Tomorrow will be the semi-finals of the European Championship Soccer 2004. I'm looking forward to go to the US very much, but I would also love to see the game. I'll make a stop-over at Philadelphia Airport, exactly when the match against Portugal is.
Just out of curiosity I wrote an e-mail to the customer service of Philadelphia Airport:
Dear Sir or Madam:
Next Wednesday I will be flying from Amsterdam to Washington, D.C. with a 2 hours stop-over in Philadelphia.
Now, as you might now, Wednesday will be the semi-finals of the European Championship Soccer, in which my country, the Netherlands, is
participating. This game is exactly when I will have my stop-over at Philadelphia.
My question: is there a place at the airport where the soccer game is broadcasted? Perhaps in a bar, a restaurant? I would love to be able to see it!
And to my pleasant surprise there was a quick response.
Hello Mr. Bosman - Philadelphia International Airport ("PHL") currently has 16 bar/restaurants which should be able to accommodate your needs. If this game is not on upon your arrival, the on-site management should be able to help you. I recommend that you visit our website at "phl.org" and you will find a layout of the airport along with a link to a listing of the locations of all of the bars.
Thank you for using Philadelphia International Airport and please feel free to provide us with any comments on your forthcoming visit.
So, there's a chance I will be able to see the match. But well, in the worst case I won't: a great holiday together in Miami would compensate it more than enough. And of course: Sasha and I won't miss the final match between Czech Republic and The Netherlands.
This afternoon I took a look at the new version of Eclipse. This is the IDE (software editor) that we are using at Chess, and a few days ago a new version, 3.0, has been released.
I have already worked with beta-versions of 3.0, so-called milestone releases, so I knew what to expect. Still, it is pleasant that there is an official new release, because they usually more stable and mature. This means they are usable as project-standard; I'll introduce it in a new project that starts after my holiday.
Some features that I personally like a lot are code folding, background processing, "create constructor from fields" and the fact that refactoring now also fully takes JavaDoc tags into account.
"After a dramatic penalty shoot-out, the Netherlands advanced to a UEFA EURO 2004™ semi-final against Portugal following 120 minutes of goalless stalemate in Faro-Loulé"
Together with Jelly, Manuel and Marcel I was watching the match in Van Stoffelen, a bar in Haarlem. A wonderful evening! The match wasn't great, but this has been the first time since 1992 that the Dutch actually won a penalty shoot-out.
Immediately after Robben's decisive goal a huge party started in Van Stoffelen, and we were dancing and singing all through the night. Almost everybody in the bar was dressed in orange clothes. Yeah, up to the semi-finals! Actually, I will be in Washington when the game starts, next Wednesday, against Portugal.
There's storm above Haarlem now. The wind is not as strong as predicted, but the weather is pretty bad.
In an hour the soccer game between Holland and Latvia will start. If Germany wins its match, they are through. If they don't, there's still a chance for Holland. Let's hope for the best!
Tonight we had the last lesson of the German language course. We did a (short) final test on grammar, to measure what we've learned in the last few months. I think the course has been very useful. I have really improved my grammar knowledge, and it was very helpful to have this extra exercise in German conversation.
I would definitely recommend the Goethe Institute if someone wants to learn German. The lessons are efficient and professional but given in a very friendly atmosphere.
After the test we talked about a more relaxed subject: Schimpfwörter, cusswords. We received a Teilnahmebestätigung, and we spent the rest of the evening drinking wine and talking. It's a bit sad that the course is over, it has been great fun.
I took some pictures today: click on Read More... to see them.
Making the final test. I was done already.
Our teacher, Frau Sandra Loevenich.
Then there were drinks and food. Noortje had made a great cake.
This afternoon I did the multiple choice test for the SCEA certificate (Sun Certified Enterprise Architect), and I passed it. My score was 83% this time, which is lower than the previous time but I am still quite satisfied with it.
The test center in Haarlem where I did a another test moved to Amstelveen, so I went to a test center in Amsterdam, in the Aristo building.
I am currently in Kilroy, a travel agency in Amsterdam, where I´ll pick up my ticket. I´m going to the States in a week! Sasha and I are going on holiday together... to Florida! It´s a really nice thought -- Florida will be great and seeing Sasha again will be even better.
The computer in the travel agency broke down, so I´ll probably be here a little longer. That´s fine, the German Institute is near here and I´m very early.
Yesterday I had dinner with Marjolein. We had a great lasagne while watching the soccer game between Germany and Latvia, which had a very pleasant result.
Therefore we were in a very good mood when we went to an Irish pub in the center of Amsterdam. There we would watch the second game of the evening: the Czech Republic vs. the Netherlands. And what a beautiful game it was! Of course, the result was very disappointing: to loose with 2-3 after being ahead with 2-0 is rather painful. But I think it was the most interesting game to watch of the whole tournament till so far; both teams played beautiful soccer. I liked the way Davids was playing.
Everybody around us in the pub was of course very disappointed with the result. Many people believed that the change of Robben was a reason why the match was lost, and as usual the referee was blamed too. I'm not so sure about what caused the defeat, but I must say I was very impressed by the way the Czechs came back in the match. Perhaps they were just the better team. But anyway: a great game to watch.
Monday I will have two tests on the same day. Monday evening will be the last lesson of the German language course, which will consist of a short test on the subjects that we have studied over the past few months. It doesn't require a lot of preparations anymore.
Monday afternoon I'll have a test for the J2EE architect certification. It's part I; a multiple choice test on the theory of the J2EE model and technology. Although I think I'm ready for it, I will spend this weekend studying and revising the theory, because I would like to get a good score.
It's fun to study, because both the German and the J2EE are subjects that I enjoy a lot.
This afternoon I took a look at the new version of Eclipse. This is the IDE (software editor) that we are using at Chess, and a few days ago a new version, 3.0, has been released. 
A deserved victory on Sweden! 
There's storm above Haarlem now. The wind is not as strong as predicted, but the weather is pretty bad. 
Tonight we had the last lesson of the German language course. We did a (short) final test on grammar, to measure what we've learned in the last few months. I think the course has been very useful. I have really improved my grammar knowledge, and it was very helpful to have this extra exercise in German conversation.
Yesterday I had dinner with Marjolein. We had a great lasagne while watching the soccer game between Germany and Latvia, which had a very pleasant result.