Hello Jet Lag!

....Finally managed to take again time to write my thoughts & experiences, which I have been listing the past months. Happily married now and with some of the free time will try to make sure to empty my thinking tank to my blog :)

Sharing some of the my most vital lessons learned for the flights between continents. If you have additional tips and tricks, please feel to share them. Would be fun to hear what other aids have been figured out.

Moving outside your birth-country is exciting but the name of the game is of course to try to keep all the relationship up and alive also back home. In best case one has also some work commitments there. Which means that there are times that Jet lag is all you know for a while, everything else is covered in a fairy tale like fog :) 

I remember when living in Singapore, I was on a local salary and flying home for Christmas was something I did not dare even dream about. Now I know how good I had it. One year I flew only once to Finland. Well....moving preparations to US brought the cross continent flying to a whole new level:
Before moving to US I had 1 week visit to the client site in Alabama. As I was lucky enough to be able to transfer within the company ....and on top of that take my projects with me.

After that trip I had 2 weeks time to pack the house in Finland and take care of the remaining most crucial wedding preparation tasks, which needed on-site presence.

Then 2 weeks in Texas for Christmas....and after New Year back to Finland for a week to hand over my manager responsibilities and then chirpy-chirp directly to Washington to get the 4 day on-boarding to the US workplace.

Flying across the Atlantic weekly or every 2nd week for 6 weeks in a row meant
"Hello jet lag!".
It gets easier though each time as one learns the tricks which fit the flight duration and circumstances.

I learned that if flying to US with a flight, which leaves Finland in the morning and arrives in US during day time ....stay awake as much as you can. Make sure to have all the magazines and books you wanted to read for months...but never had time. Stay away from heavy food and red wine, as it will make you sleepy.

When flying to Finland with over night flight my tricks are following: I wake up extra early on the day of the flight. This to be extra tired for the flight.

Turku Airport with Moomins to greet you

I stay away from pasta or beef meals, prefer chicken or vegetarian to get something to eat but not eat too heavy. I drink whole lot of water but I also allow myself glass of red wine, when it is time to dose off. Luckily the melatonin tablets have become now easy to get in any store. I have those with me or allergy medication.
My husband, being the chemical engineer of the family, educated me that several allergy medication has ingredients, which make one sleepy . But they do not leave you as badly drowsy as sleeping tablets do.

Thus our favorite has become Benadryl, take two of those and you will be nicely asleep most of the flight (http://www.benadryl.com).
At both ends for the first nights we keep taking melatonin or Benadryl to speed up adjusting to the local time zone. So far it has worked rather well.
Waiting for the time when one can just push a button on the wrist watch and say "Beam me up Scotty!" :)