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You know you're an expat kid in Asia when...
16th June 2000
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It's the weekend, so lets lighten the tone...
Those of us who were brought up as an expat's kid often look back with fondness at our growing-up years.
The Rat found this gem reprinted from an email from a real expat kid to his father pasted on the wall of the men's facilities in a restaurant in Bangkok. Thanks to Lawnin Crawford and his son Nolan, a veteran expat's kid of Samoa and Thailand, for posting the original email....
YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN EXPAT KID IN ASIA WHEN...
- You flew before you could walk
- You can't answer the question, "Where are you from?"
- You have a passport, but no driver's license
- You watch National Geographic specials and recognise 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 is in a foreign language you already speak
- You realise it really is a small world, after all
- 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 cancelled due
to tear gas. (or riots, or demonstrations, those "corrupted countries
problems... OR REMEMBER THOSE BOMB THREATS????)
- 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 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 Pizza Hut or Wendy's and you wonder why there's no chili sauce
- You know the geography of the rest of the world, but you don't know the
geography of your own country
- You have best friends in 5 different countries
- You went to school with that kid who was caned or the other kid who tried to
smuggle one kilo of hashish
- You ask your roommate when the maid service is scheduled to come clean the
room
- You're spoilt. You know it. You're VERY spoilt.
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