Time Hump Chronicles, Part 3

So.
It is 7am on the morning of Sunday the 16, and I have been in the US for about 36 hours. The ease I was blessed with on the way out in terms of jet lag and food adjustment doesn't seem to be reciprocal coming back to America, so this is the first chance I've had to write while not wandering around my house like a 50's housewife trying antipsychotics for the first time.

I flew out of Hong Kong at 10am on Friday, the 14, and arrived in Newark at 3pm on Friday the 14, after a 15 hour flight. My brain is still working on accepting that one.

After hanging around in the Newark airport for a few hours and chugging some American Starbucks (they don't have the Flat White option in Asia), I boarded my flight for Boston and sat in the wrong seat 3 times before a flight attendant kindly pointed out to me that I was looking at my ticket for the previous flight.

But eventually, I made it home! Since the bulk of my flight from HJ to Newark was during the "day" for my body, and then it was the actual day time for the US, I didn't really get any sleep on the way over. So by the time I made it to Boston, I'd been awake for about 24 hours. But thanks to caffeine, indian food, and my friend Laura, I managed to stay awake until about 11 AND take a shower before passing out in my beautiful, very own bed.

The next day I woke up at 8, which is pretty damn good considering it's a 12 hour time difference, and had waffles while dealing with the realization that I'd forgotten how our television worked. I even made it to the gym for a little bit before realizing that I didn't actually have enough energy yet for a full workout, then I saw a few friends, and fell asleep around 7.

This meant that I woke up at 4am, but at least I feel like a person again. And I got to see the American sunrise, which was an added bonus.

Word of advice for anyone coming back into the US in terms of food adjustment: You don't realize how much artificial crap there is in the American diet until you've been effectively cleansing your body in another country for a while. I thought dairy was going to be the big issue for me, considering that it pretty much doesn't exist in the southern Chinese diet, but  it's actually been American bread products that have given me some problems. But it's a blessing in disguise because now I can focus on eating as naturally as possible, which is healthier anyway.

And with that, I close this chapter.