Guus Bosman

I went to my French class again tonight. I skipped twice, once because I was in Holland and last week I had too much of a jet lag, but I was happy that I could go again tonight. It's really fun.

We're working on the subjunctive, and also practiced object pronouns, direct and indirect.

On my way to French I heard about Elizabeth Edward's passing, a sad thing. It's bitter cold here now -- tonight it will be 19 degrees Fahrenheit.

On Wednesday I spent the day in Rotterdam. I spent the morning in in bookstores, and in the afternoon I had coffee with Eveline and Paula.

In the late afternoon I went to Joost's new office. Joost and Alle Jan started a company earlier this year (they are architects) and it was fun to see their office in downtown Rotterdam. It looked really creative. We went out for drinks, where Ankie quickly joined us, and we had a excellent evening together.

Today Petra and I went for lunch in an Thai/Chinese/Indonesian cafe in Cary. It was nice to catch up with her.

We examined the nasi goreng and satay with a critical Dutch eye. The verdict: it was delicious, but the nasi goreng especially was different than in the Netherlands.

Later I prepared my cubicle at work for the holiday season.

Yesterday I traveled from the Netherlands back to Durham.

My flight was at 2.30 pm, so we didn't have to leave Middenmeer very early. After packing my bags we had coffee with a piece of pie from the party, and then left for Schiphol.

Checking in my bag took a little while, but when that was done we still had time for a visit to Starbucks. We said goodbye, and I went through security. I was a little worried if they'd check the weight of my hand luggage, but they didn't catch the fact that I was flying with so many books.

I resisted the urge to buy even more chocolate in duty-free, and had a quick sandwich while waiting for the gate to open. The security at the gate was more relaxed this time -- no interviews, only X-ray checks.

The flight to Atlanta was almost 9 hours, followed by a short 1 hour flight to Raleigh/Durham. The first flight was a code-share with KLM and the flight attendants where Dutch. I really liked the food they served -- modern versions of Dutch classics such as red cabbage, apple pie and speculaas ice cream.

My car was still there and the luggage arrived right away (although the bag suffered some damage).

It's great to be home and see Sasha; I've been away for 12 days. I missed the Zanes by a day -- they were at Amy's for Thanksgiving and visited Sasha on Saturday.

Today I'm taking a day off to unpack.