Guus Bosman

Today I received a package with a paper that I wrote 16 years ago, in high school.

The package didn't contain a note, nor did it have the name of the sender. I thought that perhaps Ettie or my parents had sent it, but I couldn't understand why. Thirty minutes later, when I took a picture for this article, it dawned on me that Niels had asked me for my address recently.

A great surprise! It was fun to read the paper. Papers like this motivated me to learn to use a computer. Teachers would tell me that my handwriting was so awful that it was hard to read. I believe this was the first document I created with Microsoft Word, after using WordPerfect for years. The title page was made in Microsoft Publisher.

I was 15 years old when I wrote it and remember the process (and the stress) quite well. Good times!

I'm listening to a French radio station at work, and I heard a nice pop song that I could study for pronunciation and vocabulary.

The female singer has a very nice voice, and I like her accent. Turns out that she was born in Ilpendam, the Netherlands, 25 miles from where I grew up. The song is called le chemin, performed by Kyo and Sita.

She may not be the greatest native speaker to imitate, but it's a lovely song nevertheless.

I went for a haircut this morning and afterwards I visited the farmer's market downtown.

I bought a free-range chicken from a local farmer and some fresh herbs and flowers.

The house we're staying in has an apartment in the basement, and the two dogs of the owners are living there now. Someone comes in twice a day to feed them and walk them.

Every now and then I go downstairs to play with them. They look intimidating but they're very sweet.

When I went downstairs after lunch I heard a cat meowing, and after I put the dogs back in their apartment I looked for the cat. It turned out that the lazy cat was stuck in the cleaning closet. It must have hidden there yesterday when the cleaning ladies were here.

The cat was stressed out after a night in the closet and very happy that I let him out. Sure enough, the first thing he did was run upstairs to his food.