Home Again

I arrived home last night after a long, long trip. A four hour car ride, twenty-two hours of flight time, and eight hours of waiting in airports over a 40-hour time period left me more than a little tired. It's just after 8 AM, and the family has gone to school and work. I'm headed that direction in a few minutes too, as I have a meeting this morning that I don't want to miss.

My trip went so smoothly, all flights on time, and no problems with my baggage or customs. Johannesburg's airport has a bad reputation for items being stolen out of luggage. In Los Angeles I had to claim my bags, all of which were quickly off the plane. I had an export form (which I had learned about from my trip on the USNS Comfort) and that helped expedite me through customs. I thought TSA might open the cases there in LA, but when I arrived in Boise, all the cases were still sealed. That surprised me, considering the amount of cables and electronics that are in the cases.

So, I'm back, working on getting in the groove of life again. The thing is, to a large degree, I want to keep that from happening. I didn't drink coffee on the trip, didn't stare at my computer screen eight hours a day, drank a lot of water, and generally was out of the rat race that I participate in here. I'm thankful for the chance to have been overseas again for a while. It's good to bring perspective, both for my personal life, and my work activities.

Posted by David at 08:11 PM | Category: IT Field Communication

Backtracking

My shuttle ride picked me up just after noon, and we drove to the Maseru Bridge, where I would enter South Africa. While the drive fueled the vehicle, I walked through, going through immigration in Lesotho, then walking across the bridge and entering South Africa. I got back in the car, and by 5 PM I was at the airport in Johannesburg, and checking my bags for the flight home.

I'm in Frankfurt now, and everything is going smoothly. The nine and a half hour flight from Johannesburg to Frankfurt was long, but I was able to sleep, so that helped. I didn't suffer from jet lag much at all when I arrived in Lesotho, but I don't expect that to be the case when I return to Boise.

Posted by David at 07:34 AM | Category: IT Field Communication