Tonight I made fourth Spanish lesson.

We studied the names of the season and the weather today, and the grammar was about the "going to" construction with ir + a + verb. I really feel I'm learning new things quickly with this course, a nice feeling.

Sasha's French lessons finish a bit earler so she was waiting for me in the school where we have our classes and we walked back home together.

On my way to work I passed by a car with a nice license plate.

A real "Hokie", an alumni from Virginia Tech where I was a few months ago.

We went to Tyson's corner Saturday, the largest mall in North-Virginia. It's not really conveniently nearby -- it's a bus connection from West Falls Church, but it's a beautiful mall and it was worth the trip.

We spent a long time there; it had been a while since we had a chance to buy the clothes that we need, and the prices were lower than in Arlington.

Sunday during the day I worked on a set of presentations with my colleagues.

Tonight's evening TV was filled with the story of the TV appearance of James Frey on Oprah's show.

Last year Oprah had recommended his book on her Bookclub show. Then two weeks ago the Smoking Gun published a long article about the lies in the -supposingly- real memoirs of Mr. Frey.

In a Larry King talkshow Oprah initially defended the book, but today she made it clear that she felt very angry about the lies of the author.

It was a very public confrontation on Oprah's show, and I enjoyed watching those fragments on CNN a lot. I didn't read the book, but it just feels morally wrong that the guys made so much money with a autobiographic book that is based on lies.

It's busy this week, after a relatively quiet period with the holidays.

Tuesday evening I went to my third Spanish lesson. Sasha's French course is at the same time so went had a (very) quick dinner together in a sandwich place in the Rosslyn metro station. It's nice to go together to school.

The supermarket here sells a Droste, a Dutch cocoa brand.

Until 2004 the original Droste factory, in Haarlem, was still in use. Interestingly, the American packaging doesn't have the typical "mirror" effect that gives the name to the "Droste effect" in Dutch.

Sunday a week ago we saw March of the Penguins, a documentary about the Emporer Penguins of Antartica.

The documentary describes the life and breeding habits of this penguin that lives in one of the coldest places on earth. It's a very nice movie to watch, and you get a lot of sympathy for the penguins who endure the freezing cold, icy storms and every year walk many, many miles between the sea and their safe breeding place. I like the movie's theme: "In the harshest place on earth, love finds a way."

We saw the movie using Comcast's movie-on-demand. The camera work in the movie is outstanding -- beautiful landscapes and very vivid close-ups of the animals; it's as if you're right next to them. The team that filmed the penguins must have spent many months in the freezing colds to capture these great images.

The narrative was done by Morgan Freeman. I have been told that in the Dutch version it was Urbanus, a Belgium comic, I am not sure if that is a good combination with the sometimes sad content of the film.

Today I read a nice article on CNN.com.

Apparently Reese Witherspoon was wearing the same dress as another girl three years ago on the Golden Globes awards event.

A scandal, of course.

Reese Witherspoon, Golden Globes 2005.

Kirsten Dunst, Golden Globes 2003.

This morning when I walked to

work I passed by a TV crew interviewing someone.

I guess this is a first step to include more pictures of people on my website.

Some night pictures of the area in which we live.

I really enjoy shooting pictures like this, and I'm really happy with the camera and tripod.

Entrance to the metro.