Yesterday I went to get a Virginia photo ID. A photo ID is a state-issued pass, the size of a credit card, that contains your picture and personal data.
Even though it's not mandatory to carry an ID, unlike in Holland, it is still very useful to have a form of ID with you.
There are quite some times that you have to show your ID, such as when buying alcohol. Until now I was always carrying my passport, because that's the only official type of identification I have. But carrying a passport is a bit scary -- if I'd loose it, there would be a lot of paperwork to replace the passport and my US visa.
Most Americans use their driving license for identification in daily life. Since I don't drive a car, I got this "Photo ID". Just like a driving license, it's issued by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, or DMV, that deals with driving and car registrations.
The only office of DMV around here that's open on Saturday afternoon is at Springfield mall. The good thing is that it's reachable by metro -- many of the other offices are hard to reach by public transport. Yesterday I took the blue line all the way down to the last station, Franconio/Springfield. From the metro it was a 15 minute walk to the mall.
The mall was large, and it's easy to get lost in these huge shopping buildings. I asked the way at an information stand, and the lady told me where to go. There was a long line in front of DMV, Saturday afternoon is rush hour for them it seems. Once inside I received my card pretty quickly. They took my picture and captured my signature digitally (no fingerprints here) and the whole things was done it 15 minutes. I didn't know my length in the US measuring system, so the lady at the counter guessed and we filled in 6 feet 4. Later when I was home that turned out to be a fairly accurate guess, my real length is 6 feet 3.
Sunday a week ago we spent the afternoon in Georgetown. On the way to there we took a bus, but in the evening we decided to walk home. Georgetown is the first neighbourhood of DC across the river from Virginia. It was fun to walk over the Key Bridge. While walking we were at the phone with Irena about something.
Below are two pictures of the Key Bridge at night.
The bright spot in the right-upper corner of the picture is a plane that is preparing for landing. Reagan National Airport is nearby the bridge, and there's a plane passing by every few minutes.
On the left is the building where the Christmas party of my work was.
Thursday President Bush will be inaugurated for his second term in office. This Inauguration Day will be a large event, with a parade and a huge amount of visitors, and the preparations started long ago.
Yesterday I went for a walk on the Mall, the strip between the Capitol and the Washington monument, where all the museums are. Many tents and barriers for the festivities were already in place, and they were installing a stage in front of the Capitol with thousands of chairs.
Security will be extremely tight this year and many streets and office buildings downtown will be closed from Wednesday morning on.
A few pictures.
Barriers near the Capitol.
Power generators, forklifts and other machinery on the Mall.
Yesterday Sasha and I went to the New Year celebration organized by the Washington D.C. Dutch Society. The party started at 16:00 o'clock in the Dutch embassy. I was curious to see the embassy, and it was interesting to see it, but it was not a very Dutch building, except for a picture of Queen Beatrix and a large photograph of Dutch tulip fields.
The Dutch society had decorated the embassy with Dutch and orange flags. There was life classical music, and a bar with drinks including Grolsch and Heineken beer.
We didn't know anybody when we arrived at the party, which was a bit scary, but we talked with quite a few people and we had a really nice afternoon. Some people have been living in the U.S. for many years and they were more comfortable speaking English than Dutch, others were just temporary in the States. It was nice meeting other Dutch people and I signed up to become member of this Dutch club.
The Washington D.C. reporter for the Dutch NOS news agency was also at the party. Of course there were Dutch snacks: young cheese with mustard, and freshly baked oliebollen. Those are a traditional Dutch New Year snack, usually around this time of the year everybody eats a lot of them. For us these were the first and only oliebollen this year, and they were very good.
After the party we went for dinner in Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe. Food in D.C. is generally speaking better than what we ate in San Antonios, if you ask me. To stay in style I had apple pie for desert (a Dutch favorite). Because the New Year party ended early, we were done with dinner early and were home around 21:30 o'clock.
In the last weeks I took a few pictures of Washington and Rosslyn at night.
I'm still learning what the best camera-settings are for night shots. The small picture of the Capitol that you can see here looks okay, but the quality of the picture is not good enough for a large picture.
Sunday afternoon we went to a museum, the National Gallery of Art. Most of the large musea in Washington DC are located close to each other, near the Capitol and the White House. It's a beautiful place, and the weather Sunday was very nice.
We visited an exhibition on Gerard ter Borch. Rosa told us about this temporary exhibition about the Dutch painter. Ter Borch made quite some famous paintings, such as Signing of the Peace of Munster, and he inspired many other great names, such as Vermeer.
Entrance of the museum.
We asked at least three times if it was really okay to take a picture with flash until we dared to do this. I guess they have a protective element in the glass to prevent damage to the picture because of flash lights.
The picture on the background is a painting by Gerrit Berckheyde of the Grote Kerk in Haarlem; I used it on my website about a year ago.
Saturday we went to a shopping mall near the Pentagon, "Pentagon City". These malls are a real American phenomenon: a mall is a very large shopping center with many shops in one big building. Most of them are outside the city, and reachable only by car. We have been to this one here a few times to get our new things for the house, because it's well reachable by metro. The "Arena Boulevard" in Amsterdam is perhaps comparable to this type of malls.
In the mall we saw Santa Claus. He is there all day for children to have their picture taken with him.
I've prepared this story and pictures at home; I didn't have time to go downstairs and upload them yesterday. We didn't order internet yet. Not that that's so terribly complicated but we want to have the best deal possible, and a combination package with cable-TV seems now the best way to go.
The last picture is of a small shopping district near our house. In the background you can see the lighted logo of Barnes & Nobles, a bookstore.
Every morning when I walk to work I pass by a firebrigade building.
This morning the firebrigade crew was preparing their trucks for Christmas with decorations. They were very friendly, and they allowed me to take some pictures.
