Greetings! I'm back from my travels, with three weeks plus exams left to run in the semester. But! My first conference of this overloaded year is over, spring is springing, a TLQ session wrapped up: what time is it, anyway? If it would be useful to have a short, interim session while North American semesters finish up, I can put up some posts. There won't be a unifying theme, and if there's a discussion question, it will just be whatever is on my mind that week.
So, here we are--a post, set goals and/or check in from last week if you mentioned any to-dos then--and if you feel like it, jet lag: in what direction do you feel it most, is it easier to adapt to big or small changes, does it depend on where you're going (familiar or not, stressful people or not), what do you do to help deal with it?
And who would like to volunteer for the next proper session, and when should it start?
Welcome back from travels! Hope it was fun and restorative.
ReplyDeleteI would be happy to host the summer session - mid-May to mid-August seems to work reasonably well for most people, suggestions welcome for timing. For now will plan to start on May 10 with announcement post, and session post on the 17th.
I am toying with an art or nature-based theme...
Question: I much prefer jet-lag going west, then I can just go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier. It takes me forever to adjust to the other direction! Coffee both ways I guess. And waking up with light and going outside really helps!
The travels were marvellous, thank you! But all too short. Mid-May as a start sounds excellent, as does either art or nature as a theme.
DeleteWelcome back! And if you feel like interim weekly posts that would be good!
ReplyDeleteYes, I too prefer going west - my worst jet lag experience was one Christmas as a postdoc when I flew back to the UK from North America a day or two before Christmas, and Christmas Lunch at my parents felt like an early breakfast to my body (my Mum gets quite upset if people don't eat all the food, you know how Christmas can be), never mind having to get up and be Merry Festive and open gifts in what felt like the middle of the night! I already have poor sleep and my natural pattern of sleep is delayed (which is yet another thing that makes sense now I know I'm AuDHD), so that was just a really hard slog of a festive season!
My impression is that most people prefer going west and that I am in the minority that find traveling east easier than west. It may depend on the length of the flight, as well. A midwest-to-Heathrow flight is around 7 hours, with a six-hour time difference, and if I go overnight, I can sleep or at least doze for part of it. The next day I'm tired, but that's not unusual for me; I stay up till bedtime and then I'm fine. UK to midwest is 8 hours in the air (against the prevailing winds), and the day stretches unbearably long. I conk out early and then wake up at insanely early hours home time, or else stay up till I get a second wind and am confused for days.
DeleteI should have added my goals on Sunday, but anyway:
ReplyDelete--assemble documents, fill in & file travel voucher
--catch up on class attendance, e-mail people who need prodding
--finish writing essay that is now months overdue (editors assure me I am not the worst offender!)
--do some editing tasks of my own (apparently I am not getting out of the situation I recently reported on . . . )
--get back to exercise routine
--take Reina to vet (routine visit)
--prep dead languages/catch up on what I missed
Checking in very late - conference last weekend has thrown me off track this week. Plus needing to find chunks of time to let daughter practise driving ahead of test tomorrow, arrgh. (It blows my mind that you can drive in the US at 15. If I had my way, she'd still be strapped firmly into a child seat, not operating a gearstick and pedals.)
ReplyDeleteReading the jet lag comments with trepidation: we have a 9 hour flight from the UK to Vancouver this summer, and then about a 7 hour flight coming back from Montreal. The only other times I have flown that distance was to and from New York and it was so long ago that I don't remember which was worse. My instincts are with Dame Eleanor: so long as the flight east is a night flight, I can try dozing and then just force myself to stay awake until bedtime. But I guess I will find out the hard way which is worse!
What I've heard is that morning people (whose bodies want to shorten the day) find it easier to fly east, and night owls (instinct to lengthen the day) prefer flying west.
DeleteYou probably don't want to know that in some states it's possible to get a "hardship license" at 14! This is usually only granted to farm kids, though.