T̶w̶o̶ One p̶e̶r̶p̶e̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶a̶t̶s̶ immigrant settling into home country number five.
A typical ski day for a Münchner starts with a painfully early wake up. Well before dawn, you toss on your ski clothes and haul your gear to the ski bus, or if you’re lucky, the car. Grab some coffee and a pretzel from your nearest bakery (the only thing open at this predawn hour) and hit the road.
And now for something completely different.
Tiring of our glamorous European lifestyle, we decided to hop across the pond for Christmas in the Deep South. It’s possible that our decision was swayed by the generous invitation of my parents to join them there, but in the end we found Charleston to be a most pleasant place to spend a few days (lack of appropriate Christmas weather notwithstanding).
Ever since we did the flying fox across Munich’s Olympic Stadium, I’ve wanted to do another zip line. I mean, what’s not to love? It’s got all of the outdoorsy fun of an adventure sport without any of that pesky physical exertion.
Ah, here we are back in Germany after spending the holidays in the US. We’ve made the transatlantic journey dozens of times by now, and while I still dread the long flights, at least I’ve gotten pretty good at dealing with jet lag (although people who have repeatedly watched me fall asleep in my first-night-in-the-US dinner might disagree). Given that I’ve never been good with sleep deprivation (even in college I couldn’t swing all-nighters), I’m feeling rather accomplished.
There are many approaches to jet lag, but mine is a simple one: you need to be overtired going into your first night in the new time zone. That way, when you finally fall into bed, you’ll sleep for a a good solid night and wake up at a reasonable time the next morning. After that first night, you’re most of the way home.
Traveling from Europe to the US