(Some More) You know You're an MK When...

  1. You believe vehemently that football is played with a round, spotted ball.
  2. You like everything from Reggae to Japanese Rap music.
  3. You know there is no such thing as an international language.
  4. You quote Reepicheep: Adventures are never fun while you're having them.
  5. Your second major is in a foreign language you already speak.
  6. You tell Americans that democracy isn't the only viable form of government.
  7. You realize it really is a small world, after all.
  8. You never take anything for granted.
  9. You feel a polka-dotted passport would be appropriate.
  10. You watch a movie set in a foreign country, and you know what the nationals are really saying into the camera.
  11. Rain on a tile patio --or a corrugated metal roof-- is one of the most wonderful sounds in the world.
  12. You know how to pack.
  13. All preaching sounds better on hard, wooden benches.
  14. A musical instrument can be anything-- even bottle caps nailed to a board
  15. You can amuse yourself for hours with cardboard boxes.
  16. Fitting 15 or more people in a car seems normal to you.
  17. You refer to gravel roads as highways.
  18. You haggle with the checkout clerk for a lower price.
  19. You own personal appliances with 3 types of plugs, know the difference between 110 and 220 volts, 50 and 60 cycle current, and realize that a trasnsformer isn't always enough to make your appliances work.
  20. You fried a number of appliances during the learning process.
  21. You marry another MK.
  22. Your parents' siblings are strangers to you, but you have 50-60 Aunts and Uncles who are no blood relation to you at all.
  23. You maintain a mailing list of over 400 names and addresses, but have no one you feel comfortable spending Christmas with.
  24. You get upset when people don't finish their food, and feel worse when they scrape it into the trash.
  25. You don't think that two hours hours is a long sermon.
  26. There was never a special meal on Sunday, as it was your parent's busiest day. Monday was your Day of Rest.
  27. You don't do well in job interviews because you were taught to be modest.
  28. Your wardrobe can only handle two seasons: wet and dry.
  29. You think nothing of straddling white lines to pass between trucks or buses travelling side by side, because "There was plenty of room, officer. Honest! At least six inches clearance."
  30. Someone in your passport country has to explain to you that the double yellow line means *only* oncoming traffic can drive on that side of the road, even when there *isn't* any oncoming traffic. ...and you don't understand why.
  31. The same individual also has to explain that red lights mean stop *all* the time, without exception, and you must stay stopped *until* they turn green, whether or not there is cross-traffic. ...and you still don't understand why.
  32. Later the same day, the same poor friend has to go to great lengths to explain to you why you cannot just hand the policeman fifty cents and drive away when he stops you, and why you are now being driven downtown in the back of said officer's car over a mere fifty cents; at which point your passport country ceases to make any sense to you at all.
  33. When you can't get past "Oh, say can you see..." in the national anthem, and you have to watch to see what hand to use.
  34. You think the Pledge of Allegiance might possible begin with "Four-score and seven years ago...."
  35. You get confused because the dollar bills aren't colour coded.
  36. Your high school memories include those days that school was cancelled due to tear gas.
  37. You listen to the latest hit on the radio and think "I wonder how that would sound on a thumb piano or a sitar?"
  38. You feel odd being in the ethnic majority.
  39. You go to the local Korean restaurant just to listen to the conversation.
  40. You go to Taco Bell and have to put five packets of hot sauce on your taco.
  41. You are accused by your friends of being a maniacal driver, and you're driving just like dad taught you to.
  42. You have a hard time living with a roommate who isn't a foreigner.
  43. You really do enjoy Oriental folk music.
  44. Your family talks about "Grandpa Al" and you never met him before he died.
  45. You marvel at the cleanliness of gas station bathrooms.
  46. You instinctively start ripping up the newspaper when yo run out of toilet paper.
  47. Your study of minor keys in music theory makes you homesick.
  48. You think you hear your home country's language hen you play a record backwards
  49. You have a name in at least two different languages, and it's not the same one.
  50. You miss the sub-titles when you go to see the latest movie.
  51. You feel like you need to move after you've lived in the same place for a two months.

Oh, Please, just a little more?

Copyright © 1996-2000 Andrew and Deborah Kerr. Use by permission.