I have been a fan of Harper’s “By The Numbers” for many years. I decided to do one of my own at the nine-month mark overseas:
- Different beds slept in so far: 58
- Number of days awakened by roosters: 125
- Types of bananas eaten: 6
- New animals/shellfish eaten: 7
- New fruits eaten (excluding bananas): 11
- Countries visited with consistent, reliable recycling: 1 (Japan)
- McDonald's meals served by Pacific host families: 3 (hadn't had McDs in probably 10 years before this …)
- Different churches visited: 12
- New sports tried: 6
- Countries visited with no movie theater: 2
- Indirect marriage proposals: 6
- Dollars wasted on phone calls that didn't go through: 65
- Visits to the hospital: 2
- Visits to the emergency room: 1
- Photos taken: 8,572
- Unsuccessful dating attempts: 1
- Very successful dating attempts: 1
- Percentage of meals with fried food in the Pacific Islands: 100
- Foods I could not bring myself to try (i.e. sheep head, fish eyeballs): 8
- Flat tires in the middle of nowhere: 3
- Flat tires while I was driving: 0
- Days where someone was helpful and generous: 270
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I’m currently taking a break from islands on the South African coast.
In Cape Town I ran into a friend I met in Thailand in 2005. Small world! She has been traveling to many countries over the last few months as well, and she verbalized the big question of late for both of us:
How much do you “work on yourself” versus accepting yourself as you are?
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Hope all is well with you all this spring, and please enjoy attached photos!
— Carolyn