Guus Bosman

The cherry blossoms are blooming. They are a very popular destination in D.C., and the Tidal Basin is usually very crowded.

Last Sunday I decided to bicycle the "The Lost Blossom Bicycle Tour". In North-West Washington there is a street in the Kenwood neighbourhood where there are a lot of cherry blossom trees.

It was a long trip. I started going north, next to the Potomac, and from there I took the Capital Crescent trail. The cherry blossoms were nice, and there were many people in the small park having lunch and hanging out with their kids.

On my back I cheated a bit with the route. Not to take a short-cut, but it's just that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find my way, so I took Massachusetts Avenue all the way through D.C. until I reached Rock Creek park and crossed the river to go back home.

Some pictures.

When we were in Curacao a few weeks ago, we stayed in Willemstad, the capital of the island.

Curacao is an old Dutch colony of course, so it is in the news in the Netherlands with some frequency, for example when Queen Beatrix visits the Netherlands Antilles.

The classic picture that the Dutch TV stations would show in such a case is the harbor front, with the color facades, and it was very nice to see them in reality. I took some pictures at night.

A couple of weeks ago we saw Brokeback Mountain in the Loews theater in Georgetown.

The story is about two cowboys who fall in love while they are herding sheep on Brokeback Mountain when they are young. They continue their secret relationship in the years to come, although they both get married to a wife and even get children while they're still in love with each other.

The subject of the movie is intolerance towards homosexual people. The story line starts in the 1960s the two men meet, and the movie plays in Wyoming and Texas.

Brokeback Mountain and its director, Ang Lee, won many awards this year, including 3 Oscars.

IMDB has some funny trivia about the movie, especially about director Ang Lee and his experiences with sheep.

Last night I went for the first time by bike to my Spanish course. The course is in a school on Quincy street, near the Arlington library.



It was the 11th lesson yesterday night, and I really start noticing my progress. I must admit that I'm usually pretty tired during the class, but it's very useful and I've learned a lot. Last night we dealt with prepositions of location.



When I biked home it was dark, and I am not very satisfied with the head light on my bike. In the U.S. most bikes have battery-operated lights, and the ones I have don't exactly give a lot of light. Enough to be clearly visible in traffic, but not really strong enough to actually light the road where I'm riding -- not very pleasant. I'll see if there is a battery model that gives more light, or perhaps I should switch to a dynamo light (available if you order it).