Jet Lagg’d!
"Man, that was an awful lot of time I spent in the aeroplane!"
Those were my first thought after I came down from Continental Airline and finally arrived to Newark Int’l Airport. You see, for the past 22 hours, I was either inside a plane, or inside an airport.
This is the longest flight that I’ve ever taken. And believe me, it’s not the kind of experience that I’ll fantasize about.
My first flight was from Philippines and Guam. By that time, I was already pretty sleepy. The flight itself took 3 hours yet it took almost forever before I reach there. The flight was not exactly the most comfortable: the seatings were kind of crowded and the engines were the noisiest in this one. For those not in the know yet, my ears are extremely prone to aching whenever I’m at high altitude, and the sound of jet engines just make them even worse.
My next flight was from Guam to Hawaii. This one is livelier than the last one, since the one seated beside me was quite talkative. Needless to say, this was my favorite flight of all three, even though it took 7 hours.
The next flight, from Hawaii to Newark, is actually the longest. It lasted 9 hours, but felt more like 11 hours of boredom. I slept many times during the flight such that, whenever I open my eye, I hoped that I was already quite near Newark. It never turned out that way. Sometimes I would open my eyes and say "What?! We’re not yet in LA?!" or "Only Chicago? When will I ever reach New York?!"
After the agonizing 22 hours, I was in New York, only to be struck by jet lag. I tried my best to enjoy my first night in New York, but I ended up sleeping through it. While I was still trying to enjoy the night, I felt like my world is moving side by side, as if there’s an endless earthquake occuring everywhere I go. Realizing that this is not exactly the kind of condition I want to be in while touring places, I surrendered into sleeping.
Surprisingly, the jet lag is gone just after 4 hours. I ended up waking up earlier than usual: at 6 AM.
Maybe I’m just not very prone to jet lag, or maybe my body clock works as if I’m in New York all the time. Whatever the case may be, I find it quite weird that I can manage to sleep late and wake up early when I’m in NY. In Philippines, I’ll be severly lethargic throughout the day whenever I try to do that.
Whatever the case may be, I really am not looking forward to future experiences of jet lag.
