"Never again shall you thirst, for I am come to wet your mouth with wine and water, to quench your thirst with kisses. Words of Love from my own lips will serve as your oasis, and you shall never want for drink again."

Ooooh Anon, you have asked me my favourite sort of GISHWHES question. In order to fully educate you on the week of insanity that is going to ensue this year from the 2nd to the 9th of August:

GISHWHES is an international scavenger hunt. Basically, you sign up (either by yourself or with friends), and you get putt into a team of 15. You can be fifteen people you already know, or a single, or two or three and you’ll be smushed with other people until you make up an appropriately-sized team.

I’ve only done it once (last year), and it was 20$ , but Misha gave the option that if you were really broke, you could pay 10$ (because he’s a fantastic human being). Some of this money goes to running the scavenger hunt, and some goes to Random Acts. 

**This year, the other option is essentially the equivalent of a scholarship: other fantastic people will hopefully donate money for those who can’t afford to participate. Ultimately, it’s up to chance if you get the scholarship or not, but fingers crossed that people are awesome enough and everybody gets to join!

Then, actually doing GISHWHES. It’s a week of insanity. I barely slept. And it was by far the best week of last summer. Each team is given the same list, and the list has maybe 150 items on it. Your goal is complete as many you can as creatively as you can. For the second year in a row last year, the winning team was not the one who completed the most GISHES. The judges value creativity over volume :)

Like I said, it was the best week of last summer. I dressed up as The Flash and visited a particle accelerator, got my brother to dress up as a nun and slide down a water slide, and made a giraffe out of feminine hygiene products. GISHWHES restored my faith in humanity and taught me to many wonderful things about myself and the kindness of strangers. For real, everyone should do it at least once.

Plus, the winning team gets to go on a trip with Misha :P

NOW THAT YOU’RE A GISHWHES EXPERT… What does it mean to be on my team? Because it’s international, GISHWHES is wherever you are. You can do it in your own backyard :) Some of the items are location specific, but only a handful… and if you’re creative and/or have contacts in those areas, there are ways around those sorts of obstacles!

In relation to me specifically, I kinda signed up because I was mega excited, and then realized I have a ton of stuff going on during that week, so I’m gonna be doing it, but I won’t be super intense like I was last year :) It basically means that for a week, we’ll probably be in constant communication. I’ll try and set up a facebook group or email chain where we can share all the items we’ve completed, and we can make a spreadsheet, and we can be weird and awesome together!! 

If you’re on my team, there will be no pressure. I am honestly not expecting to win: I do it because GISHWHES brings me out of my shell, renews my faith in humanity, and is damn fun… so yeah. I hope that answered your question, Anon! If there’s anything else, please let me know :)