2. The Cultural Pluralist - The cultural pluralist is always open to new experiences, new foods, and new people. She is learning the language and developing extended conversations with taxi cab drivers and juice bar owners. She is the sort that you sometimes hope is a closet depressive.

3. The Drifter - She decided to take a year abroad because it "looked like a good option at the time." She finds herself sometimes wandering aimlessly about the streets, not really committed to any particular plan or agenda. She is just as happy to meet a local as another foreigner. In the back of her mind she believes in fate and destiny, though she may just shrug her shoulders about this if confronted. She hopes that something greater than she has pulled her here. Around every corner she is waiting for that force of destiny to manifest itself in a convincing way. The drifter is your friend, but she is everyone's friend as well, because she is secretly searching for meaning, and wondering if she can find it with you, or with the person next to you.

4. The Escapee - The escapee wasn't necessarily living a crumbling life in the poor corner of town before shipping off to Egypt. Usually the escapee was just bored. He longed for something unusual and different. For the first several months, the escapee, being immersed in freshness of culture, sees life anew. In time, however, these audiovisual stimulations fade. On the inside, emptiness is brewing. When the culture no longer fascinates, the escapee longs to escape again. It is in his nature.

5. The Oil Guy - The oil guy has been transferred here by his company. He is housed by his company in a big apartment, and is given a company car to drive, probably a new Jeep Cherokee or Ford Explorer, at least a 2002 model. The oil guy makes a load of money, and outfits his home with all the comforts of satellite television, VCR and giant flat-screen TV, maids, and the like. He can count on his hand the total number of Arabic words he speaks. He is naturally happy and at ease, though sometimes a little dull.

... to be continued! (but i don't know when coz i c&p'd this from somewhere else! )

6. The Military Man and his Bedraggled, Rootless Family - The military man needs a break from life, but he's not going to get one. He was transferred here from home, most likely now fulfilling his "hardship tour," which is required at least once in the military man's career. His kids were probably ripped from their last high school and friends; they arrive friendly but internally guarded. The military man himself is a little cold, for he knows that in time he will have to move on. His family, bedraggled and rootless, frequently feels an emptiness that makes them desire a home more than anything. The military man's best friends are his own family, and you will find them occasionally playing baseball in the park.

7. The Enduring Wife Figure - She had no particular desire to come to Egypt. She did not develop a case of "Egyptomania" like her husband did. But she loves him, and once promised to follow him to the ends of the earth, or at least she has no other alternatives or convincing arguments to stay. While her husband leaves each day on his "quest," the enduring wife figure remains at home, caring for the children, inventing games out of scrap paper and broken crayons and chasing the children in circles at the park. When her husband returns home and relates his day's journey, she listens cheerfully and pretends to be interested. In reality she is only interested in him and the excitement he radiates.

8. The Bridge Builder - By increasing the understanding between cultures - principally between the Western and Arab world - the bridge builder will increase empathy, understanding, and therefore bring about "world peace." This Bridger would ultimately like to work for the Foreign Service, to be one who interprets cultural expressions or actions and shapes them into articulate signals the embassy can finally understand. The bridge builder is an idealist and her greatest desire is that she can "make the world a better place" through her ability to empathize and "cross-communicate" with both cultures. This type burns out fast.

9. The Orientalist - He's been here a good fifteen years, at least. The Orientalist is no longer surprised by anything in the culture. He knows most everything, has been practically everywhere. He speaks and writes Arabic by now, and so he believes he's earned the right to voice unsupported generalizations and biting criticisms. He'll tell you exactly what solutions are needed to modify troublesome Egyptian behavior. He may understand the culture, but that doesn't mean he agrees with any of it, and he tells you this straight out. His own bluntness fuels his drive to express himself. He likes to hear himself speak and give authoritative opinions of the way things and people are around him. Nod your head, he won't listen. The most you can do is quietly endure.

10. The Actual Expatriate - His remains, he has decided, shall not be repatriated to his godforsaken country, but shall find their eternal rest in Egyptian soil, a country that, despite its drawbacks, he has come to feel is his home. His own country is too commercial, too materialistic and too fat. The people are culturally insensitive and globally ignorant, he believes. His coming to Egypt may not have initially been with permanent intentions, but something convinced him that the way of life here was better. He has found a higher way of life, and in that spiritual conversion also found a cultural conversion. His heart is right here, smoking sheesha with his brothers around him.

Most days I am a no 10 some a no 2 and and once or twice a no 1

quote:

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Originally posted by Luxorlover:
Jane, I would have given the same answer. I have already stated in my will that if I die in Egypt then I stay here - does that make me a True Expat. No 2 suits me too, but now and again No 1 creeps up and depressed the hell out me.

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ROFL kindred spirits as Anne of Green Gables would say.

But I would have to say that I am 2 and 8 -- cultural pluralist and bridge builder.

I wanna be the oil guy.