{"id":1741,"date":"2015-07-08T05:50:01","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T09:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/?p=1741"},"modified":"2015-07-08T06:03:04","modified_gmt":"2015-07-08T10:03:04","slug":"jet-lag-journey-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/2015\/07\/jet-lag-journey-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"jet lag journey; part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"yellow
A beautiful yellow flowering tree that sits just around the corner from our host house. It makes me happy every time I see it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019m sitting in Singapore, in our host family\u2019s house fighting off jet lag by taking some time to write to you about our journey to Papua New Guinea so far. We left our hometown on Saturday, and I think<\/em> today is Wednesday (jet lag is a real killer, y\u2019all \u2013 I\u2019m struggling).<\/p>\n

We spent Saturday night in a hotel a few minutes from the airport, since we had to check our bags and go through security by 4am Sunday morning. Since it was also the 4th<\/sup> of July \u2013 we had a pretty good view of the fireworks over Tampa Bay. Our 3 suitcases weighed in at 51.4, 50.6, and 50.6 of the 50lbs allowed per bag \u2013 yay for no overweight charges! Security was relatively quick as no one really wants to argue that early in the morning (except, apparently, the Starbucks lady)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sitting in Singapore, in our host family\u2019s house fighting off jet lag by taking some time to write to you about our journey to Papua New Guinea so far. We left our hometown on Saturday, and I think<\/em> today is Wednesday (jet lag is a real killer, y\u2019all \u2013 I\u2019m struggling).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We spent Saturday night in a hotel a few minutes from the airport, since we had to check our bags and go through security by 4am Sunday morning. Since it was also the 4th<\/sup> of July \u2013 we had a pretty good view of the fireworks over Tampa Bay. Our 3 suitcases weighed in at 51.4, 50.6, and 50.6 of the 50lbs allowed per bag \u2013 yay for no overweight charges! Security was relatively quick as no one really wants to argue that early in the morning (except, apparently, the Starbucks lady)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Flight #1<\/strong> was 2 hours and took us to Philadelphia<\/em>, where we had enough time to grab a quick snack before boarding for flight #2<\/strong> \u2013 13 hours to Doha.<\/em> I wish I could say that we slept on that flight, but instead there were a thousand small children running rampant and generally causing mayhem while their parents slept. We landed with only 20 minutes until our next flight began boarding, but thankfully we were able to make our connection. On to flight #3<\/strong> and our final flight of the \u201cday\u201d \u2013 8 hours into Singapore<\/em>.<\/p>\n

After more than 30 hours of travel that \u201cday\u201d we met our host family and could finally (finally!)<\/em> sleep.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I truly experienced the misery that is jet lag. We\u2019re currently 12 hours ahead of Florida time, which means that my body thinks it\u2019s 5am right now, when in fact, it\u2019s 5pm. I\u2019m dead tired by 4pm, and wide awake at 3am. I finally gave in yesterday and took a nap because I was getting angry from being so tired. Ugh.<\/p>\n

Singapore is a beautiful country that is very rich and diverse with more cultures successfully integrated into one unique culture than I\u2019ve ever seen in one place. I\u2019m not sure that America could beat Singapore in a \u201cmelting pot\u201d standoff.<\/p>\n

Josh and I have explored the shopping centers, gotten a massage (I can\u2019t even describe how wonderful that was!), eaten local cuisine, and visited the Sentosa Island Aquarium. It\u2019s been really, really nice to do these fun and relaxing things before going to the land of no convenience, zoos, or aquariums.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow we continue on towards Papua New Guinea. We have a 6-hour flight, followed by a 1-hour flight, and 20-minute drive before we arrive at our new home.<\/p>\n

Flight #1<\/strong> was 2 hours and took us to Philadelphia<\/em>, where we had enough time to grab a quick snack before boarding for flight #2<\/strong> \u2013 13 hours to Doha.<\/em> I wish I could say that we slept on that flight, but instead there were a thousand small children running rampant and generally causing mayhem while their parents slept. We landed with only 20 minutes until our next flight began boarding, but thankfully we were able to make our connection. On to flight #3<\/strong> and our final flight of the \u201cday\u201d \u2013 8 hours into Singapore<\/em>.<\/p>\n

After more than 30 hours of travel that \u201cday\u201d we met our host family and could finally (finally!)<\/em> sleep.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I truly experienced the misery that is jet lag. We\u2019re currently 12 hours ahead of Florida time, which means that my body thinks it\u2019s 5am right now, when in fact, it\u2019s 5pm. I\u2019m dead tired by 4pm, and wide awake at 3am. I finally gave in yesterday and took a nap because I was getting angry from being so tired. Ugh.<\/p>\n

Singapore is a beautiful country that is very rich and diverse with more cultures successfully integrated into one unique culture than I\u2019ve ever seen in one place. I\u2019m not sure that America could beat Singapore in a \u201cmelting pot\u201d standoff.<\/p>\n

Josh and I have explored the shopping centers, gotten a massage (I can\u2019t even describe how wonderful that was!), eaten local cuisine, and visited the Sentosa Island Aquarium. It\u2019s been really, really nice to do these fun and relaxing things before going to the land of no convenience, zoos, or aquariums.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow we continue on towards Papua New Guinea. We have a 6-hour flight, followed by a 1-hour flight, and 20-minute drive before we arrive at our new home.<\/p>\n

I can’t believe I get to be on this amazing journey and that I get to do it with my best friend. There are so many blessings that it would be hard to name them all. This is such an exciting adventure (yes, even with the jet lag!) and I’m so glad that you get to come along, too!<\/p>\n

\"10<\/a>
10 hours into our 13 hour flight. These are the faces of 2 people who may or may not have been willing to hog-tie the rambunctious children standing between everyone on the plane (except their parents) and sleep.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"food<\/a>
Exploring the food court. I’m quite good at following pictures to see what I want!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"massage\"<\/a>
First order of business for us: a massage. The angels sang as those knots came out.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"food\"<\/a>
Lunch! Beef and rice. Broth and beef balls. Delicious!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"aquarium\"<\/a>
Sentosa Island Aquarium. Air-conditioning and awesome fish! Double win.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sitting in Singapore, in our host family\u2019s house fighting off jet lag by taking some time to write to you about our journey to Papua New Guinea so far. We left our hometown on Saturday, and I think today is Wednesday (jet lag is a real killer, y\u2019all \u2013 I\u2019m struggling). We spent Saturday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1080,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2396,91613,91837,1196,68449,85834,2147,490,638],"class_list":["post-1741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-ministry","tag-josh","tag-josh-and-erin-verdonck","tag-josh-verdonck","tag-missionary-aviation","tag-missionary-aviation-png","tag-missionary-life","tag-new-tribes-mission-aviation","tag-ntma","tag-papua-new-guinea","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1080"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}