You Know You're An Expat Kid When.....

[Nordlys]

this one from my high school (ISB) alumni newsletter....

You know you're an Expat/International/Missionary kid when:

• You can't answer the question, “Where are you from?” (And when you do, you get into an elaborate conversation with someone while both are intoxicated and the other just not grasping the idea whatsoever).

• You flew before you could walk.

• You had a passport before you got a driver's license.

• You feel that multiple passports would be appropriate.

• You watch National Geographic specials and recognize someone.

• You run into someone you know at every airport.

• You have a time zone map next to your telephone.

• Your life story uses the phrase “Then we went to...” five times.

• You speak with authority on the quality of airline travel.

• National Geographic (or the Travel Channel) makes you homesick.

• You read the international section before the comics.

• You live at school, work in the tropics, and go home for vacation.

• You don't know where home is.

• You sort your friends by continent.

• Someone brings up the name of a team, and you get the sport wrong.

• You know there is no such thing as an international language.

• Your second major in college is in a foreign language you already speak.

• Everywhere you go you meet someone who knows someone (who knows someone who knows someone...).

• You watch a movie set in a foreign country, and you know what the nationals are really saying into the camera.

• Rain on a tile patio ? or a corrugated metal roof ? is one of the most wonderful sounds in the world.

• You haggle with the checkout clerk for a lower price.

• Your wardrobe can only handle two seasons: wet and dry.

• Your high school memories include those days that school was canceled due to tear gas. (Or bomb scares ? or what about those Typhoon 8 days Monsoon parties!)

• You have a name in at least two different languages, and it's not the same one.

• You think VISA is a document stamped in your passport, and not a plastic card you carry in your wallet.

• You automatically take off your shoes as soon as you get home.

• Your dorm room/apartment/living room looks a little like a museum with all the “exotic” things you have around.

• You can't find shoes to fit your feet in any of the shoe stores.

• You would rather sleep on the floor than on the bed.

• You won't eat Uncle Ben's rice because it doesn't stick together.

• Half of your phone calls are unintelligible to those around you.

• You go to Taco Bell and have to put five packets of hot sauce on your taco.

• You know the geography of the rest of the world, but you don't know the geography of your own country. (Isn't Philadelphia its own state?)

• You have best friends in 5 different countries.

• You have friends from or in 29 or more different countries.

• You're spoiled. You know it. You're VERY spoiled.

[leisurely]

You can't pick your own mess up because the maid will do it for you (unless you have me as a Mum)

You don't run hysterically away from Gecko's (I've seen visitors do that)

You are much more tolerant of other people's beliefs

You don't see the colour of somebody's skin as an indicator of whether they are 'good or bad'

You are adaptable, flexible and normally kind.

[SNGLIFE]

• You see a shack house on TV and understand that the people living there are not REALLY poor - they are just not "rich".
  
• When someone asks you which countries you have been too, you just say "lots" and can't remember - much less name - them all.
  
• You watch American news and recognize that the stories are always told from an ethnocentric perspective.
  
• You are proud to be from America, but ashamed to be American - and understand the distinction.
  
• You can name the Heads of State of more than 5 developing countries AND the people around them.
  
• You can list all the different brand names for the same car in more than 5 countries/languages
  
• You can correct travel agents when deciding the best routes to take at different times during the year to avoid region/country specific holiday rushes
  
• You know how big Israel REALLY is and where it is located - and get ticked off as to why it is always hogging the news.
  
• When you accidentally bump into someone, you automatically say "Sorry!" - but in the wrong language.
  
• You write down phone numbers with the dash in the wrong position or with decimals
  
• You think picking your nose in public is perfectly ok, but yawning or being touched by the sole of a shoe is disgusting
  
• You can do the conversion from any currency to almost any currency in your head without looking at the current rates
  
• You know border officials in 3 or more countries by first name and/or they know you on sight.
  
• Border officials ask you to explain the immigration laws to confused or misinformed tourists
  
• the list goes on and on....
  

[IMA_FARANG]

• You see a shack house on TV and understand that the people living there are not REALLY poor - they are just not "rich".
  
• When someone asks you which countries you have been too, you just say "lots" and can't remember - much less name - them all.
  
• You watch American news and recognize that the stories are always told from an ethnocentric perspective.
  
• You are proud to be from America, but ashamed to be American - and understand the distinction.
  
• You can name the Heads of State of more than 5 developing countries AND the people around them.
  
