Guus Bosman

I am traveling to the United States tomorrow!

The alarm will go at 5:00 o'clock in the morning; that's in about six hours. Jaap, Mieke, Ettie and I will be at Schiphol around 7:00 o'clock. I just said goodbye to Gerben.

I'm looking forward to meet my friends tomorrow morning; too bad I missed all the party's this weekend: Jerry on Friday, Jelly on Saturday and Rob & Kirsten on Sunday.

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.

This morning I have an appointment with the U.S. consulate in Amsterdam. I'm applying for a working permit that will allow me to start work with my new employer in the U.S.

My appointment is at 11:00 o'clock and even though there is not much that can go wrong, I'm a little bit nervous and I woke up early. I'll drop by at Chess in the morning to fill in an electronic form (our printer is out of black ink); yesterday I did the other preparations.