Guus Bosman

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).

Today I went for a back ride around Arlington.

I used four dedicated bicycle trails, so I hardly encountered any car traffic. I started by going to the Roosevelt Island entrance, and from there to Reagan National Airport. The second part of my trip brought me to Shirlington, where I had lunch at a sandwich place next to Carlyle's.

From Shirlington I continued the Four Mile Run trail (which is actually 6,5 miles). To get back home I used the Curtis trail. Initially I missed the exit to the east-bound Curtis trail, and it took me some 15 minutes to realize I was traveling west, not east.

When I got home I found this route on-line and it is named the Arlington Triangle. The link nicely shows the various trails I took. They call it a "nice, short route of only 17 miles", but I was rather proud of completing it. Of course I brought my camera so I have some pictures of my trip online.

The parking meters in Arlington have a nice slogan:


All may park, all must pay.

Last night we saw Lord of War, a movie about international arms trade.

The movie was made as if it were a documentary about Yuri Orlov, a trader in arms or "gun runner" played by Nicolas Cage. Orlov grows up in Little Odessa and slowly becomes the world most successful arms trader. His big boost comes when the Iron Curtain falls and he starts trading huge amounts of weapons between his native Ukraine and other countries to West-Africa.

The movie had an interesting, if at times cynical plot as it deals with the conflict that Orlov faces between his drive for success and the immorality of his work.

Some of the scenes were cruel to see, which was part of the movie's message of course, but over-all it treated the subject with a mixture of moral analysis, reporting-style objectivity and humor.