Guus Bosman

Yesterday we moved the last things out of our apartment. Jaap helped me out (thanks a lot!).

We first went to throw away some old furniture and larger pieces of garbage. Then we brought the boxes and things for storing downstairs. Things went smoothly and around 12:30 o'clock everything was in the car (see some pictures).

We afterwards went to the post office and I sent some books to the U.S. They will take between six and eight weeks to arrive. The package was 12 kilogram and even though I can take more than 60 kilogram with me in my luggage Monday, it would have been too much to bring these 10 books.

We were in Middenmeer at 15:00 o'clock, where Ettie and I picked up Mieke from her school. She had been celebrating her birthday (she'll have a birthday tomorrow) and received a lot of presents from the children.

It was nice and relaxing to be in Middenmeer, I was rather tired. Went to bed at 22:00 o'clock.

Today I'm moving out of the apartment.

In the morning I brought old the things that are for throwing downstairs. A fair share of our furniture was second-hand, and is not worth storing.

Jaap will be here in a while with the car to help me out (thanks!). Daniël stayed here tonight for the last time and helped me taking down some of the larger items.

I went to pick up my passport with the new visa from the postoffice. I didn't hear the mail coming yesterday morning, otherwise I could have even got it yesterday: the consulate was really quick. There was a note saying it would be available for pickup today.

Interestingly, on the note it said that I would have to bring a form of I.D. with me. My only formal I.D. is well, my passport, so that caused a nice chicken-and-egg situation. The guy at the post office said it was no problem; we opened the mail together at the counter and he gave me my passport. So I've got it, my passport with a nice, big visa-sticker in it!

After this I went to Amsterdam, to Killroy, a travel agency where I paid my ticket. I'm flying Monday morning, at 11:00 o'clock with Delta Airlines.

Yesterday I spent sorting papers, writing letters to the phone company, DSL company etc. In the evening I had a nice dinner with Jelly and she came and picked up a plant (thank you!). Most of the paperwork is done now, which is a nice feeling. Today I'll spent the day packing the last bits of the house, mainly the kitchen tools. The computer, of course, will be the last thing to pack.

Yesterday I went to the American consulate to apply for my visa that will allow me to work with my new employer in the U.S.

I've been to the consulate, which is at the Museumplein in Amsterdam, a few times before. Twice with Sasha, and before that in 1998 and 1999 for my two summer jobs, so I kind of knew what to expect. I had an appointment at 11:00 o'clock but I arrived around 10:30 o'clock. That was a good move, because they let me in anyway. It took the guard a little while to find me on the list with appointments which was a bit scary but everything was fine. Nowadays they have a pretty flexible call-center in place for appointments that's much better than the computerized system they used to have.

Security was tighter than when I went there in 1999, which is sad. In the consulate the TV had a special broadcast on the murder of Theo van Gogh.

Inside things went pretty smoothly. They took my finger prints using a neat electronic machine. The lady who helped me was very friendly and told me the visa should be back in my possession in about three days. She said she'd try to mail it this afternoon.