New York, New York

June 22nd at 05.35 our flight from San Paulo arrives safely at John F. Kennedy airport in New York, but noooooooo we can't get off the plane cause the immigration/customs staff don't start until 06.00, so we sit in the plane until we're allowed to disembark.  Apparently all the people on the plane had international passports, so I was the only one in the US line, which meant I got to fly through to the baggage claim and within minutes my bag was there and within a few more minutes I was outside the security doors meeting my dad.

We were out of the airport parking lot by 06.45 . . . I think that's some sort of record, since my plane was scheduled to arrive at 06.20.

The reason I am bothering to post about being back in the USofA is mostly because my first experience back was not the greatest and to be honest rather embarrassing for the US!  I decided it was a good idea to use the toilet before heading out on our 6 hour drive back to the Adirondacks.  So after using the toilet I went to wash my hands and to make a long story shortish, there were 8 sinks, 8 soap dispensers and not a one of them had any soap in them!  Then I went to dry my hands and neither of the two hand dryers were working and there was no paper towel.  Having done a boat load of travelling at this point, I was ashamed of the quality of service I was receiving - I mean I found these things in developing countries without a problem, why can JFK not get with the program . . . or does the cleaning staff not come in till 08.00?

Time Zones

So I just had a wee look at the world map and learned that in about 7 hours I will have made it around the world, since I've been to Hawaii before and on my way to Santiago, Chile this afternoon, I will pass that point!  I also had a look at the time zone map and realised that when I land at 12.10pm (Chile time) it will actually be 11.10am on the east coast of America and 4.10pm in England.

I had forgotten how much further east South America is when compared to North America.  So for the next month I'll be one and two hours ahead of New York and four and three hours behind London.

Okay, that's my fun fact for the day . . .