Tonight I started packing our things. We've had this apartment in Somerset since November last year and Wednesday I'm returning to North Carolina.

It's incredible how many things you can collect in 7 months. True to form we had a box full of books and more than two boxes of cooking tools and ingredients.

With the packing our home in Somerset is disappearing and becoming an empty apartment. We've had good times here, especially with the Zanes, so it's a little sad to leave. At the same time I'm looking forward to be back in our real home in Durham and see our friends and pick up our regular lives.

Sadly the USA lost its game against Ghana on Saturday. We watched it at the pool in Secaucus; it was great weather and we went for a swim after wards. In the evening we prepared for the week; lots of travel and things to arrange. Sunday morning we saw a great game between Germany and England over breakfast.

Sunday afternoon we drove to Trenton where Sasha took the train to DC for the last time. I visited Noor to drop of some materials that I had borrowed and stopped by at the Zanes for a few minutes.

This morning's match between the Netherlands and Slowakia was exciting, but the Dutch were clearly the stronger team. Friday, against Brazil, will be a very difficult match...

Sasha arrived in Trenton from DC last night and we had a late home-made dinner.

This is our last weekend in Somerset; Wednesday I'm driving back to North Carolina with a car full of stuff.

There are two major soccer games to watch this weekend -- today at 2.30 pm the U.S. will play Ghana; tomorrow morning at 10.00 am we'll see Germany-England over breakfast. Today we'll visit the Zanes; it is great that we've been so close to them in the last six months.

The Dutch government and Dutch businesses are assisting with the cleanup of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. After the spill began the Dutch offered several oil skimming arms. These sweeping arms, created by Koseq, were shipped to the U.S. Coast Guard in Louisiana by the Dutch counterpart of the Army Corps of Engineers, Rijkswaterstaat. The arms can be attached to ships and have a maximum pumping capacity of 350 m3 (metric tons per hour) to remove oil from the water. Two sets are operating at the moment in the Gulf.

In addition, the State of Louisiana is adopting a sand berm plan created by Dutch knowledge institutions and the dredging industry. Sand berms will be built to prevent the oil reaching the marshes, enlarging the existing islands in front of the coast with an estimated 40 to 45 miles of sand berm.

The Dutch embassy writes today in a press release:

"The Dutch are ready to share [water management] knowledge with those who need it. Such Dutch assistance consists of a wide-ranging network of research institutions, private companies and the public sector. Already Dutch companies are actively involved in helping clean up the damage from the oil spill and in protecting the fragile wetlands along the coast of Louisiana. The Dutch involvement has evolved naturally from the trustworthy relationship between the Netherlands and Louisiana which deepened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Dutch are increasingly becoming an active partner for Americans in water-related crises."

BP has agreed to pay for the implementation of the sand berms (up to $360 million); the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued a permit for the project to begin. The State of Louisiana has mandated a state contractor to implement the plan. The Dutch dredging industry is leading in the world and stands ready to partner with the Americans to execute the plan quickly. The estimate is that adding the dredging capacity of Dutch companies would increase the capacity significantly, thus shortening the time needed to implement the plan.

Mr. Eurlings, Dutch Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, stated, "The Dutch offered assistance to the U.S. as soon as the disaster occurred. We have been working closely on water related issues with the Louisiana region since Hurricane Katrina. It seems no more than natural that now again; we stand together with the people of Louisiana."

C-SPAN visit to Dutch skimmer ship

I'm on my way back to Newark airport in New Jersey, where I parked our car on Tuesday. I took the train from Union Station in DC two hours ago, and we've just left the station in Delaware.

It's been a while since I took a train. When we lived in Arlington I'd travel to Philadelphia for work occasionally but I haven't taken a train in the USA in years. It's pretty good experience. I'm in a quiet car, so no cell phones or loud talking allowed. There is power for my laptop.

We're wrapping up a great weekend in Georgetown with hot weather and a lot of World Cup games.

It will be nice to be back in our apartment in Somerset, after a lot of travel in the last two weeks. We'll have one more weekend in Somerset, and then we'll move back to Durham again.

We woke up at 6.00 am this morning and went to Mackey's Pub downtown, a few miles from Georgetown.

We had a unique Dutch-American breakfast (broodje kroket with eggs and hashbrowns) and watched the soccer game Netherlands vs. Japan. Holland won, it was an exciting game to watch.

Later we saw the other two matches; a great day.