early to bed and EARLY TO RISE

Benjamin Franklins once said, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

The First Sunrise since being home in California

I honestly wonder what his opinion on the effects of Jet Lag would be. I woke up at 1 in the morning. California time. I refused to wake up though when the sun was literally on the other side of the planet. 1 AM Cali time is 10 AM Swiss time. Which was normally the time I woke up while I was in Switzerland. But because I really am a California girl, I really love my sunshine. Waking up hours and hours before it even shines is not exciting. So I went back to bed. And kept waking up. And kept going back to bed. I gave up at about 4 this morning. I figured my sister was waking up in an hour anyways to go to seminary. Once she woke I could easily get up and finish my unpacking and such. Not that I even started unpacking last night. So I suppose it's more that I'm beginning to unpack.
Maybe I can use this horrible jet lag to my advantage. Because when you wake up at 4 in the morning and have no residue of tiredness, it sort've drives you crazy. So I'll attempt to wake up at 5 in the morning regularly and then go to sleep earlier. Ha! I have good intentions but in the long run I have absolutely no faith that I'll be able to keep it. But I'm going to try!

Ok, so you know that intense debate about bringing my backpack and laptop or packing it away? Well, there was something I learned that made the decision for me. If you have a laptop it is to be a carry on. Elsewise, the bag peoples get upset at you. Luckily enough I did not learn this through experience. But rather through other people who know these things because they read the rules or learned it through their unfortunate experience.

Yesterday was also the longest day of my life. Literally. I woke up at 7 AM Swiss time to get ready for the day and finish up packing. Then we left around 9.
The Zurich airport is awesome. You know how in America you go through security check at the very beginning? At this airport you check in your bag. You get your boarding pass. Then you walk around and you can shop or eat or whatever you'd like. Then only those with boarding passes move on. Once they check your boarding pass (and that's it) you go to the right wing of the airport. Because I was using Swiss Airlines I went to "E". Which meant that I had to take a little underground tram to get there. Once you arrive at your section, that's where they do the big security check. The line was really short because it wasn't every single person in the airport that'll be flying but rather every person that will be flying from "E". Then I arrived at my gate #23 and that's where they check your passport and boarding pass. Then off you go.

I really liked it. A lot.

However the flight was forever. It was about 11 hours long. And every hour and a half or so they brought out really delicious smelling food. Not only was it delicious smelling but also delicious tasting. So just as I was about to fall asleep, I'd smell it. And I wouldn't be able to fall asleep if my life depended on it. So I had maybe 3 hours of sleep total. When I landed at 4:20 PM Cali time, it was more like 1:20 AM. After getting through customs and picking up luggage, I was a tad exhausted. Luckily for me my parents and sister picked me up. So I hugged them. Thanked them. And got in the back seat and started chattering away. However by that point we were going from San Francisco to the California valley at 5 PM. That's rush hour. The trip that was supposed to take one and a half hours took three. And halfway through it we needed to pick up the other car that my mom and sister drove to meet up with my dad at work. And I was asked to drive home because of other's health reasons. Now, realize this. It's around 3 in the morning for me and I'm driving. My parents were a tad worried about this. But I had found reserves of energy and was chattering up a storm. I told my mother that if she would let me chatter and actually converse with me on the way home that I could accomplish such a feat. And I did. Arrived safely home.

When I came in the door I saw luggage in the living room either being packed or being unpacked. It was in one of those stages. And I was confused. I had my bag in my hand. I wasn't unpacking yet. Then the rest of my mind caught up with my thoughts and went, "Oh! Right! My brother is packing for his mission as he's leaving next week." Him packing really made it more real for me.

After that moment of being slow of thought I brought myself upstairs to see what my sister did with our room as she rearranged things. It was nice. But I was a bit tired to really appreciate it. Then I was informed that we were leaving to practice a song as a family that we are singing on Sunday for my brother's last Sunday with us for 2 years. Actually, it'll be the last time my family is all together for awhile. Because while one brother is gone on his mission, another brother leaves on his. And for me, a lot can happen in 4 years. It's kind've a big deal. But anyways, I didn't know the song and was sleeping where I stood.

As soon as we arrived home, we had prayers and I went and crashed. Because by that point it was almost 6 AM for me. Almost a full 24 hours. With 3 one hour naps total.

And now here I am. I'm home.