Wednesday 14 October 2009

Expat brat?

Lucas was playing with his Lego Star Wars men this morning at breakfast. Suddenly he pops Anakin's hair off by mistake when he is lifting him out of his space ship, and I say to him:
- Now Anakin is bald, like you!

Lucas thinks for a bit, and then says happily:
- Yes, and Mace Windu has no hair either! And neither does... erhm... Alfred... you know mummy - Batman's amah!

Slightly "damaged" by the life we live out here... oh no, I don't want my son to become an expat brat! :)

5 comments:

Dad said...

You need to watch more Batman. Alfred kind of is. He is the butler and does clean up etc... So I don't think he is too wrong.

Jason said...

Expat brat isn't a derogatory term. Nathan is one and I often refer to myself as an expat brat too.

Is this a first! A comment from Nathan that has been allowed to slip through the net?

MrsW said...

I don't mind him calling Alfred a "maid", I know he kind of is, it was just a funny association!

I do mind if he gets into his head that having one is "normal" and goes to other peoples houses in the "real world" and asks where theirs is... Or when he asks Granddad if Grandma is his amah... ;)

Susanne from Hamburg said...

You know your an expat brat when:

-You don't think British beaches are really beaches at all

-You are a member of at least one recreational/country club

-Its not nice outside unless its tropical

-You rate entire countries by how good a hotel was

-You don't speak the local language, even if you know it

-You bump into friends at international airports

- You know what TCK means and consider yourself one

- school trips nearly always involved a passport and a visa

- You have to take at least one plane to get 'home'

- Your school was big, international and has closed for SARS/bomb threats/bird flu

- There are police outside your school

- Because your school was international, and because expats move round a fair bit, your facebook friends page has many different universities on it.

some more..

1. 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 what so ever)
2. You flew before you could walk.

3. You have a passport, but no driver's license.

4. You watch National Geographic specials and recognize someone.

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.

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 don't know where home is.

13. You sort your friends by continent.

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

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

16. Your second major in university is in a foreign language you already speak.

17. You realize it really is a small world, after all. (Everywhere you go, I meet someone who knows someone (who knows someone who knows someone...))

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

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

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

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

22. 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!!!)

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

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

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

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

27. You won't eat Uncle Ben's rice because it doesn't stick together. (SOOOO TRUE!!!!---and it comes in a box?)

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

29. You go to Pizza Hut or Wendy's and you wonder why there's no chili sauce.

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

31. You have best friends in 5 different countries.

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

33. You ask your roommate when the maid service is scheduled to come clean the room.

MrsW said...

Susanne - SO TRUE!!!

Thanks for a good laugh!!