There are many challenges working internationally – staying healthy, eating sometimes unrecognizable foods, not getting lost while navigating a city foreign to you – but perhaps the greatest challenge is dealing with jet lag.
There is a twelve or thirteen hour time difference between Toronto and most cities in Asia and the travel time can be anywhere up to eighteen hours in the air. You follow the sun as you fly west. It is still shining when you arrive at your destination but thanks to the mystery of the international dateline it is the next day. “I got out of bed Tuesday morning in Canada and now it’s Wednesday afternoon! Whatever happened to Tuesday?”
You collect your luggage at the airport, get your passport stamped, take the express train into the city, transfer to the correct subway line (you hope), wander in a bit of a daze until you spot your hotel, and, much to your relief find they have your room reservation. “I’ve made it,” you say to yourself. Now a nice meal, a good eight hours sleep, and I’ll be ready to hit the ground running tomorrow morning. But maybe I’ll just rest my eyes for a few minutes before I head out to find a restaurant. The bed looks so inviting….
Your eyes blink open and the bedside clock says it’s 3:00 a.m. Which is 3:00 p.m. back home. You watch the international TV news, try reading the book you brought, flip through the tourism information in the hotel room. But nothing helps to bring back sleep. Your body says it’s mid-afternoon and you should be up and about. You think you can tough it out through your first full day in this exciting, bustling city. But by mid-afternoon, the middle of the night back home, your body says it’s time to sleep.
And so it goes for too many nights to count. When all your friends back home are envious of the adventures you must be experiencing and the glamour of international travel, all you want is a good night’s sleep.
