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Ready for departure
Ready too
Network present?
The 767
At gate G4!
Programming at 10km
USA east coast
Philadelphia by plane
Phil. Int. Airp.
Football scores
Ned-Let: 3-0!
More Apple's join up
Rocky
UFO landing places?
Mercedes?
Continental plates?
Steamboat Springs
Salt Lakes
Rocky Mountains
The CodingMonkeys
San Francisco swamps
More civilization
Enough is enough
Waiting for the BART
Pickwick hotel
View form the 7th floor
South view
Updating the website
Night
The road to WWDC '04
In the course of last year we picked up information about Apple's WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference) in San Francisco. So we gathered more information and applied for a scholarship in March of this year. With a focus on life science we already hoped to be acknowledged with the scholarships and in May we got an e-mail from Apple stating:

'Congratulations! You have been selected to receive a scholarship for a free Student E-Ticket to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2004, June 27 - July 1, 2004 in San Francisco, California.'

From then on we have been planning our trip to the USA and tried to find some financial support. We got some from our employer: The Netherlands Cancer Institute, but a few weeks ago we received a very pleasant surprise from California:

Dear Mek&Tosj: Congratulations! I am writing to inform you that you are one of several finalists chosen for the 2004 Apple Student Design Awards. The winner will be announced at our Worldwide Developers Conference held in San Francisco, California, later this month. As a finalist, Apple will pay for your travel to and from the conference, your accommodations and expenses, and conference pass. The conference will be held June 28 to July 1.

Alexander signed us in for the Apple Design Awards, and now we are one of the finalists! So at least one plane ticket and 5 days of our stay at The Pickwick Hotel will be financed by Apple.
WWDC Webpage >>
Wednesday, June 23rd
21.30h PDT - Tosj | At 8.00h CET I got up and after a little breakfast we left for Schiphol airport. No traffic jams and also Mek joined in without delay of the train. After we got our e-tickets we drank some coffee with the girlfriends and set out through customs to, believe it or not, gate G4 (going to an Apple conference?!. At 13.10h CET we had our take off from rainy Amsterdam. We enjoyed our flight meal (chicken with rice), were entertained with the (terrible) movie Johnson Family Vacation, and Alex couldn't resist programming at an altitude of 10km. Later he lost one of his contact lenses, but this has not lead to serious bugs, because he had stopped by then.

Seven and a half hours later for us, but only at 15.00h EST local time, we landed in Philadelphia. We rushed through customs and found ourself a bar at the airport, because The Netherlands were playing against Letland for Euro 2004. We asked if it was possible to watch the match in the bar, but even with more than 12 screens we were obliged to watch CNN news, MTV, and college baseball... We tried the AT&T wireless computer network, but $9.99 for the score was a little bit too much. But with a little help from our girlfriends we were able to tell some other Dutch travelers that at 16.40h EST NED-LET ended 3-0 and GER-CZR 1-2, so WE are through to the quarter finals on saturday against Sweden! Hopefully we find a bar that does show the match.

At gate B5 we also saw some other Apple computers (14 inch iBook and 12 inch PowerBook) gathering for departure to San Francisco, and in the plane we were joined by 3 German WWDC attendees. We spoke to them in the BART, and they turned out to be the codingmonkeys, Apple Design Award winners from last year. At 22.00h PDT we finally checked in at the Pickwick hotel. We don't have breakfast for all the week, but we DO have FREE internet access!!! Have a look at the pictures. We are going to sleep after our 18 hours trip. Mek&Tosj.