Jet Lag Haze

[Michele] We all know the pitfalls of jet lag; wide awake at 3 am and can’t keep eyes open at 3 pm.   Everyone who has traveled between the east coast of the US and east coast of Australia (14 hour time difference) has experienced this jet lag.  I am no exception. Since it is currently 3 am and I am wide awake after arriving in Australia yesterday, I thought I would try and focus on a benefit of jet lag.

Arriving in a different land, you are bombarded with a myriad of small and large ways that the locals do things differently than you and your friends at home.  Differences may be as mundane as turns of phrase the locals use and as critically important to adjust to as driving on the opposite side of the road.  The sleep deprived haze of jet lag provides a filter for all of these differences so that each one seems simultaneously fascinating and absurd.  When a friendly dog visited us on the beach yesterday its owner declared “She’ll always con a pat”.   Of course we smiled and chuckled at the charming Aussie.  Then, we turned to each other to figure out what the heck he had just said.  It was a straight-forward phrase but not one that Gavin and I had ever heard before.  Now you non jet-lagged people reading this probably don’t see any absurdity in this at all but through the haze of jet lag we found this phrase really funny.  ‘con a pat’  Bah ha ha!  Jet lag can do that to you.  Revel in the punchiness, and everything Australian will seem absurd.  But do keep to the left on the roadways, that one is important.