Guus Bosman

Yesterday morning I woke up at 6:30. It's good that I asked for a wake-up call, because the alarm didn't go off very loud and I'm not sure if I would have woken up without the ringing of the phone.

Thursday evening we stayed late at work, till 20:30 o'clock or so, and we went straight to the restaurant. Thursday was May 5th, a national holiday in Mexico, so we went to a Mexican restaurant. There were eight people in our party, both from my company and from the customer. Had a real fun evening, with one rule: no talking about work, or you'll pay a round of drinks. Great rule.

The hotel that I stayed in is close to San Juan's international airport, and it was only 10 minutes by cab. Half-way I remembered that I had forgotten to empty the safe in the hotel room, so I had to go back. I was traveling alone, other colleagues were also flying back to DC but with different flights and different departure times.

Last Sunday when I was having breakfast, I saw a group of people outside at the pool. Usually the pool is empty, especially in the morning, and I thought: "oh, on Sunday people start swimming earlier of course".

When I came up to my room I heard people again and it turned out to be some kind of photo-shoot.

A week ago on Sunday morning we had a nice breakfast together in the hotel itself. The restaurant was overlooking the sea, and it was very sunny so the view was great. Coffee, great view, being together... an excellent start of the day.

The waiter made a unpleasant mistake, which wasn't very nice but certainly couldn't ruin our mood. And after the breakfast, she came back and apologized and said the breakfast was on the hotel. Nice gesture.

Wednesday night we went out for dinner, and spent the evening in a Mexican restaurant with nice food and margarita's. Thursday night one of my colleagues who lives on this island, brought us to a local student bar near the university, where we had a few beers and danced on the local music. The bar, called Shannens, calls itself a Irish Pub but it's a big mystery why. They don't have Irish beers, nor any Irish background -- the place is actually sponsored by Heineken. Nevertheless, it was a great place to go out to, and I liked it. There was a life band playing a nice combination of Spanish rock and Caribean music. They sure know how to play good dance music here and dance to it!

Friday evening I was very tired. Three colleagues went back to the States, and there are only two of us left in the hotel now. I spent the evening alone, which was very nice for a change after two intense weeks -- I had a great time with my colleagues here, they are nice to go out with and fun, but I just needed a little break and physical rest.

I had dinner in a restaurant in the hotel across the street, their great pasta dish again, with two beers. I went to bed at 22.00 o'clock and didn't wake up until 9.30 o'clock this morning. Breakfast downstairs, now I'm back in the hotel room. In a little while I'll meet up with Kevin, my other remaining colleague.

Today is Ettie's birthday.

She is celebrating today in Leeuwarden, and my father is there as well. Last weekend she had a party in Middenmeer, and I regret it that we couldn't be there.

Anyway -- congratulations from both of us!

This afternoon I bought a new network cable for my laptop. The hotel provides an internet connection in the room, but you need to bring your own cable to connect to it. Last week I borrowed somebody else's, but I got my own today.

I didn't really pay attention, except that I didn't want to pay to much money, these cables are so expensive! I bought the cheapest one I could find, a short one. Only when I arrived in the hotel room I realized that three feet is really very short! So now I'm sitting on the floor.

I went for dinner with four colleagues in a restaurant in the hotel across the street. I had pasta there, with a salad. I spoke with Sasha on the phone when she was changing planes, she'll be home around this time.

It's nice to enter a room for the first time, and I liked unpacking my stuff. If everything goes as planned, I'll stay 10 more nights here.

This morning Sasha arrived in Puerto Rico!

She took an early flight and checked in the hotel around 14:00 o'clock. I'm still in the office, but looking forward to the weekend!

It's been a long day today.

We were in the office around 8.30 o'clock, and we stayed till after 20.00 o'clock. We got a lot of work done, obviously.

We went for dinner together again, my two colleagues who I'm working with and I. This time we went to an Argentinian restaurant, a steakhouse. A lot of meat, not very healthy but delicious.

The weather is still not that very good, it's been raining every now and then since I came here. Today around noon we had a rather spectacular thunderstorm. Let's hope in the weekend the weather is better.

We spent the previous weekend very pleasantly. Rosa had invited us to celebrate her birthday with a brunch in a resort outside Washington. Of course, that was an invitation that was gladly accepted. The brunch was on Sunday morning, abd we took the opportunity and booked a night in the hotel at the resort as well.

So, on Saturday morning we travelled to the Landsdown resort, where we arrived at noon for an early check-in. It's a very pleasant place, just 15 minutes from Dulles airport. We went for a swim, had lunch together, used the spa, got a massage... very relaxing.

Sunday morning we woke on time, and went for a nice swim again. Then around 11.30 o'clock Rosa and the other guests started arriving, and at 12:00 we went for the brunch. We were pretty hungry by then, so we enjoyed the great buffet very much. There was a huge variety of food, from typical breakfast (bacon with eggs) to oisters to fresh pasta to great cheeses. Very delicious and it was very cosy too. A lot of the guests were Rosa's family members, as well as friends and colleagues.

Spring really started now. The weather is starting to get really nice, Sunday was especially gorgeous and although it was a bit colder today, it's great weather and people are walking around in shorts and shirts with short sleeves.

I had my lunch break outside today, in a park near my work, enjoying the sun and I'm walking to work without a jacket these days.