Internal Clock

One thing that I love about summer back home is that it's daylight until 9pm during the longest days. This is great for everyone. Hang out longer, kids play outside with each other longer, and enjoying the coolness of early evening while it's still light and pleasant outside. Oh how I miss those days. An interesting thing occurred when I arrived here... See, Dominica does not abide by daylight savings time. :( So no long days for me anymore. Here, on the longest days in the summer, it gets dark around 6:30pm. Now that "winter" (yes yes, I definitely use that term loosely) is starting to begin, the days are getting shorter. (I know time changes back in the states this weekend, so I guess I can't complain too much!) So now sunset is around 5:40pm and by 6pm it's pretty dark. Grrr... (And all the stores close at like 4-5pm anyway, so there's NOTHING to do once there is no light.) Though it does get light much earlier here (usually around 5:30am). I'm usually at work by like 7:45am, which would NEVER happen back home in the states. I was lucky to get out of bed at 8am (here it's 6am) and be at work by 9:15am (now I'm at work before I was out of bed back home). Crazy. And I'm not any more tired from it. (It's amazing what early morning sun and roosters crowing will do for your sleep patterns~ oh and the goats too.) I did mention to my parents that I feel like I'm getting old (or becoming more like them). At home, they're usually in bed by 8-9pm and up at 4-5am (if they're lucky). I will admit that on more than one occasion I've started to fall asleep on the couch between 7-8pm and then wind up in bed by 8pm (and then proceeded to sleep until 8am...I was REALLY tired in my defense). Back home I never went to bed before 11 or 11:30pm. Here, if I'm not in bed by 10:30pm, there's a big problem. I figure part of this new internal clock thing is a consequence of getting old (and I really don't want to age myself), but I'm going to attribute it to this crazy daylight schedule the islands have. So if anyone ever desires to actually come and see me, then they can enjoy pretty sunsets, but REALLY early ones!