Dealing with Jet Lag

We’ve been here a week, and I’m fairly well adjusted to the 10-hour time zone difference. I no longer sleep late in the morning, take four-hour naps in the afternoon, and stay up all night reading. I only take short naps and read just a little in the middle of the night.

I’ve gotten used to reading the Washington Post online in the evening (8:00 am EDT is 6:00 pm here). More importantly my stomach and kidneys and liver don’t signal that they’d rather sleep when I have breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

An understanding of jet lag explains some recent public behavior of President Obama. You may recall that he hosted Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on one occasion, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on another. They were return visits made after Obama had been to their countries.

I’m very sure that Obama was feted with an elaborate state dinner in the Kremlin, and was served rich French food when he was in Paris. He vowed to get revenge, and the only thing he could think of that would be worse than all that rich food on a jet-lagged stomach was to take his guests to a greasy spoon restaurant. So he took Sarkozy to Ben’s Chili Bowl, and Medvedev to Ray’s HellBurgers.

A really nice thing to do for a jet-lagged head of state would be to have a picnic in a park. Lafayette Park is convenient to the White House, but it lacks seclusion. I recommend that Obama take guests to Rock Creek Park and let them relax. Grateful guests would think of Obama as a true friend.

I’m glad that my foggy brain is finally working well enough to solve problems in international relations.