Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World has Ever Seen

Travel the world, they said!
Meet new people, they said!
Discover hidden treasures, they said!
Little did I know I would spend an entire week texting & tweeting & posting about tampons, kale & storm troopers with a dozen people I’ve never even spoken to in person!
Beware! Gishwhes is a dark, dark, sock-​monkey-​filled rabbit hole that will quickly envelope your entire existence! People will stare, store managers will get cranky, children will question your motives! («Mommy, why is that lady vacuuming the grass?)
Get out now while you still can!!!
Otherwise, I’ll see you again next year! Anyone have a crossbow I can borrow?
Huzzah! #TeamHailTheKaleBurrito!!!

We came. We saw. We tried to conquer.
But most of all we had fun for a great cause.
GISHWHES is a great opportunity to bring like-​minded folks together to do random acts of kindness and creativity while raising $ and awareness for Random Acts.
If I had to say one critique it would be that this should be called the HARDEST and GREATEST Scavenger Hunt.
Now that I’ve almost completed my first year, I know a bit what to expect next year. Or do I? Keep us guessing Misha & team!
Also try the Kale salad, kale juice, kale chips, and kale ice cream. Especially the kale ice cream.

This scavenger hunt was so much fun! I will definitely be doing it again next year. It is a great way to do different things and get your artistic juices flowing. I docked off one star because most of my team didn’t participate. There were ⁵⁄₁₅ people that were completing tasks and it felt a bit daunting at times.
Next year I am going to form my own 15 person team :)
Also, it says 14+ can participate, but I noticed that the people 20+ were the only ones that were able to complete tasks.

Oh gishwhes. How do i love thee? Let me count the ways. 1. The lack of sleep that has me saying crazy things. 2. The permanent paints stains on my carpet. 3. The harrassment charge I’m sure taylor swift will have against me for tweeting her so many times. 4. The harrassment charges i dont care about from Rick Santorum that I dont care about because he deserves it.
But all of that was SO WORTH IT. I had moments of zen, panic, stress, and joy. Which is basically what life is all about. I learned weird things about my mother, got closer to my alien, and made some awesome local friends.

Never before has ridiculous looked and felt so good! Ok, actually, I am quite familiar with ridiculous, but I’m always open to new ways to bring more ridiculousness to my life, and boy did GISHWHES deliver!

Do you not know what this is?
Do you not understand the enormity of what you’re missing out on?
Do you not comprehend the greatest, flyest, most mightiest International Scavenger Hunt to have graced Man since the search for the Holy Grail?
How can you not?
Can’t you see what this is?
Let me set it to you straight —
Founded by the greatest angel of the highest heavens (of Hollywood) — Misha Collins — in 2011, this has already gone down in HISTORY (according to Guinness World records) as the LARGEST media scavenger hunt of its own kind. It has brought people of all creeds, colors, cultures and other C words (but not the bad ones) together to help each other out to become the GREATEST SCAVENGER TEAM OF ALL TIME (or at least of that year). My team alone has people all over the states and Europe.
But understand this — nobody does this to be the best (that’s a lie, some of us do). No, we do it because of where GISHWES takes us. It’s sent us here, it’s sent us there, it’s sent us everywhere — and at the same time, nowhere. It forces us be better people, if not more peculiar people.
So if you want adventure, if you want fun, if you want to break out and destroy your comfort zone — do this. Do it for you, do it for your team, do it for the world and — most of all — do it for FUN!
#pineapplepineapplepineapple

gishwhes has been a thing I do for a 3 years running now. I don’t think I’ll ever stop! Addictive puts it mildly. The first year was chaos, the 2^nd year was the year I got to meet one of my neighbors who I now talk to all the time! And this year, well it’s the year of social experimentation.
Learn more about your friends, neighbors, and strangers than you ever thought you could (or possibly wanted to). Cook up strange recipes, meet people from around the world who have been assigned to your team, and find yourself scrambling to finish more items than you ever thought possible!
In short, highly recommend. As other users have said, the Kool-​Aid tastes awesome (though a bit like kale in my opinion — but everyone needs some green in their life) and the company and environment are the best! You earned all 5 stars gishwhes!

