There comes a time on the race when you stop for a moment after catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and think….what is happening to me?? Do I seriously look this bad? Wow…I have really let myself go!
I have spent the past 5 months living in smaller cities or villages. You might be surprised to hear that most of the time I did not have a mirror during these months. If I did have a mirror it was a small compact that woudl only let me see my nose and one eyeball.
Well this month we are in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam….if you have not heard this city has somewhere between 7-12 million people scrambling around and living like most of us back home (just much more crammed together). With a Coffee Bean around the corner and a Gap a 20 minute walk away. The other day 2 of my girl teammates and I were walking around and decided to head into Banana Republic to “check it out.” We thought it would be fun to just at least touch these nice clothes we might have worn in our past lives. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and stopped to say….”What in the world am I wearing??” and “Did I seriously go out in public like this?”
Another issue we face being in a large city is managing money. Although we are living in a more expensive area, we are still living on $4 a day. There are times when we find ourselves coveting food on people’s place around us. I never thought I would get to a point where I would consider eating other people’s food…until I was on a strict budget…well we have had a few incidents I won’t mention for the sake of keeping some dignity…but being on a budget makes you do crazy things sometimes.
All this to say after reading countless blogs about similar racer experiences before my time and thinking….”weirdos!” and “Who would ever do that?” Well…I finally realized that in month 6, I HAVE ARRIVED. I am officially a World Racer and the all of the other weirdos in the past blogs were totally right! I will list a few qualifications of a World Racer that has arrived:
-coveting/eating food from stranger’s plates in a nice restaurant
-wearing v-neck t-shirts, stretchy pants, a bun, and a headband and thinking you are dressed up
-using World Race terminology such as “speaking life,” “I don’t receive that,” I just want to encourage you…”
-forgetting to look in the mirror at all during a day
-learning how to use any sort of "toilet" or hole in the ground
-bringing toilet paper with me wherever I go
-having trust issues….(for example when someone says a bus ride is 4 hours, I automatically double that time)
-food hoarding (you never know when you will find those granola bars or peanut butter again!)
-realizing when I get home how extremely lonely I will be in my bedroom by myself, although that seems to be what I want everyday while here.
-thinking others are "trying to hard" when they put on makeup or wear jeans
-using the first half of the race to talk about my past life and the second half to talk about plans upon return
-doing things in public without care I normally would not back home (ex. we were standing in a nice cafe and all started brushing our teeth and taking out our contacts because we had a night bus and weren't sure when we would see a bathroom next.)
-picking wedgies anywhere
-farting in front of my teammates
-finding the most creative ways to pack my life into two backpacks…
-finding the most creative ways to keep living things out of my food (ants, spiders, mice, rats, etc) such as triple bagging food items
-finding excitement in things such as name brand granola and soy milk
-picking your nose in public
-eating food at an extrodinarily fast pace
-feeling hungry constantly
-using duct tape to patch just about anything
-doing a "smell check" on your clothes and wearing them several days in a row despite the weird smells
-making anywhere home after more than 1 day of living there.
-celebrating the Holidays with just about anything you can conjour up
-making strangers into family members in under 1 year.
I am not necessarily proud of these things….but I guess they come naturally after living this way for 6 months. All I will need is a nice little make over when I get back home 😉
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