Jet lag

I can’t believe I am writing this from NY…again. It’s been a day right now since I arrived at my place in the East Village after a horrible trip. Thanks a lot Air France!!!

Just a sequence of my trip back yesterday:
130 pm (Paris time): departure from my hometown to Paris Charles de Gaulle
300 pm: timely arrival in Paris. No Air France shuttle is waiting for me and other passengers (and our luggage) with tight flight schedules. I rush to the terminal building and run across the airport to make it to another terminal, pass passport and security controls and make it to the gate.
325 pm: stressful (and sweat) arrival at boarding gate, 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time.
355 pm: still in line for boarding
430 pm: sit down in 19E. A elderly woman starts some small talk. I try to deep breathe… I also notice that the plane is rather old, which means no individual entertainment onboard.
530 pm: take off
1245 am: we approach JFK for landing. When we are a few hundred meters away, the plane goes up again. General panic and complains.
130 am: after some long and annoying turns around the airport, we land.
210 am: I arrive at the immigration booths. It has taken us more than half an hour to park the damned aircraft…
300 am: I make it through immigration. The slowest line I have ever experienced when coming to the US.
320 am: my suitcase does not come out.
321 am: I manage to see a board with my name on it. A lady reports that my suitcase did not make it. I am referred to the lost baggage office.
330 am: after making it through customs and a rather annoying woman trying to jump the queue, I am informed that my luggage has been located and will be delivered on the morning after. I have no right to an indemnity b/c “I live in NY” (!)
400 am: after taking the airtrain I jumped on the subway.
520 am: home sweet home.
600 am: I manage to fall asleep.

Seven hours later my phone wakes me up. A van with my suitcase is downstairs. I wake up and pick it up. I can’t sleep any more.

Well, probably this was not what I expected from my first hours back in NY. Airlines can make our life really miserable. It’s after midnight already and I don’t feel sleepy. I have always jiggled about soccer players claiming how affected they are by jetlag when traveling far from their countries. I have never been very affected by it, but, honestly, from today on I will trust the Ronaldinhos of the world a little more.

Ciao