You Know You've Readjusted If....

You’ve stopped carrying toilet paper everywhere you go

You no longer eat all the hors d’oeuvres

Some of your clothes do not have that genuine stone-washed look

People no longer avoid the dish you bring to potluck dinners

You have a friend who was never in Peace Corps

You dream in English

You use tissues to blow your nose

You actually think twice before taking a 10-hour bus ride

You’re not afraid to swallow the water when you shower

You travel with luggage rather than those perfectly good plastic bags

You use a watch as you are no longer able to tell time by the sun

You start to eat rice again

You stop trying to pay in exact change

Parasites and the state of your bowel movements stop being the topic of conversation at meals

You motion someone to come towards you with your fingers up instead of down

You throw out all of your garbage bags

You actually buy ready-made food, including flour tortillas

Your underwear has holes in only the correct places

When you hear rustling in the trees, you expect to see squirrels instead of monkeys

You have more than three changes of clothes

When a fly lands in your drink, you actually throw out the whole glass

When turning a corner when driving you know which side of the road to be on

Your Birkenstocks are no longer considered your dress shoes

When something breaks in your house you call the repairman instead of busting out the duct tape, crazy glue and Swiss army knife

Rain is now a verb instead of a plural noun

Your Chaco lines have finally faded

Your hand no longer twitches reflexively when you see a white SUV in the distance

You no longer respond to “Mzungu” as if it’s your given name

At some point in the near future you can look back at your time in Malawi with a smile and say “That was the start of something great.  Look where I am today!”