For a first time scavenger, you curiously anticipate what in the world you have gotten yourself into, especially after all the cryptic kale messages. I woke up on the day of the hunt with nervous excitement, anxiously awaiting my first glimpse of the massive hunt items list. As my brain tried to process all the random acts of CRAZY, my excitement gave way to a near panic attack, as I tried to think of myself accomplishing any of these items. I felt like I had entered an alternate universe and wondered what in the world had I gotten myself into. I found myself wishing I had a GIsWheS For Dummies book to help me navigate the chaotic do’s and don’ts of the commandments. The acronyms alone were like a new language to acquire. Thank goodness you aren’t alone in this. Your team of international strangers quickly becomes your new best chat friends. After a few deep breaths and encouraging words, your insecurities give way to confidence-​ish, and a new found obsession with kale.
The week is a roller coaster of emotions. Your creative social muscles are exhausted after the extreme P90X-​style workouts. You are pushed to your limits, and boy you have never felt so good. Your mundane weekly zombie routine has been altered. The world is now open to possibilities and overflowing with people to impact.
For a week you get to see the world in a different way, and hope you can hold on to that new world view. It’s not only about the points (but come on — you know you want them). You leave the week behind with renewed self-​esteem, confidence, social strength, resourcefulness, a heart full of hope and kindness, and the knowledge that you can accomplish the unbelievable with some extra kale, a box of tampons, and creative tenacity.
Thanks to team #Cockadoodledoo for making this a memorable week!
–Brought to you by the minds of JenMin

Oh, GISHWHES. Sweet, glorious, kale-​licious GISHWHES. I’ve been immersing myself in the GISH-​madness for 4 years now and I regret not a single second. I’ve done amazing, crazy, creative things and helped break world records. The most important thing I’ve gotten out of GISHWHES?
Team PulpEpidemic. 15 members, 3 countries. Trips to San Diego Comic Con together. Trips to Chicago, DC, Baltimore, London and Florida to meet up. These 14 other GISHers are the greatest treasure in my life and I have Misha, Miss Jean Louis and GISHWHES to thank for them.
Do GISHWHES. Change your life.

THE BEST SCAVENGER HUNT YOU WILL EVER PARTICIPATE IN!
Teams must be 15, but don’t worry if you don’t meet the quota because they always fill them up with other people who are small in numbers as well! That’s the best part about this hunt, you make all kinds of new friends, even people in other countries. And the talent! I’m always amazed what the items are AND how the team completes them.
Quick tip! Ever year there is always an item that involves kale and involves a Stormtrooper costume ;)
So grab some friends and give it a try! You will not regret it!

Kudos to Misha for keeping this idea going, but as with all things, it’s changed, and maybe not for the better. It was fun and easy to participate in the early years but now it’s much more difficult if you have other obligations. There used to be smaller projects that could be done in an hour or an evening and those seem to have disappeared.
GiShWHes is famous now and I wish it well, but I liked it better when it was a country mouse.

A giSHwHes limerick:
And ‘lo! We proceed on with gishWHeS.
So many fun items to assess!
So, I’ll leave a review
Because that I can do
And I’ll go tell my team I made progress.

This is my fifth year voluntarily giving up sleep, sanity, normalcy, and familial relationships for a both exhilarating yet stressful week of stormtroopers, kale, and networking skills. I have yet to shake the need for indulging the side of me that wants to laugh in the face of what people consider normal. (Who says a 5 foot Christmas tree can’t fly?) I have cultivated skills and friendships that have lasted longer than ones I made in high school. So I say Death to Normalcy, GISH on, and see you next year.

