I grew up in Africa.

We had some of the deadliest snakes in the world, slithering through our backyard (mambas, gaboon vipers, cobras, etc. -Nigeria, in the 60s), and we had brown scorpions, scuttling around the schoolyard, in Morocco.

I have had the … pleasure … of a rabies vaccination series, because of rabid rodents.

I used to pass a police fort, with a .50 caliber machine gun pointed at me (Uganda, in the early 70s -fun times), on my way to the candy store.

Coming to the US was a bit of a culture shock.