You Know You’re on the World Race When…

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

58. You are treated like a celebrity almost everywhere you go because you are an American