of books, books and books.

Barnes and Noble bookstore in Baltimore.

Today I'll read my travel guide of Washington, and after lunch (here in the World Bank) I'll go and see some other touristic things.

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travelling

Pentagon and Lincoln Memorial

Mon, 10/06/2003 - 11:24am

Saturday we spent in the city to see some landmarks. Of course we started in the center, where we saw the White House and had coffee in Starbucks.

Later we took the metro to the Pentagon, something I really wanted to see. It's a massive building, very big. We walked around it, and saw the reconstruction from the damages of September 11th.

From there we took a long walk back to the city, over the Memorial Bridge towards the Lincoln Memorial. We had dinner in Union Station, the big train station of Washington that has recently been renovated. Saw a beautiful exposition there with pictures by a famous photographer (I've forgotten his name) of the city.

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travelling

In Washington

Mon, 10/06/2003 - 10:51am

I am in Washington! It's really very nice to be here -- we had a great weekend together. I'm in the World Bank now, I'm writing this from a library.

I had a nice journey. The flight to Philadelphia took about 8 hours. It has been years since I flew so I really enjoyed it. Of course there was a movie, I saw "the Italian Job". Security was pretty tight on the airports. At Schiphol there was a interview, and everywhere there were extensive luggage checks.

In Philadelphia I took a domestic flight to Washington. I had 2 hours, so I looked around at the airport, and tried a real American hamburger. The flight to Washington was really short, it took about 40 minutes to get there. The plane flies right over the Potomac river, which makes for a great view over the city. You can immediately see the Capitol and other famous buildings. Sasha came to pick me up; it's very nice to be together. That evening we went to George Town, an older part of the city.

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travelling

Flying to Washington

Fri, 10/03/2003 - 7:30am

Finally, I'm in the plane now! After a lot of preparations and arrangement I'm going on holiday.

Of course, I'll be still reachable by e-mail (my hotmail address is the best). And for the bad guys: the house is locked and guarded by a nice electronic system.

I'll try to update the website when I'm there; probably not this weekend anymore though.

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