The Flight (and Time)

How to tell what time it is in Switzerland when you are not in Switzerland.
If you live in the Pacific Time Zone you subtract 3 hours and change AM to PM or PM to AM. Having it be 8:45 PM in California means it's 5:45 AM in Switzerland. So if you live in Mountain Time Zone you subtract 4 hours and switch the AM and PM.

How to tell what time it is in Switzerland while in Switzerland.
Switzerland is on the 24 hour clock. The mornings are really easy to figure out what time it is. But then after noon I have to stare at clocks that read 18:35 and try to figure out the time. Though there is a ridiculously easy trick. Just subtract 12. But still, it confuses me everytime I glance at a clock. I have to read it a few times before I can figure it out.

I am now in Switzerland.
My flight wasn't too bad. I love the Swiss airline. They offer you free meals (actual meals) which made it wonderful. They also gave every passenger some lovely Swiss chocolate just for flying with them. It's heavenly. If you ever want to fly to Europe (and not England) then I'd take the Swiss airline to Switzerland. Plus, from Switzerland you can get to everywhere else on the continent.

My flight left San Francisco at 7:35 PM Pacific Time on Monday, September 12th. I arrived in Switzerland at 15:40 (3:40 PM) Switzerland time on Tuesday, September 13th (which was 6:40 AM Pacific Time on Tuesday, September 13th). So my flight was a little less than 12 hours.

There are a few things that are confusing about flying from California to Switzerland.
I was put in the plane in the evening. So the whole flight was technically my normal nights. But you can't tell the when while on the plane. All the little windows were covered and the lights were either dim or bright at different moments. I was never sure what time it was when I was actually on the plane. So I fell asleep whenever I felt like it and whenever I woke up I had no idea how long I slept. It was kinda relaxing. But I feel like I did an all-nighter based on the fact I finished two 350 paged books.
When I arrived in Switzerland it felt like it was morning. The sun was shining. They feed us breakfast on the plane. Was it any wonder why it felt like morning?
What was interesting to me was that by the time I arrived at my cousin's house it was time for dinner (which was delicious). A few hours later, after playing with my first cousins once removed and watching Eureka, I was ready for bed. Yet it was only noon on my California Tuesday.

This morning I am typing away as I try to wrap my head around the fact that it's 5:40 in the morning while back home it's almost 9 PM.

But Switzerland is awesome. It's almost unreal that I'm here. I hear English every once in awhile outside my cousin's family. It sorta seems like I'm just in another part of the US. But I'm not. Being in Switzerland and coming to the realization that I'm actually in Europe is breathtaking. We, Children of God, are everywhere. There are 6.96 billion people on Earth today. You don't truly realize what a significant number that is until you are in a totally different country, on the other side of the planet, with a totally different group of people, with different customs and languages, etc. It's awesome.
Also, the scenery is amazing. I'm out in the country. But most of Switzerland is the country. There isn't that many "developed" portions. It's a smooth balance between the old style of life that we in America imagine with the wild land of the Medieval age and the new style of life with the trains and freeways and electricity. I'll be taking pictures today just to show you. It's awesome.