You Know You´re an AFSer When...

(Confessions of an AFSer...host sibling, returnee, & volunteer)

Belgium-France-Finland-USA

1. You have more AFS events planned on your calendar than any other type of social activity.
2. You talk to someone from a different country atleast three times a day.
3. More than 40% of your friends on Facebook aren´t from your home country.
4. Your family has hosted on multiple occasions.

USA-Holland

5. (When talking to people from your home country) You forget that the person to whom you are talking to can understand what you are saying, and that there is no need to speak slowly or use simple vocabulary.
6. You know that having an address book would never work because half of your friend´s addresses wouldn´t even fit on the page. And ¨Bangkok¨ is really just the short version.
7. You know how to laugh in several languages online....5555555555555...jajajaja
8. Any given day you check the international news, you call your friend living there to see is the media is legit.

Madrid to Zürich

9. Knowing the current time in New Zealand is as easy as knowing the color shirt you are wearing.
10. You find it difficult to talk to people who have never traveled.
11. You are offended by questions such as, ¨What language do they speak in Iceland?¨ because you know very well, that your friend in Iceland speaks Icelandic.

12. You can say a few phrases in languages such as Turkish, Finnish, Icelandic, German, and Swedish... even if most of them are insults.
13. When meeting people from other countries, your first few words to them go something like...¨Hey! My name is so and so, where are you from in X country? I have a friend who lives in X city...¨
14. You speak a second language and hate how people give you weird looks when you do so on your cell phone.
15. You know what TOEFL is and have even helped people prepare for it.
16. You know how difficult it is for foreign students to get a visa to ¨just come back to the states for college¨.
17. You know where someone is from based on their accent, and if they don´t have an accent, they´re from Scandinavia.
18. You know the drinking age in virtually every country that exists.
19. You can explain, in depth, atleast five foreign school systems other than your own.
20. You cringe when people tell you they are going on vacation to some big tourist trap.
21. You travel to see your friends, not the Eiffel Tower.
22. In your spare time, you never read a book in your own language.
23. Upon returning to your home country, your day is made by laughing con Shrek y burro en español.

End of stay orientation- AFS SPAIN 2010-11

24. You know you have a home in different houses all over the world.
25. It´s harder to name a country where you don´t know someone, than where you do.
26. The most recent computer you used did not have an English keyboard.
27. You consider Skype your main telephone.
28. The person at the post office recognizes you and is no longer surprised that you´ll send mail to Seattle, Boston, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and Colombia on the same day.
29. About 45% of the music you listen to is in a different language or from a different country.

30. You know the ¨typical dance¨ of another country.
31. In a normal conversation you have to clarify which family you are talking about...home vs. host.
32. The ¨there are no kangaroos in Austria¨ joke is old school.
33. You know random things such as ¨Angry Birds¨ is a Finnish game, or that ¨Phillips¨ is a Dutch brand and consider it as common sense.
34. You speak to foreign students so often, you begin to speak like them, making the same grammatical mistakes.
35. You feel advanced in sociology class because the information you cover is the same in AFS Orientations.
36. Your closet contains a collection of clothing styles from all over the world.
37. You have a love-hate relationship for airports, as this place will lead you to or take you from you best friends.

Homebound- Barajas Airport, Madrid

38. Not being able to sing along to a foreign song doesn´t bother you.
39. You get excited when someone understands ¨Danza Kuduro¨.
40. You consider AFS to be your second nationality, especially when you're on exchange.
41. You have full conversations with yourself in your home country, in your host language.
42. Your Facebook statuses, as well as your friends´, are often written in two different languages.
43. You have friends who have never met each other, but go skiing at the same place year after year.

44. Your friend travels from the USA to Austria and meets someone who knows you...and you´ve never been to Austria.
45. A typical birthday gift from a friend is a CD with only Finnish music, or a Thai scarf.

46. Your real family cooks something from a foreign country on a daily basis.
47. You know that real cheese, bread, beer, or wine is not found in the USA.
48. You know the truth about drugs in Amsterdam, and how the Dutch government keeps them away from tourists.
49. You have to manually enter which language you are typing in when writing in Microsoft Word.
50. When traveling, the hardest decision for you to make is deciding who to visit first.
51. You speak to other Americans, in English, and they don´t understand anything you say. Because in reality, you speak AFS.

Midstay Orientation

'ta pronto
-mb

(no asunto)

When I get bored, I frequently have conversations with myself in Spanish. Full conversations, too. Like a story. Multiple characters, the whole shabang. I´ve even dreamed in Spanish after being back, seven months later. When reading subtitles on the TV at the YMCA, I´ve even pronounced English words like Spanish words in my head. Or have mistaken it for Spanish when it´s really English.

But it´s nice to know I´m not the only one.

Even Facebook has gone crazy.

-mb