• You can list all the different brand names for the same car in more than 5 countries/languages
  
• You can correct travel agents when deciding the best routes to take at different times during the year to avoid region/country specific holiday rushes
  
• You know how big Israel REALLY is and where it is located - and get ticked off as to why it is always hogging the news.
  
• When you accidentally bump into someone, you automatically say "Sorry!" - but in the wrong language.
  
• You write down phone numbers with the dash in the wrong position or with decimals
  
• You think picking your nose in public is perfectly ok, but yawning or being touched by the sole of a shoe is disgusting
  
• You can do the conversion from any currency to almost any currency in your head without looking at the current rates
  
• You know border officials in 3 or more countries by first name and/or they know you on sight.
  
• Border officials ask you to explain the immigration laws to confused or misinformed tourists
  
• the list goes on and on....
  

When you accidentally bump into someone, you automatically say "Sorry!" - but in the wrong language.

Or as when you are working in GREECE and an Arab worker says hello to you and you answer him in Arabic before you realize you are not in the middle east any more.

[Barney_the_Dinosaur]

Expat kids turn left when they get on aeroplanes !

[kayo]

Nice one..!

Did you go to ISB as in Int;l school Brussels?

I went to BSB in tervuren, and hung out with St. Johns (waterloo) kids for a few years, on my travails as a kid.

also ACAT in torino, and AIS in Nice France.

[kayo]

You can't pick your own mess up because the maid will do it for you

Expat kids turn left when they get on aeroplanes !

Some are luckier than other I suppose...

(unless you have me as a Mum)

DOH! I didn't realise me mum was on here!

[cnxpat]

Kids around here do like to take the snot out of their noses and smear it all over my daughter, does that qualify her as an expat kid?

on the other hand, calling her and "expat kid" is branding as well.

but in aircon expat condos, 300k+ intl. schools, that is not an issue I guess :-) or is it?

[leisurely]

You take your shoes off before entering a building. Any building

[Alf Witt]

this one from my high school (ISB) alumni newsletter....

You know you're an Expat/International/Missionary kid when:

• You can't answer the question, “Where are you from?” (And when you do, you get into an elaborate conversation with someone while both are intoxicated and the other just not grasping the idea whatsoever).

• You flew before you could walk.

• You had a passport before you got a driver's license.

• You feel that multiple passports would be appropriate.

• You watch National Geographic specials and recognize someone.

• You run into someone you know at every airport.

• You have a time zone map next to your telephone.

• Your life story uses the phrase “Then we went to...” five times.

• You speak with authority on the quality of airline travel.

• National Geographic (or the Travel Channel) makes you homesick.

• You read the international section before the comics.

• You live at school, work in the tropics, and go home for vacation.

• You don't know where home is.

• You sort your friends by continent.

• Someone brings up the name of a team, and you get the sport wrong.

• You know there is no such thing as an international language.

• Your second major in college is in a foreign language you already speak.

• Everywhere you go you meet someone who knows someone (who knows someone who knows someone...).

• You watch a movie set in a foreign country, and you know what the nationals are really saying into the camera.

• Rain on a tile patio ? or a corrugated metal roof ? is one of the most wonderful sounds in the world.

• You haggle with the checkout clerk for a lower price.

• Your wardrobe can only handle two seasons: wet and dry.

• Your high school memories include those days that school was canceled due to tear gas. (Or bomb scares ? or what about those Typhoon 8 days Monsoon parties!)

• You have a name in at least two different languages, and it's not the same one.

• You think VISA is a document stamped in your passport, and not a plastic card you carry in your wallet.

• You automatically take off your shoes as soon as you get home.

• Your dorm room/apartment/living room looks a little like a museum with all the “exotic” things you have around.

• You can't find shoes to fit your feet in any of the shoe stores.

• You would rather sleep on the floor than on the bed.

• You won't eat Uncle Ben's rice because it doesn't stick together.

• Half of your phone calls are unintelligible to those around you.

• You go to Taco Bell and have to put five packets of hot sauce on your taco.

• You know the geography of the rest of the world, but you don't know the geography of your own country. (Isn't Philadelphia its own state?)

• You have best friends in 5 different countries.

• You have friends from or in 29 or more different countries.

• You're spoiled. You know it. You're VERY spoiled.

I like the last item. Especially the middle sentence "You know it". When you don't know it, that makes you an a***ole.

[Alliecat]

lol

[Ijustwannateach]

Heh heh heh... a good one, Nordlys. When I see the expat kids around Bangkok, I don't regret not working at the "big" internationals...