Touched down! @ Tallahassee

He ran from the wings, skipped past a defender and he jumped and…touch down! He scores for Florida State University! Listen to the noise of the home crowd. *Cheers and jeers and claps*

Touched down in Tallahassee (by Koren Taylor)

Ok, that’s not how the commentary goes. I just made that up. Nope, unfortunately we didn’t get to watch the game. It was sold out!

New landmark of Tallahassee

But yup, it’s all about football! That is the pride of Tallahassee. The day we arrived is the home game between the arch rivals of Florida State Seminoles and Miami. Huge crowd gathered in town, there’s traffic jam and a lot of tailgating. Opps sorry, tailgating that I meant here is about a party at the tailgate of vehicles before the football game. It's an American thing. Not about a vehicle driving too close to another vehicle in front.

Doak Campbell Stadium, home of the Seminoles Football

These are the first few cultural lessons I had during my brief ride from the airport to our hotel. Along the way we passed by the Florida State University stadium, which is huge! It accommodates up to 85k people! Now, this got me excited to be among the spectators in that stadium watching live college football game. Will be patiently waiting for the opportunity to go the home game while I am here.

Like a migratory bird...

I always wonder how it feels like to be migratory birds. I have always admired the energy of migration birds, their ability to navigate to their preferred location, far far away. Nature is great isn’t? Migratory birds fly in a flock, a strategy of utilizing their energy efficiently, migrating between north and south to escape unsuitable weather and to search for food. Depending on species, the distance that they cover is usually really long. Due to the long exhaustive journey, they need to stop at several locations before reaching their final destination. After the effort of travelling away, they would fly all the way back to where they came from.

I would liken my journey to the United States to the migration of these migratory birds. I now sort of understand the feeling of flying long hours with several stops in between. Departing from Malaysia with a bunch of enthusiastic professional fellows, it took us 25 hours, transiting for several hours in two stops before arriving Washington D.C. After several days of ‘rest', we are off again to different cities within the United States. In a way, we are escaping from unsuitable weather (it’s hazy now in Malaysia!), but not searching for food. We are instead seeking a rare lifetime experience, in land far far away from home. The journey doesn't end here, it has only begun.

Under the wings

Ready to take off!