Wesley (Wes) Lefferts, PhD
It is 9:32PM in Doha, Qatar. Ben, Lydia, Carolyn, Abby, Emily and myself (Wes) are sitting in a quiet corner of the shnazzy and shwanky Doha International Airport. I personally am quite sleep deprived... I think I've slept for probably about 1.5 hours tops during the past 30+ hours. For this reason, I will qualify this blog post by saying it may be a bit disorganized and a stream of random thoughts, but it will be something.
Once we made it through transfer flight security check in Doha we met up with Lydia (flying form Chicago), and Ben and Emily (flying from Boston). I think its safe to say we've had quite a day(s) thus far, with another 5 hours until we depart to rendezvous with Dr. Tom Brutsaert, Dr. Trevor Day, and Nima and his crew in Kathmandu. Tom, Trevor, and the rest of the research team arrived in early May to begin data collection on the Sherpa participants in order to streamline data collection once us "lowlanders" arrive to Nepal. Once we land in Kathmandu we'll be doing our best to get adjusted, stave of sleep by prepping for research (that's my goal anyways), and potentially take a little field trip to the Monkey Temple for the students. I will say I think many of us are looking forward to some outdoor air, as opposed to the delightful, cool, but very much recycled dry air in our airplanes and airports. My personal goal once I arrive in Kathmandu is to find momo's. Yes, just like my daughter's book where you try to find a dog named Momo in a variety of photos, I'm going to do my best to find and consume momo's, a Nepali dumping (steamed or fried) that are to say the least... exquisite, delicious, and lifechanging. A mini synopsis of our travels thus far
Daily Recap
Iowa crew: Wes, Abby, Carolyn. Travel began from the booming populus of Greene, IA, when we departed at 2AM CST on Saturday 5/13 via car on a 3 hour drive to Minneapolis International Airport for a 7AM flight to Seattle. I spent what I thought was the majority of the trip finalizing my slides for the high altitude lectures I'll be giving, expecting us to be landing shortly once I finished working on them. Instead the flight attendant boldy announced another 1:20 in the flight and my soul was crushed. All of us agreed the 3 hour flight felt long (bad sign). We then had an 8+ hr layover in Seattle where we walked in circles, played cards (President, Oh Hell/up-the-river-down-the-river, Shithead/backpacker, 99, golf), and enjoyed a last couple easy phone calls with family members.
At 5:30PM we left Seattle for a 14 hr flight up over the north pole and down to Doha, Qatar. As soon as we sat down, all of us made the bold decision to remove our shoes at once in order to enhance comfort, despite negative short term effects on the general smell of our area. We were very underwhelmed by the movie and TV show selection, although I did discover "Happy Valley" a BBC crime drama show (quite dark, but with VERY lovely accents). Although Carolyn and Abby slept, my attempts were largely futile, thus I consumed nearly 11, hour long episodes of Happy Valley amid other random breaks and sleep attempts.
Upon arrival we met joined up with Ben, Lydia, and Emily and set up a "base camp" near some power outlets and a food court. I did attempt to sleep here (see lovely photo), and after I dozed off and rolled around on the tile floor I confidently arose thinking I'd killed off ~3 hours of our layover before realizing only 1 hour had passed because I hadn't updated the time on my FitBit. This... was demoralizing.
Boston Crew: Ben and Emily. Travel began roughly around 7PM EST on Saturday 5/13 from Logan International airport in Boston (pronounced BAH-ston), MA. Emily reported that highlights of the flight included, notably high quality movie selection (which upset the Iowa crew), the extremely delicious chocolate mousse desert that was served on their flight, and that she watched... Lyle Lyle Crocodile (I am assuming that is how you spell it because I have no idea what it is). Notable low moments during the flight included someone getting stuck in the bathroom for 35 min.
Chicago Crew: Lydia. Lydia's journey began at 1PM from the O'Hare International Airport in the bustling metropolis of Chicago, IL. She encountered some confusion in the airport because couldn't find Qatar service agents to actually help with the international flight check-in, but after some solid detective work she as successful. Once she boarded the flight Lydia apparently watched nearly an entire episode of a show before falling asleep for the entire duration of her 13ish hr flight (needless to say, I am quite jealous of this sleeping statistic).
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY from all of us!
We'd like to extend a very special HAAAAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to our mom's!
Wes: I had a card for Elizabeth, my wife, that I completely forgot to give to her before leaving and it's still in my bag! Going to be a very very late Mother's Day card haha. Buuuuut, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY ELIZABETH! I LOVE YOU! Annnnnd Happy Mother's day Mom, enjoy gardening!
Ben:"Happy Mother's day from Ben!"
Lydia: "Happy mother's day from Lyida!"
Abby: "Happy Mother's Day! How do you be more original? I'll just do another round of Happy Mother's Day!"
Carolyn: "Happy mother's day, from Carolyn!"
Emily: "Oh um, happy mother's day, see you in Amsterdam! -Emily"
That is all for now. Signing off from Doha. See you in Kathmandu!
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