Yesterday evening we went out with Bianca and Patricia.

Bianca is an old schoolfriend from Middenmeer and she and Patricia, her sister, are travelling through the East coast for a vacation. They arrived in D.C. on Friday, and they'll leave the city Monday to take a train to New York. After that they'll continue to see the Niagara Falls and they'll end their trip in Toronto, Canada.

Sasha and I met them at the Farragut West metro station. It was very nice to see familiar faces in downtown D.C.! Bianca and Patricia had been seeing a lot of the city in one day, and we continued to the tourist visit by going to the World Bank. Sasha arranged us guest-tickets so we saw the Bank from inside.

Then we went for a walk to Dupont Circle, a few blocks from the World Bank. We had dinner in Kramers Afterworld and we had a very nice evening together. It was very nice to talk in Dutch about things going in Holland, about living here and about the things to be seen in D.C.

I'm leaving to the airport now, together with a colleague.

We'll take the 5.30 flight to Washington, a direct connection this time.

When I arrived in the hotel after midnight I didn't feel like complaining about the defects in my room because I just wanted a few hours rest. The next morning however, I went to the frontdesk and told them about the leakage and the broken bed -- they offered me another room, which I was happy to accept. Now I'm on the 8th floor in the main building, the highest floor in the hotel. The room I'm staying is nice; smaller than the regular room but with very nice furniture and a flatscreen TV.

Tonight we were in the hotel earlier than usual. I changed clothes, and two colleagues invited me for a drink in the bar downstairs. Later my fourth colleague joined us and we stayed in the bar for dinner. I had lunch in that place once, and I liked it alot, and this dinner was just as good. We left the restaurant around 23.00 o'clock, and I went to the supermarket to get some fruit: grapefruits and bananas.

I arrived in Puerto Rico about an hour ago and just checked in at the hotel.

Everything's fine, have to get up in about six hours. The room is not the best one I've seen -- the bed is shaky and the rain made the floor near the balcony wet but it will do for tonight.

Saturday afternoon we found a very nice set of balcony furniture at Crate & Barrel.

We were in the shop near our apartment, and we borrowed a cart to carry the table home immediately. The weather is very nice and we wanted to sit on our balcony.

The chairs however, were not in stock, and it would take two weeks to order them. We didn't want to wait that long and the next day we took the cart and brought it with us in the metro.

We went to visit another Crate & Barrel store, in DC. It was an interesting ride with the cart in the metro, especially because we had to change trains in Metro Center.

In the morning we had breakfast on the new table, with our livingroom chairs.

From the metro station we had to walk to the store, about 15 minutes downhill. I initially took us in the wrong direction so it took a bit longer. The weather was excellent.

After a three hour trip we were back home. Unpacking the chairs.

Enjoying the chairs. I discovered that a supermarket here sells Grolsch.

Yesterday I went to my favorite lunch place around work, a daily called Tivoli. They have a large variety of meats and cheese, and most importantly they always have great fresh bread.

When I walked back from lunch I passed a newspaper stand with a pile of Washington Posts. On the frontpage a picture of Mr. Balkenende with President Bush. The latter was a day in Holland to commemorate the end of World War II.

When we went for lunch we saw the Capitol on an outside TV screen. One of Washington's local TV stations is located in our neighbourhood and they have their broadcast visible on their building.

Apparently an aircraft was violating the airspace above downtown DC, and an evacuation order was issued for the White House and U.S. Capitol.

Nothing happened, luckily.

Yesterday morning after breakfast we went for a long walk through Clarendon and had coffee outside in a park.

In the afternoon we bought a table for on the balcony, to get our house ready for the summer. The weather is really nice and I'm walking in my shorts and with sandals.

In the evening we visited the graduation party of Zen. It was in Anthony's house, near Silver Spring and we had a barbecue outside. Zen's mother lives in Hawai, and she had brought beautiful flowers from there.

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.

On the way to Puerto Rico I had a direct flight, but this time my iternary called for a stop-over in Chicago. Not exactly a very efficient route: it took me eight hours to travel from San Juan to Washington, whereas a direct flight takes only four hours.

It was nice to see the Chicago airport, O'Hare again. I was there with Sasha in 1999, when we returned from our job in Six Flags, Great America. Incredible, how things change over time.

I arrived just before 5.00 o'clock in Washington National. At 5.00 o'clock we always have a conference call for our project, so I joined the call from the airport, which was interesting. Then I quickly went home and met with Sasha who was just coming home from a course she had at work. Great to be together.

It was curious if I would feel the house as "home", after have been away for three weeks. After all, we've been here only about six months. But it certainly felt nice to enter our building, and then our apartment, and yes, it's my home, even though it's far from Holland. It also felt nice to see the city again -- I took a cab from the airport, and the road home passes by the Potomac, Rosslyn, and DC in the distance.

We went out for dinner together to an Asian restaurant. A lot of things have happened in the weeks that I've been away: a new pope, Queensday and Liberation Day in Holland, and the strike in the Puerto Rico university has been resolved.

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.