Living out of my home country always scares me. I have been there and done that. The first thing that came to my mind when I accepted the fellowship and got my visa, was the feeling of being away from home. Back in my country, living with family and meeting friends are the everyday part of life. I got anxiety whenever I thought about living in the US for a year away from home, family and friends.
After 2 days of my arrival in Washington DC, I proved my anxiety wrong and said bye to it. There was a fellow fellow who came to receive me at the airport, Atlas has already arranged my taxi to drop me to home and they had also brought the local metro card to make our commute easier until we get familiar with transportation pass purchase. I was also lucky to find a Nepali host family to live with.
On the first day of out orientation, meeting my fellows from other country who are on the same boat as me gave me a relief. Program contact team, were too helpful. I even named one of the program contact ‘Google’ because whenever we had questions he was right there to help us. We received all the necessary information to live in Washington DC, from information related to security to managing the stipend (I know that is still a challenge). So, while my closed ones were worried that it might be difficult for me to live here, Atlas has arranged everything to make it easy. I have local ambassador friend paired by Atlas too. I miss being at home but they are not allowing me to miss home to be true.
As I started my office from last week, I have been more positive about the opportunities that I will get when I am in Washington DC.
Yes, far from my home, but not really 🙂
