Survived driving to Washington DC

I apologized for the long period of absence due partly to my busy schedule as I am guiding two new postdocs who just joined our lab. Also, there are several posts which I wanted to post but I would upload my pictures first. I just got the photo-editing-software from Tom since my old laptop crashed.

I am frustrated that I did not do a backup of my travel photos on my laptop! Well, it happened some time ago and I had already moved on. I am entrusting my friend who is visiting Baltimore to bring it back to Singapore for data extraction. Pray that this works!

Anyway, back to this post. Today, the Singapore International Foundation organized a welcome event for all new Singaporean students studying around DC area. I was asked to pick up a fellow Singaporean staying at Reed Hall, Hopkins Hospital since she just arrived one month ago. We were the only ones coming from Baltimore while the rest traveled less than an hour.

The road directions in DC are confusing. The street that you are traveling on can become inaccessible after a junction since you would be driving against traffic. So, you had to navigate up and down to reach your destination. A good thing I had ShuZhen navigating while I drove. I could not imagine finding that restaurant without her help. According to Tom, the roads were designed to confuse the British during the civil wars (correct me, Tom if I am wrong). Well, they did successfully confuse anyone who do not drive in DC before!

At the welcome event held at the Malaysia Kopitiam, I met several Singaporeans who were interested in my work when I told them I am researching on influenza vaccine. A funny misunderstanding was that ShuZhen was mistaken twice as my wife since we came together.

The food was delicious. There were chicken rice, oyster omelette, curry, satay and tao suang for dessert. I also expanded my network of friends and get to know information from those who had stayed longer than me. Cecilia, the organizer, even suggested some places for me to visit.

There were games such as unraveling jumbled words related to Singapore, explanation of our unofficial language, Singlish and of course lucky draw. As usual, my luck was not good today.

Driving back was harder since the headlights from cars behind blinded me. I had to lean forward to drive safely. I drove ShuZhen and myself back safe and sound. The journey was smooth because I memorized the route from the ADC Map. I was proactive instead of reactive. Learning new things each time.