Over the Top

Dear class,

Hello everybody. Just giving a big shout out that I'm in China. Not to boast or anything but China rocks. It's got great food, nice people, a good atmosphere and most importantly great food. The only problem is the jet lag. It's terrible! You can't sleep at night and you're tired in the morning.

The plane flight to China was a good 15 hours. From Charlotte we went to Chicago and then straight to Shanghai. In the process of the long flight. I watched TV, slept and watched more TV.

After looking at the seat in front of me for a good five hours (built in TV on the back of the headrest) I looked out the window to see where we were. The results were amazing. I found myself flying over a vast frozen land. I could see for miles on end. The snow went on and on. It without a doubt was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. It was breathtaking.

 

We were flying up near the North Pole. Apparently, going over the top of the world was faster than going around it. If you go online to Google Earth you can see for yourselves.  

We saw a lot of things out the window.

 

  Queen Elizabeth Islands (Canada)

 

Verkhoyansk Mountains, Siberia (Russia)

 

Yablonovy Mountains (Russia)

             
  Gobi Desert (Mongolia, China)

[Pam taking over here]

Parker's tired from jet lag, so I'm going to take over and ask some questions.

We took off from Chicago at about noon on Wednesday. After about fifteen hours we landed in Shanghai. It was 4 p.m. on Thursday there. How did that happen?

(Answer: Shanghai is exactly twelve hours ahead of Charlotte, and thirteen hours ahead of Chicago. We also crossed the International Date Line, which is along the 180 degree longitudinal line. We crossed the line at about 1 p.m. on Wednesday, August 31. Suddenly, it was about 1 p.m. on Thursday, September 1. That's a hard concept to get your mind around.)

It was hard to keep track of the time, because we flew through so many time zones. Also, because we were flying towards the sunny side of the Earth, it was light the entire way, except in the airplane where people were watching TV. Chicago, where we took off from, had rotated into the dark by the time we landed in Shanghai, but Shanghai was still in the light.

Jet lag is hard. Our bodies run according to what are called Circadian rhythms, which determine when we're awake and when we're sleepy on a 24-hour cycle. Here on the other side of the world, our bodies are confused. They think it's day when it's night, and so on. They are adjusting slowly. We went almost exactly halfway around the world in less than a day, so I guess some confusion is understandable.

Hope everything is going well at Shamrock, and that no one got washed away in the hurricane.

[Parker again]

That's all for today. Thank you and have a good flight.