Author Archives: jollenl

So here I am in Cancun, just a quick 20-minute jaunt from the airport, gearing up for our next Global Symposium. The place is so off-season that the hotels are basically ghost towns—it’s like I’ve rented out the entire resort just for myself. In contrast, arriving at the airport is like walking into a carnival—onlyContinue reading “Cancun”

When I stepped foot in Taiwan, I had to walk over a disinfection mat that instantly brought back memories of a Dutch congress I organized during the foot and mouth disease outbreak in Europe. Back then, the government decided that gathering veterinarians from all over the Netherlands—and beyond—would be just fine, as long as weContinue reading “Tasty Taiwan”

If you ever want to visit the moon, forget NASA—you just need to head to my hometown in the east of Malaysia, my host says. And that’s where the confusion begins. There’s an east, west, north, and south Malaysia—so far, so good—but then you also get an east of western Malaysia and a south… orContinue reading “Malaysia”

Traveling the world can lead to some pretty hilarious moments of lost-in-translation mishaps. Picture this: I’m jetting from Kansas City, making pit stops in Denver and Tokyo before finally heading to Jakarta, Indonesia. Right before we took off, our lead flight attendant gave the usual spiel to stow our stuff and buckle up. But thenContinue reading “Indonesia”

I had nothing to do with cows. Growing up, cows were a distant idea, something I saw in passing fields. My real introduction to these bovine creatures came during high school when I joined a local veterinarian on some externships. That experience shifted my dreams from becoming a fighter pilot to aspiring to be aContinue reading “Kansas Cows”