Monday, April 30, 2007

Yes, I am a TCK who went to an Int'l School. So?

1) You can't answer the question: "Where are you from?"
2) You speak two (or more) languages but can't spell in any of them.
3) You flew before you could walk.
4) You have a passport, but no driver's license.
5) You run into someone you know at every airport
6) You have a time zone map next to your telephone.
7) Your life story uses the phrase "Then we went to..." five times (or six, or seven times...).
8) You speak with authority on the quality of airline travel.
9) National Geographic (OR THE TRAVEL CHANNEL) makes you homesick.
10) You read the international section before the comics.
11) You live at school, work in the tropics, and go home for vacation.
12) You sort your friends by continent.
13) Your second major is in a foreign language you already speak.
14) You realize it really is a small world, after all.
15) You feel that multiple passports would be appropriate.
16) You watch a movie set in a 'foreign country', and you know what the nationals are really saying into the camera.
17) You haggle with the checkout clerk for a lower price.
18) Your wardrobe can accommodate every season.
19) Your high school memories include those days that school was canceled due to tear gas, riots, demonstrations, or bomb threats.
20) You think VISA is a document stamped in your passport, and not a plastic card you carry in your wallet.
21) You automatically take off your shoes as soon as you get home.
22) Your dorm room/apartment/living room looks a little like a museum with all the "exotic" things you have around.
23) Half of your phone calls are unintelligible to those around you.
24) You know the geography of the rest of the world, but you don't know the geography of your own country.
25) You have best friends in 4 different continents.
26) You never really use a seatbelt
27) School trips meant going to a different country
28) You could walk into a bar and order a drink without being questioned
29) You often had food poisoning
30) You are a pro packer
31) Living out of a suitcase, you find, has it pros
32) You bump into your old teachers all the time
33) When you return to the States you are overwhelmed with the number of choices in a grocery store
34) You literally have real friends (not facebook, hi5, myspace friends) from different schools all over the world on your friends list
35) Everyone had a 'staff'; maid, house cleaner, driver and babysitter
36) You got excited when a relative sends a video tape of regular TV with commercials.. its in ENGLISH!
37) There was only one grocery store.. usually at the embassy that resembled the ones at home.
38) Once you get home you miss your adopted home and visa versa
39) You are never content in one place, be it city, state or country for long. You're a mover.
40) You never had a job until you reached college
41) Blackouts are quite common, yet after a while no one seemed to notice and sometimes you would find yourself doing homework to the light of your phone or flashlight
42) Class reunions.. are not at your old school.. not even close
43) Police, imported from a different country, guard your school...carrying machine guns
44) Your passport has more stamps than a post office
45) When you carry converters because you actually realize there are different types of outlets
46) When people give you funny looks because you are a gold or platinum elite member of your airlines
47) You don't think its strange that you haven't talked to your best friend in a while because you know you will always have a unique bond
48) You don't feel at home at home anymore
49) When a friend talks about their dreams of traveling across the world and you can give them all the best restaurants and places to visit.
50) You don't even bother to change your watch when traveling
51) When you have little or no contact with the locals but are best friends with people across the globe
52) When you speak many broken languages at once when you are drunk
53)You had to change your passport because it's full... not because it's expired... 54)Paying a cop is not considered a bribe
55)You've dated people from other countries
56)You start to keep your experiences overseas to yourself because people look at you as though you are spoiled for having the opportunity to indulge in a new culture.. sad
57)You are afraid to go back to visit your school because you know no one will be there that you used to know, they all moved

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