Guus Bosman

Last Thursday I decorated my cubicle and the next day we received an e-mail about a Holiday cubicle decorating contest.

Over the weekend one of my co-workers came in with a real Christmas tree for his cubicle, upping the ante, so I expanded mine as well. He then added a lighted penguin, which I think is cheating because it has nothing to do with the holidays.

On Thursday I was in Leeuwarden, visiting Ettie, Gerben and Jasper.

It was great to spend the day with little Jasper. He was experimenting with his feet, and had a lot of fun grabbing them.

In the afternoon we went for a walk through the city. We had warm chocolate (haha) in Bagels & Beans, and we went to an Indonesian store for some herbs.

I saw the new part of the house, and the new fence in the backyard. Gerben brought me home -- thank you!

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.

I've been getting up early this week. Today I woke up at 6.00 am; clearly I'm still adjusting to the time difference.

I have a cold, and went to bed early yesterday after a great dinner. We went to Pho 9N9, a Vietnamese restaurant in the Research Triangle. I had pho, a dish I know well from our time in DC, and it was delicious.

When I'm in the Netherlands I like to organize a party; this year my parents offered to host it at their house in Middenmeer (thank you!).

The party on Friday was great. It always feel so short, there are so many people you want to talk with and so little time, but I believe everyone had a good time.

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.

Rob left around noon, and a little later Ettie and Jasper came from Wieringerwerf. Gerben was helping to break down the kitchen in his parent's house.

It was so nice to see Jasper again. I read him a Nijntje book again. He doesn't understand quite yet what's going on but he definitely enjoys being read to.

In the afternoon Jaap and I brought back the tables to Wieringerwerf and we did some shopping. After saying goodbye to the Zijlstra's I took a short nap, that was great. I spent the rest of the evening with my parents.

Tomorrow it's back to the airport again -- my flight leaves around 2.30 pm.

That was an excellent party!

Wednesday I saw my cousins Paula and Eveline.

We met at the Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam for coffee, and it was fun to see them.

Yesterday morning Jaap brought me to the train station in Hoorn. While I was waiting in line I wanted to look up the precise itinerary on my phone and then I realized I had left it in the car. Without my phone I'd have a hard time finding Joost's office in Rotterdam and it would be impossible to meet up with Paula and Eveline...

I left the station and walked downtown Hoorn to see if I could find my father. I figured he'd go to the bakery first (for some vlaai for Friday's party) but after 15 minutes I walked back to the station -- where Jaap was waiting for me!

I traveled with Fyra, the new highspeed train to Rotterdam. I spent very pleasant time in two bookstores and had an Indonesian lunch.