I'm now in my third week of work and I'm starting to settle in a bit. My training has been going well and after next week I will most likely be on my own. Yesterday my supervisor gave me a little light reading, the indictments for Milutinovic, Martic, Prlic and his gang. Each is a book of about 80 pages. It lays out what they are being charged with, in detail. The Mrksic case, the one I have been recording court for, has three defendants (their indictments were out and I'm waiting for more copies). They are being charged with implementing the execution of 150 soldiers that were taken out of a hospital, taken to a warehouse, shot and buried in a mass grave. One of the defendants, Radic, I heard that some people think he should not be tried. We will see. It has been interesting to see a prosecuting attorney question a defense witness and trap him into telling lies and then calling him a liar for court record.

OK, now on to fun stuff. This past Sunday I went to Amsterdam with Kristina and her sister Ramona. Kristina’s sister has been living in Berlin for the past four month doing a work-study program. She is going back to the states next week. In her spare time, Ramona runs marathons and this past Sunday was the Amsterdam 40K marathon run. There were about 20,000 participants. Part of the fun for people who have friends and family running, they are able to follow the course on bike and that is what Kristina and I did. Because the race is through the streets of Amsterdam and out into the countryside, the course can easily be followed by bike because the bike paths in Holland run along the streets (much like Portland). Kristina and I brought our bikes on the train from The Hague. We got Ramona registered and then saw her off at Olympic stadium where the race started. We then headed to the 5K-point to see the front-runners, who we would never see again. They run the course in about 2 hours or less (Ramona said she was expecting to take five hours). Kristina and I would not even be able to keep up with them on our bikes. After that we knew the next time we would see Ramon would be at the 25K point, at lest 3 hours away. We rode to the Centrum and did a little shopping. After killing some time we went to the 25K point and did a good job at estimating the time she would pass. We only waited about 10 minutes then we saw Ramona and there were waves and cheers. The Kristina and I were off to the next point another 5k down the road. We did this until the end. It was a blast. I had never done anything like this before and we all had a great time. By the end of the Day, Ramona ran 40K in four hours twenty eight minutes while me and Kristina road about 30K.

The photos posted out of order. However the first is the end of the race Kristina and Ramona. We are heading back to The Hague. Next my bike on the train, then Ramona getting ready to enter Olympic stadium. Then a crowd shot with Ramona somewhere in the pack, and my bike at the run in Vendaal park. Finally Ramona giving us a wave with 10K left.