Well what can you say about the man, the myth, the hunt… actually a lot. My 1^st visit to GishWHes I was greeted by 2 goats who claimed to be Sam and Dean however they looked suspiciously crossroads demon-​y. After being photographed in a Sock Monkey hat, I was escorted to a dinner party where my host was dressed entirely out of Shower supplies. My second visit to GisHWhes I was greeted by a man I kilt made entirely out of a kale. After numerous attempts at getting me to enjoy kale I declined and helped myself to, some discretely placed candies which appeared to be part of our other hosts outfit. I retuned this week for one more time to attempt to give GishWHes another try, yet again I was assaulted by kale lovers but alas this time it was being shilled to me by Captain Kirk in addition to a mad man in a trench coat. So my overall impression is this is a fine establishment with good intentions and well meaning Kale eaters bit thank goodness they have added cake onto, the menu this year !! I shall return, can pie be to far away !! I am however confused by the fact Unilocal,seems to, feel this bounty of kale and kandy is similar to the Psychic readers I’m suggested to review. Did I miss something when did Miss Jean get her palm reading license

What do you get when you take an evil genius (Misha), a great charity (Random Acts) and a bunch of insanely imaginative people and let them come up with items for a scavenger hunt? GISHWHES.
Being the third year I have participated, I have found myself with ice cream on my head, wearing a tea bag bikini (not at the same time, although that would have been cool), turned my boyfriends daughter into a popcorn monster to invade the local movie theater … couple that with Stormtroopers doing laundry at the coin op, giving blood (not me, others … I faint at the site of my own blood), getting certified in CPR, cheering up dialysis patients, creating a water park at the local fire department (we didn’t do it in California … drought ya know), and breaking MULTIPLE GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS … so much fun. I have found kindness in humanity and, on more then one occasion, have found myself with eyes leaking joyful tears at the goodness that can be found, not only within yourself, but others (especially others). The looks one gets when staging a piece of living art in public is priceless. When you explain what you are doing and people immediately go to their phones to check it out further is abnosome and the realization that you are possibly creating a better world can’t be compared to anything you do in your mundane lives on a daily basis.
I really truly hope that anyone reading this review will take the time to sign up next year and participate. It is life changing.

GISHWHES is the best! It’s a week of the silliest fun that really encourages you to be creative and spend quality time with your friends, wherever they are. Last year GISHWHES really helped me bond with two women who are now some of my closest friends and I am so grateful for it!
Not for the faint of heart, but excellent for helping you come out of your shell.
It even inspired me to watch ALL of the Supernatural Netflix has to offer.

I would not do this if you hate people, working together with people, or doing random things. I also suggest you stay away if you do not like sarcasm or Misha Collins, because they are about one in the same.
Last year, I enjoyed a little plate of the Gishwhes and drew an awesome Elopus and this year, I paid for a friend to join the hunt because, how could you want to enjoy this!
Look, all in all, Gishwhes is not for the faint of heart and should be experienced to the fullest level that you can, without physically hurting others. Items like, fill a backpack with school supplies and provide to a local school? How can you not want to be a part of this!
Team #MaythLovesGrolarBears

It’s day 3 of gishwhes, and I’ve already lost all sense of time and space. What is life? Who was I before Dinomite and kale? So many questions and so few answers. Does Jim Beaver appreciate being turned in to a My Little Pony? No one knows. But it has certainly been a life altering experience drawing him as one. Did you know that when a celebrity retweets you, your phone then proceeds to explode due to all the notifications from Twitter that said tweet has been favorited? It’s an interesting phenomenon. I can’t imagine what the remainder of gishwhes has in store for humanity, I can only hope I make it through alive, clutching a bouquet of kale to my breast, and mopping the Misha-​shaped rivulets of sweat from my brow.

Of all the scavenger hunts, this one is the top! Everything is automated and even though their website crashes every year and they make me cover myself in gelatinous food items, I can’t help myself! If you feel like your life is in a rut and you need to break the chains of monotony and normalcy… this is your ticket out!

If you enjoy meeting random strangers across the globe, and have a kind heart, this is the hunt for you!
GiShWheS is a perfect example of the human race joining hands across the world to simultaneously do kind acts AND enjoy themselves.
You do have to sign up ahead of time, and donate some cash. The cool part is, if you can’t donate for some reason, you can get a scholarship!
Basically someone else donates your entrance fee, and you’re in!
Don’t forget, that although this hunt is to inspire the creativity we lock within us, the ultimate goal is to be kind and do good.
So be good my friends!