I’d like to say that the giant pile of clothes that my backpack regurgitated on the floor three days ago is just a habit I’ve picked up from being on the move so much. Nope. I am a messy person in almost all cases.
But the long-term traveler will pick up a lot of habits that only become apparent when he/she gets home.
I remember when I got back from Burkina Faso the first time in 2006, I kept on forgetting to flush the toilet.
“Why aren’t you flushing the toilet, goddammit?” My roommate would ask.
“Sorry dude,” I would say. “I got used to hole-in-the-ground toilets, and holes in the ground don’t flush.”
Now that I’m back in Canada, I am starting to notice some habits I’ve picked up from the last 8 months in Latin America:
Disculpe. When I bump into someone on the street here, it’s the first thing I blurt out.
Leaving my shoes on in the house. In Mexico, people leave their shoes on when they go to someone’s house for a dinner or party or whatnot. I was actually told recently that its considered rude to take off your shoes: what, you think my floor’s too dirty for your feet? Now that I’m back in Canada, I’m having a hard time remembering that it’s the opposite.
Throwing toilet paper in the wastebasket and not the toilet. Well, this is mostly a habit I had when I left Guatemala, because plumbing in Mexico is often better. But in Guatemala, you always put the toilet paper in a wastebasket. This might seem gross at first, but when you consider the quality of plumbing, you realize that the other alternative is overflowing, clogged toilets instead. When I was back in Canada in December, I often tossed my toilet paper in the garbage, and then had to – gag – pick it out with my bare hands.
Washing dishes by hand. When I finish eating here, I go and wash my dishes in the sink like I would do in my house in Xela. Then I realize my aunt’s fancy house has a fancy dishwasher, and I’ve gotten my hands wet for nothing. (This isn’t a bad habit, because any apartment I’m ever gonna live in probably isn’t going to have a dishwasher.)
Smiling at people or even – gasp – saying hello! What’s with all the scowls and lack of eye contact around here?
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