The Jet Lag Chronicles (through Sat.)

One of the most dreaded aspects of our adventure for me was the boys’ reaction to jet lag and our (in)ability to help them through it as we experience the same thing.  Below is the day to day record of how we’re feeling.  Hopefully we’ll get lots of visitors from the States over the years and I want to be sure everyone kind of knows what to expect…

Tues. / Wed. – Traveled from 7am Tues. to about 10:30am Wed. (all VA time; we actually got into the room and kids to bed about 11:30pm Suzhou time).  The kids slept about two hours each on the plane and about an hour in the car ride from Shanghai in that period of time.

Thurs. - Everyone was pretty much wiped out and slept until 7am Thurs. morning.  I (Dave) felt horrendous because I’m a caffeine addict and while on the plane I didn’t have any so I could try to sleep.  So on top of the jet lag, I had the caffeine headache until breakfast, after which everyone felt great.  Imagine the best buffet breakfast you’ve ever had in the US and multiply it by a factor of 10 to gauge what a breakfast in a Chinese hotel is like.  They have breakfast food from everywhere in the world all in one place.  It’s actually quite the experience.  Anyway, the great feeling lasted until lunch.  The kids and Rebecca took a 2 hour nap while I stopped by the office (Rebecca set the alarm which was the only way she woke up).  The kids didn’t budge when she opened the shades in their room; she had to coax them all to get up.  We went to dinner with one of my colleagues and the kids basically wallowed around the table while we let them eat desserts until they were full.

Fri. – I thought it was just what happened to me, but everyone woke up about 4am and couldn’t really get back to sleep.  We checked out the villa that morning and stopped to pick up some minimal groceries.  The kids and I took another 2 hour nap (alarm woke me up) while Rebecca went to have coffee with the Expat (expatriate) Association.  She came back with a lot of DVDs ($.75 apiece) and several hundred “taxi cards”, which are basically business cards in both English and Chinese that you show the taxi driver when you want to go somewhere.  Dinner was pretzel sticks and peanut butter since we didn’t feel like carting the kids around (and we were all still stuffed from breakfast and lunch).

Sat. – Got a call from the moving company at midnight wanting feedback on the loading process in IN.  Below is the transcript of the call:

Lady:  “Good Evening Mr. McLain, this is so-and-so with watchama-call-it; I would like to ask you a few questions about the loading of your household goods.  Were you the individual who oversaw the process?”

Me:  “You know I moved to China, right?”

Lady:  “Yes sir.”

Me:  “You realize its midnight in China?”

Lady:  “Sorry.”  <click>

In my defense, I was jet lagged and in REM sleep when the phone jolted me awake (the one time I’ve really rethought the rock version of Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice Baby” as a ring tone).  Frankly, I was a little annoyed that the company that moved me across the world didn’t realize that I was actually ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD.  But I digress…

Sat. take two – The kids woke up at 4am again.  Today we’ll try not taking naps for the two oldest.  They all also have a slight cough, which I attribute to a combination of the wet and cold weather, the dryness from the heat in the hotel, and the smog.  So, thankfully we have due cause to medicate them tonight with some children’s cough medicine.  Below are some photos of them laid out at nap time as well as some random pictures of the hotel, which is decorated quite elaborately for CNY (Chinese New Year).  Red is a lucky color in China and the envelopes hanging from the tree in the picture are typically given to younger generations with money inside.  Now I know where the online gift company “Red Envelope” got its name…