Fellowship Blog Post 1 – Washington D.C. (I hear you Tony)

Ironically typed heading aside, the trip for the 2019 YSEALI Spring Fellowship to the United States was actually a very humbling experience. You see before this, I have never sat on any flight spanning more than 8 hours but suddenly I was thrown into a giant flying sub from my Vacay at Perth, Australia back to Malaysia, instantly flying off to Tokyo, L.A and then finally Washington D.C.

That is more than 24 hours my dudes. My bottom was pancaked, life will never be the same again

But hey, it’s not like I had a good modelling career to start with so its fine. Plus, I got a chance to ride on All Nippon Airways (ANA) Star Wars themed BOEING-787 flight to Tokyo. Words cannot describe my joy when I heard C3PO and R2D2 announcing the safety procedures. Conversing in Japanese with the stewardess’ was a refreshing experience as well.

FAST FORWARD to Washington D.C.

First order of business. Bagel, period. Alright.

Absolute disbelief took me when I stepped out of the terminal as I looked at the Star-Spangled Banner strewn across the wide land. I never thought I’d be in D.C before I was 50 so this was a big, big deal. Took a good minute to take it all in before we headed into the city via shuttle.

You tend to notice things when you’re in the environmental consultancy line (I’m no expert though), I took my sweet time looking at the stellar city planning, road standards, the ecology, the different architectures of Washington D.C. while on the way to the hotel. In contrast to what Kuching (my hometown) had, everything was much more organized, more monotonous in terms of the color schemes with significantly more parks around. Yet, there were lapses of similarities with both cities here and there. It was a breath of fresh perspective, lightly speaking.

Anyways, got to the hotel, getting some shut eye. Lovely Hotel by the way, shoutout to Kara and Tony for the great selection. Be back with more.

The Sarawakian Ian.