Tag: jet lag

Back from the Holidays

One of the greatest benefits to being a teacher is the time off during the holidays. The final lessons have been taught, the grades are in, and there is nothing to do for the next couple weeks except get together with family and friends. For an international teacher that amounts to a little more effort than many would think. Two of the days of the break were lost traveling back and forth to the States, and then there is always the headache of jet lag to contend with.

Still, with all of the downsides of getting there, it is still worth getting back to the place where I grew up. There is a certain sense of comfort being back in Colorado that I just can’t get anywhere else in the world. Yet the longer I stay away from the place, the more I feel like I am no longer a part of this place. I am always on the search for those things that remind me of my hometown when I am abroad to feel that same sense of comfort.

It can come in the most unlikely places as well. Seeing a fox curled up under a bush might not be a common thing to see in Colorado, but it is not out of place either. There are many times that I ran into wildlife during my decades of living in the state. I can’t even count the number of times I have come across deer, elk, coyotes, foxes, and raptor birds. They were always something to marvel at when I came across them, but at the same time, I did not believe that I would have to note every time that I did.

I do not come across wildlife in Jordan like I did in Colorado. That is not to say that I am not reminded of that wildlife form time to time. There are the moments where domesticated animals give me the same kind of joy that I would get when I see a fox sleeping underneath a bush. It makes me start to realize that there are not many differences between places in the world. I might sit in Jordan over the school year and miss the place where I came from, but it takes me going there and back again to realize that I can find the same kind of joy no matter where I am in the world. It just takes a matter of perspective, and a shift of attitude. And traveling to my home state allows both of these things to happen. It makes coming back to my current life a pleasurable experience.

I know that I am not the only one that made this voyage over the holidays. I could see it in the airports with their packed in crowds, and people weighing their bags to make sure they could return home with all of the presents that they received. It is a wonderful distraction this time of year. It allows us to take pause and reflect on the life we have and we are living. I am grateful that I am given that opportunity to be able to do that every year, and I hope you find yourself in a similar situation.

Have a Great New Year, and I am looking forward to sharing my adventures with you throughout the course of it. Thanks for reading.

Work, A Cure for Jet lag

For a world traveler, there are many obstacles that a person can face, losing their passport, language barriers, and cultural misunderstandings, but the one that every traveler will experience and hate to fight through is the dreaded jet lag. Those days of wandering around like a zombie as you try to catch up to the time zone that you find yourself in are the worst. You will find yourself sleeping in the middle of the day, and missing out on the experiences you could be having just because you can’t get your head straight.

Many people have come up with various ways to minimize the impact that jet lag will have on you, such as staying awake the whole way there wile avoiding an stimulants, to having various catnaps to on the trip to try to make the adjustment. You can try taking melatonin right before getting on the plane and crash for the whole flight to feel refreshed, or when you arrive, you could keep yourself busy to trick your mind into thinking that it has been there for its whole life, and quickly fall into that time zones groove. These have varying degrees of success that are different for every person who attempts each strategy. I even find that what worked for me once does not work at all the next time I attempt it. But thanks to Covid, I have come up with a new way to get over jet lag that has actually been very effective every time I have used it as a method, work.

I know, you are calling me crazy. You go traveling to get away from work, and why would you want to bring this with you when you go and see what the world has to offer. But if given this rare chance to battle jet lag in this way, you should try it because it really works.

At the end of last school year, my school was on-line due to the pandemic, and the school announced that it would end the year that way. This gave me the opportunity to leave the country early, and do my work from anywhere in the world where I wanted. I just needed to make sure that I was doing my work in the same time zone that my work was in. Over the weekend, I flew to America, and during the night I spent my time finishing up the school year. I was staying with my in-laws so I had to adjust my clock a bit to finish the day with school instead of starting with it. When the week was over, making the next slip in time was no struggle at all, and it took only a minor adjustment to get over jet lag.

Because of the omicron variant, the school I am working at right now is starting the second semester on-line. It is only a two week adjustment, but it allowed me to extend my stay in the United States. I still have to work this week, and it will take place in the middle of the night, but I am in the process of the same adjustment with time. I worked late last night and slept away most of the morning. Over the weekend, I will make the jump over to Jordan, and when I get there, I will have to hop into that time fame and work right away. I won’t have time to think about jet lag, and I will already have made half of the adjustment this week. I believe that I will be able to get into the groove rather quickly.

It might sound silly, but it is a great way to get over this greatest of inconveniences for any traveler. Of course, this is not something that will be made available at all time because most people are not allowed to continue doing their job from anywhere in the world. But this is one of the small advantages of the Covid pandemic that we are given that chance from time to time. It still involves making some adjustments, but they are smaller and I find that they are easier to get over. I am in the first part of the process right now, and will continue the next step in the following week, but I am expecting the minimal effect from this long travel around the world this time around.