"You Know you're on the World Race When…
1. You go to the mall or grocery store just to be reminded of what A/C feels like
2. You have no memory of what personal freedom is anymore
3. When everyone has lost every manner they ever had
4. When you wake up at night and forget what country you are in
5. When you sit at the table with headphones on just so no one will talk to you and you can pretend you are alone
6. You drive through 5 countries in 19 hours
7. You spend the night at a 5 star hotel in the Middle East
8. Driving on the left side of the road is normal
9. You pee out the window because you are too lazy to get out of your bed and walk to the outhouse
10. You have perfected the bathroom squat for the woods and nasty toilets
11. Your meals consist of bread, rice, and pasta…all the time
12, You can sleep anywhere- planes, buses, cars, train stations, airports, bus stations, and the side of the road
13. You stockpile peanut butter no matter how good or bad your meals are
14. You duct tape your Salomon shoe laces because there isn't an REI in Africa to fix them
15. You wipe out while running because you are waving to Swazi kids then emerge with a bloody leg and them laughing at you
16. You are given a machete and a live chicken to make your dinner
17. You have no memory of what fast internet is anymore
18. You are excited to go to the grocery store with more than 5 aisles
19. You spend Christmas day grilling out and going to the pool
20. You sleep at 6 different places in 4 weeks
21. You get to go on safari and pet a cheetah
22. You get excited about drinkable tap water and toilets that flush toilet paper
23. You have no clue what a dishwasher, microwave, washer, or dryer are anymore
24. You randomly speak Albanian in Africa and Spanish in Romania
25. You spray yourself down with duty free cologne at the airport so you will smell good for your 10+ hour flight
26. McDonalds and KFC are now luxuries
27. Showering every few days is acceptable… the record is 5
28. Bringing a bar of soap to any river, waterfall, creek, or lake is more than acceptable and usually better than any other shower
29. You eat for $3 a day
30. The toilet paper always goes in the trash can, never flushed
31. You play Frogger every time you cross the street
32. You always smell your clothes before putting them on
33. Your washing machine is a bucket of water and some soap
34. You stare at a sign in English and think its spelled wrong because of all the different languages in your head
35. You forget what language to speak
36. You go to 14 countries in 8 months
37. You sleep on a concrete floor for a month in Mozambique
38. You walk down the sidewalk in Albania and see a slaughtered cow hanging up bleeding out onto the sidewalk
39. You fit 15 people into a taxi then get mad when the driver charges $10 instead of the original $5
40. A 6 hour bus ride to Mozambique ends up being 16 hours
41. You stay up until 4am sitting on the kitchen floor in Romania processing through your prisons with your squad mates
42. You are always talking about bodily functions, good or bad
43. You cross national borders on foot
44. Airline food and gifts (socks, ear plugs, and face masks) are like Christmas morning
45. You wear the same pair of jeans for 2 weeks straight without washing them
46. A 2 hour train ride feels like a trip to the grocery store
47. Before asking a stranger a question you always ask if they speak English, If not hand gestures will do most of the time
48. You think nothing of the rooster walking around in your room
49. After a month or 2 this very abnormal life starts to be normal and the "American normal" just feels like a distant memory
50. A "nice" house is now considered anything with 4 walls, a roof, some windows, and a door
51. You realize God actually speaks while sitting on top of a mountain in Bolivia
52. You regularly talk about the American food that you are craving
53. You are surprised you have only thrown up twice in 8 months
54. You cook dinner from scratch for 16 people nightly
55. Hot showers no longer exist, just a bucket of rain water
56. You have currency from 4 different continents somewhere in your backpack
57. Anything "American" is a huge luxury"
