Guus Bosman

Last Friday we went to the Christmas party of Sasha's work. When arrived around 7.30 pm there were already a lot of people. Like last year the food and decorations were excellent, and there was a real festive atmosphere.

We met a lot of Sasha's colleagues -- Sasha is working in a different department since last year so there were many new faces for me. We had dinner and talked a lot. A bit later we found Rosa and Jenny in a line for the buffet, a very pleasant surprise.

In the crowd I saw Paul Wolfowitz, the new president, surrounded by a lot of people.

After dinner we went to a bar downstairs where we had deserts and some drinks, and then to our favorite destination, a disco-style dancefloor. It was really crowded and dark, like a club, with a great mixture of Latin music, greatest hits and others. We danced for a long time, and had a realyblast.

Later we moved to the dancefloor upstairs, where there was a life band playing rock & roll music and we met a lot of Rosa's friends. We danced all night and were among the last ones to leave the party.

Yesterday was my first day after a week in Puerto Rico, and the change in weather was dramatic: there was a nice layer of snow on the world when I walked to my work.

For the first time since a long time I was wearing my real winter shoes again. At worked I changed to work shoes, and of course in the evening I forgot my winter shoes at work.

Every time the weather is slightly different than average the news channels are covering the "snow storms" full time. This time CNN had a special reporter in Secaucus, to show how much it was snowing there.

Last night I travelled back to Washington.

I stayed a week in Puerto Rico, longer than I had originally planned, and it's very nice to go back home. American Airlines, the airline that I usually fly with, has a great slogan "we know why you fly". In their commercials they show the various (family) reason why people fly, and the best ads are with people flying home. Most likely I won't go to Puerto Rico this year anymore.

I was later than usual at the airport, the cab driver had to get gas and left the highway to find a low price gas station. That was a bit annoing because I didn't want to have to rush at the airport. The lines were short though, so the check in went quickly. It really is low-season in Puerto Rico now, there are much less people travelling now than a few months ago.

My original flight to Washington D.C. had more than three hours delay, so I changed my ticket to fly to Baltimore instead. I was told that there was no captain for the other flight yet, and the lady at the counter was very nice and give me an exit row seat.

There is a big difference in weather between Puerto Rico and Virginia... it started snowing! Tomorrow morning's I had a meeting, which was cancelled because of the possibility of a lot of snow tomorrow ("inclement weather conditions", as they say in the States).

When we arrived on the airport Thursday morning I was amazed by the amount of Christmas decorations that were put up. The entire airport was decorated in Christmas style.

It turns out that this is what most Puerto Ricans do around Christmas -- everywhere you go, there is an abundance of Christmas trees, Santa Clauses and other decorations. My theory is that this is to compensate for the lack of snow and other natural Christmas-like resources on a tropical island.