Thursday, June 14, 2007
. . . And On The Third Night - - -
For some peculiar reason, the third night after a very long flight back from a country that resides across the globe, and is 10 hours ahead, is always the crucial test whether you've gotten over the jetlag.
The first two nights are relatively easy, as you're so exhausted from being up for so many hours - before, during and after the flight.
Our flight out of Tel Aviv took off at midnight, which means we had a whole day before it. Not that it's hard to fill a last day in my homeland, but it's extremely stressful. All you want is to be left alone and enjoy a nice last day, but you are put into a whirlpool of emotional pressure by your loving loved ones, with chants that vary from Oh-you-are-leaving-so-soon-and-we-did-not-have-enough-time-to-catch-up, (well, it's not me who did not make time to be more together) through why-don't-we-go-out-and-do-something-fun-today-before-you-fly (which is the last thing you want to do before a long flight) to so-how-do-you-summarize-your-visit (I don't! I wanna get back home quickly and safely).
And it's beyond frustrating, as you need to be accommodating and pleasant, even though you are stressed and edgy, knowing that once the day ends, those who provide this emotional joy will go to sleep in their beds, while you will need to cope with another veeeeeeeery long day, filled with lines at the airport and security checks and boarding annoyance and sitting up straight for hours and hours and neck pain and back pain and pain-in-the-butt passengers and a snoring seat-mate and at least one screaming kid on the 10.5 hours flight and a hectic connection and smug business traveler jerks (OK, we didn't know that in advance - that was a bonus surprise) and - - - - need I say more?
So, once our last day in Israel was over, it took us 26 hours door-to-door. 26 hours since we left my aunt's apartment in Ramat Aviv till we opened the garage door to our house here. And, mind you, we landed here at 10am, which means we had a whole day to pass here as well... So it was a major achievement to keep ourselves awake till after 9pm - and no wonder we both crashed to bed soon after.
The first night was OK.
Second night was even better.
The third night - Ah, this is when you usually break, as you convince yourself that you're already back in the right time zone, and it's OK to go to sleep a bit earlier. Now, that is bound to screw up the whole coming-back-to-local-time grand plan.
Knowing that, I decided to go for prevention rather than cure, and played Domino on the web with some fancy-named people till after midnight. Then, victoriously, I crawled to bed and collapsed, thinking I made it. Woke up at 6:30.
Sounds good? Well, those who know me will attest what a crisis this is. I mean, if I Email or call someone before 10am, they get very concerned, and ask if something happened.
I'm so tired!
And I had this plan to go on a fun venture of a Hike & Sketch today, organized by our watercolor society. Need to leave in an hour. I still hope I can make it. Hopefully, it will drive away the remains of the jetlag and teach my body once and for all what's the time here.
The JohnnyB, you ask?
Ah, The JohnnyB broke last night, and went to bed before 9pm.
Woke up at 4:30am.
Again.
Yup.
He is pissed.
# posted by Nava @ 7:52 AM 
Comments:
We get up at 5 every morning. Even on the weekend. That's because cats have an internal alarm that initiates the "feed me" events. Kind of like ClockyCat. Might as well get up and take care of things as there is no snooze button.
I agree about the 3rd night being the test. I've been back from Europe for 6 nights now, and I still awoke at 5 this morning. Fortunately, the university pool opens at 6:15, so I decided to do something healthy for a change and go swimming, thinking that I would have the pool to myself. When I got to the pool, I could barely find a free 1/2 lane (and it's an olympic size pool, with about 20 lanes)! Apparently, there's an entire sub-culture of early risers who are health nuts!!! Afterwards, to balance my healthy swim, I stopped at Taco Bell for breakfast . . .
# posted by 
: 6/15/2007 5:21 AM
Hope you made the Hike and Sketch. That does sound like the best way to get yerself re-normalized.
Although, since there've been no posts since the 14th, perhaps you're catching up on sleep Big Time!
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How does this jetlag thing work? For some reason, I never have a jetlag when I'm flying from Israel, but the damn thing catches me when I fly back (so I'm experiencing one right now). And yes, the third night has been the worst so far.
# posted by : 6/23/2007 2:00 AM
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# posted by : 6/15/2007 5:21 AM
: 6/15/2007 5:21 AM Although, since there've been no posts since the 14th, perhaps you're catching up on sleep Big Time!
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# posted by : 6/23/2007 2:00 AM
: 6/23/2007 2:00 AM 