I woke up at 2:45 o'clock this morning. This is 8:45 Dutch time, a good time to get up, but I was rather happy that my body decided to return to sleep immediately. The second time I woke up it was 9:00: much better. I slept very well; I really needed some rest.
This weekend I stayed in Middenmeer with my parents and Ettie and Gerben. Sunday evening we went out to a pizzaria in Hoorn. I said goodbye to Gerben in evenning. The rest of us had a short night in Middenmeer: we woke up at 5:00 o'clock, and we left to Schiphol just after 6:00 in the morning. There was quite some traffic on the road already, but Ettie brought us safe and well to the airport. We arrived at the departure hall at 7:30 o'clock. I went to the check-in desk with Mieke, so I wouldn't have to walk around with my huge suitcase and bag. There was only a short line (no wonder, so many hours before departure time). Just when I was checking in Jaap and Ettie came back from the car parking, and they brought Steven with them. I was happy to see him because due to the traffic we were later at the airport than expected, and was afraid we would miss each other.
Around 8:00 o'clock we went to a restaurant where we had coffee and breakfast and many friends came to say goodbye. Daniel, Marjolein and Jerry gave me a very welcome present: a large apple pie with the suggestion that I could either bring it in my carry-on luggage or share it immediately with everybody who was there. Ankie, Jean-Paul, Jennie, Jelly, Joost and Richard were there, as well as Tibor and Janneke with their little daughter Fiona. Saying goodbye was sad of course, but seeing all these friends and family members was great.
This is a good time to say thank you: everybody who was there yesterday, and everybody who over the last weeks has sent me e-mails, supported me, came to visit, left comments on the website, gave me presents, helped me moving, called me, and wished me well: it means a lot to me, and I really feel stronger with your support!
My luggage turned out to be a bit more than 50 kilogram. My father had the nice suggestion to write down all the things I have brought to the States. That's a very nice idea indeed; I will do it because it will give a good impression of the physical things I really find important. Writing everything down will take some time, but two important categories are my coffee preparation set (including two espresso dish-and-cups, and the coffee machine my colleagues gave me when I left Chess), and a collection of useful computer parts (including two harddisks, a webcam and an UTP hub with network cables).
My plane left nicely on time. I had a seat at the emergency exit, which was very convenient: there is much more leg-space there and that's great on a 8-hour flight. I arrived in New York JFK airport around 13:00 o'clock local time.
My travel agency had put me on a connecting flight to Washington 4 hours later, in case there would be big lines at immigration or at customs. However it was not extremely busy at the airport and after an hour I was at the gate for my next flight. I was getting rather tired, but there was a Starbuck's nearby. I called Sasha and my parents from the terminal using an phonecard I had kept from the previous time I was in the U.S. In the terminal a saw a large group of Dutch marathon runners, who did the New York marathon yesterday. Funny, I had just read an article in the Volkskrant Saturday on organized tours for marathon runners. Later I bought a package "breakfast blend" coffee at the Starbuck's shop, which we had this morning and which I'm drinking right now.
My next flight was short: we were in Washington D.C. in an hour. There is big difference in flying international or "domestic", as Americans say when they mean flying in the U.S. These domestic flights feel a bit like taking a the bus, unlike flying over the Atlantic which I still find a very special experience.
Sasha was at the airport to pick me up, and it was great to see each other. We took a taxi home, because of the luggage. Sasha showed me the new computer, and we had dinner together. I went to bed around 22:00 o'clock (local time).
Yesterday I went to get a Virginia photo ID. A photo ID is a state-issued pass, the size of a credit card, that contains your picture and personal data. 
Sunday a week ago we spent the afternoon in Georgetown. On the way to there we took a bus, but in the evening we decided to walk home. Georgetown is the first neighbourhood of DC across the river from Virginia. It was fun to walk over the Key Bridge. While walking we were at the phone with Irena about 
Thursday President Bush will be inaugurated for his second term in office. This Inauguration Day will be a large event, with a parade and a huge amount of visitors, and the preparations started long ago.
Yesterday Sasha and I went to the New Year celebration organized by the Washington D.C. 
In the last weeks I took a few pictures of Washington and Rosslyn at night.
Saturday we went to a shopping mall near the Pentagon, "Pentagon City". These malls are a real American phenomenon: a mall is a very large shopping center with many shops in one big building. Most of them are outside the city, and reachable only by car. We have been to this one here a few times to get our new things for the house, because it's well reachable by metro. The "Arena Boulevard" in Amsterdam is perhaps comparable to this type of malls.
Every morning when I walk to work I pass by a firebrigade building. 
Around 8:00 o'clock we went to a restaurant where we had coffee and breakfast and many friends came to say goodbye. Daniel, Marjolein and Jerry gave me a very welcome present: a large apple pie with the suggestion that I could either bring it in my carry-on luggage or share it immediately with everybody who was there. Ankie, Jean-Paul, Jennie, Jelly, Joost and Richard were there, as well as Tibor and Janneke with their little daughter Fiona. Saying goodbye was sad of course, but seeing all these friends and family members was great. 
My travel agency had put me on a connecting flight to Washington 4 hours later, in case there would be big lines at immigration or at customs. However it was not extremely busy at the airport and after an hour I was at the gate for my next flight. I was getting rather tired, but there was a Starbuck's nearby. I called Sasha and my parents from the terminal using an phonecard I had kept from the previous time I was in the U.S. In the terminal a saw a large group of Dutch marathon runners, who did the New York marathon yesterday. Funny, I had just read an article in the Volkskrant Saturday on organized tours for marathon runners. Later I bought a package "breakfast blend" coffee at the Starbuck's shop, which we had this morning and which I'm drinking right now.