Driving Back Home After Two Weeks in Europe

Yes, I am back in the United States after two weeks away in Europe with my son, and there are some things that felt disorienting, somehow.

This was the case after almost each big trip that I did with him, particularly the ones that required flights to and from somewhere.

Yet, this was more pronounced than those, and it began almost right away, simply with driving around.

You see, in Europe, almost every car is a stick shift.

By comparison, almost every car here in the United States is an automatic, including mine. Even my own car felt unusual to me, after having gotten a little used to driving a stick shift around everywhere.

Frankly, I prefer stick shift to automatic, and enjoyed driving stick for the two weeks. 

Perhaps not all that surprisingly, I found myself keeping my hand in position to change the gears, and my left foot prepared to press down on the clutch, even though neither of those are necessary, or even an option, with automatic vehicles.

It felt weird, to say the least. 

Of course, the jetlag surely did not help. After all, we got back in Washington by around 2:30pm, and in Newark by about 8pm, local time.

Remember, though, that for my son and I both, this is one of those unusually long days. We started it in Paris, but then moved six time zones to the west, as we reentered the United States. That makes this literally a 30-hour day for my son and I.

Yet, that also means that it feels incredibly late for us both. Right now, as I write this, it is ten to 11pm. That is fairly late in it's own right. But since my son and I are on European time, it feels more like 5am.

Crazy. And we are crazy tired, as well.

This is something that I have experienced in the past, but it is brand new to my son.

Am I the only one that nerds out and gets fascinated by such things?