Guus Bosman

Yesterday evening we went to a party. Three colleagues of Sasha are leaving the bank and they gave a goodbye party. It was in a bar in D.C., not too far from the place where we live now.

It was a very nice evening. I spoke with a lot of different people, and as most of them work at the World Bank they came from all over the world. It was nice to meet Sasha's colleagues.

Today we are moving out! Therefore I'll start packing now -- later more.

Sasha and I took the bus downtown together this morning, and we had a very cheerful busdriver. The sign with the bus number didn't work, so at every stop he stopped and announced which bus this was: "S2! McPherson Square! S2!" . He really enjoyed that, and I suspect him of having disabled the bus sign himself.

Today we will sign the papers for our new apartment. We're both quite busy, but
we'll try to go to the apartment in our lunchbreaks. We will move in this weekend; Saturday a mattress will be delivered. It will be great to move in and start furnishing and decorating our new home.

Heard this one on my work:

"For Americans, a hundred years seems like a long time. For Europeans, a hundred miles seems like a long distance".

Between Middenmeer and Washington D.C there's a time difference of six hours.

The first night in the States I was rather tired and after a brief waking up at 2:45, I slept nicely until 9:00 o'clock. The second day, which was my first working day, I woke up around 5:00. On Thursday I woke up at 5:45 in the morning, and yesterday around 7:00 o'clock. I went to be around 22:00 o'clock each night.

Today, Saturday, we slept in, and I woke up somewhere around 9:00 o'clock, which is a great feeling. I think my body is now pretty much adjusted to the new timezone.

Today is my birthday! Well, in the Netherlands it is, here in D.C. it's still November 9th.

Tomorrow will be my first working day and I'm really looking forward to it. Tomorrow evening Sasha and I will go out and celebrate.

Ettie will receive her propedeuse diploma today (on November 10th, that is).

Today I am not working yet. My new job will start tomorrow so this is my last day off in a while. Sasha left this morning for her exam and we'll meet at 16:30 o'clock.

I like it that I have some time, after a busy weekend and the traveling yesterday. Finally I can update my website, unpack my bags and configure our new computer. Sasha bought a new PC last week, as she needed it this weekend. It's really fun to have such a new computer: it has DVD, it's quick and comes with a lot of software. The internet connection is an old-fashioned dial-up line and is not completely reliable, but it is great to have internet in our bedroom. The internet provider we have is the apt-named "America Online", or "AOL"; the computer came with a free trial AOL subscription. The computer works very nicely with my digital camera, and I have just installed one of the two harddisks I brought from the Netherlands.

I downloaded a lot of programs in Middenmeer and brought them on CD-ROM (such as Eclipse, various Java version and Mozilla Firefox). I'm very happy that I did that; dialup is too slow to download these large tools.

Sunday was a busy day and I didn't even have time to update my website. After Jaap and I moved the last things out of Haarlem Friday I had a long night of sleep and an easy Saturday morning. I finished some paperwork and in the afternoon we left for my grandmother's party.

We met in a party center in Akersloot, where my grandmother Bosman was celebrating her 80th birthday. Virtually the entire Bosman family was there, as well as many other friends of my grandmother. Various people gave speeches and small performances, which were very nice. It was a nice party, and it was wonderful to see so many people just before I left to the U.S. (thanks everbody for the kind words and wishes). My grandmother gave me a bible, the new edition with a new Dutch translation. Unfortunately I don't have time to put the pictures of the party online; if you're interested please send me an e-mail.

We were home around 22:00 o'clock; time to go to bed. Sunday Mieke had a birthday, and we celebrated our birthdays together with the family. Ettie and Gerben gave me their portraits, and my parents gave me a book "Righting English that's gone Dutch", on the subtal mistakes Dutch native speakers often make when writing or speaking English. I loved to be able to celebrate my birthday with my parents and Ettie and Gerben in the morning; it's a very old tradition.

In the afternoon my parents went to give a concert with the orchestra they're playing in. I visited Bianca and her family. That was a very cosy get-together; a while ago they were also in the U.S., in Florida. They gave me a lot of nice presents. The DVD you had made for me was just fabulous: thanks a lot!

It is a very busy day today, and I don't even have time to update my website!

But hey -- let's meet in real life: tomorrow morning I will be at Schiphol Airport. I'll fly with Delta Airlines, at 11:00 o'clock in the morning. My flight number is DL 81; a flight to New York (JFK).

It would be great to see you tomorrow morning: at 8:00 o'clock I'll be in restaurant "Touch down"; above departure hall 1 on the third floor. I hope to be at Schiphol around 7:00 o'clock (to be sure not to get stuck in traffic jams we'll leave early). I'll check in my luggage then.

Later I'll write more about yesterday (my grandmother's party), and today (Mieke's birthday, a nice visit to Bianca and her family).

I went for dinner in McDonald's tonight: I've packed all my kitchen stuff so eating at home isn't possible anymore. It's a strange idea that this is the last night in this house, but it's fun to prepare for my journey to the States. I'm really looking forward to it!

Today I got an acknowledgement of my insurance company that my insurance coverage will start on Sunday. This means that I'm all set: I have a passport with a visa, a ticket and healthcare and liability insurance. I agreed with my landlord that we can leave our fridge, washing machine and dryer in the house tomorrow. The people that helped us moving in January 2002 will agree that it's a great relieve that these "monsters" don't have to be dragged down the stairways.

Before I went to McDonald's I took some copies of my ticket and other important documents. Tonight I'll continue packing and do some laundry.

Friday was quite a busy day. I arranged some final matters at Chess, organized a lot of things and made an appointment with the embassy for next week.

In the evening I went to Middenmeer, where things were peaceful and relaxed, which is always a pleasant experience. We played a lot of games yesterday and today.

Mieke is going to the Spellenspektakel tomorrow, and with winning three out of today's four games she is well prepared. Let's hope she'll have a good result tomorrow! Daniel and Jerry are at the Spektakel as well.