You Know You are an American Ang Mor* Who Used to Live in Singapore When...

*Ang Mor literally means "red hair" in Hokkien. It is used to describe Westerners.

Because it is so warm here and I am too cheap to turn on the AC, I have found myself from time to time lackadaisically looking out the window at the palm trees and just doing some pondering. As a result of this I have come up with this list:

1. You use words and phrases such as "kiasu", "ayo", "air-con", and "hand phone" without even thinking of it.
2. You love air conditioning!!
3. You know what NS stands for and you also know several non-Singaporean PRs that had to do it.
4. Spending more than $2.50 on a bowl of noodles is blasphemy.
5. Waiting for the MRT for more than 4 minutes or the bus for more than 12 minutes is simply unacceptable.
6. You even use the word "Ang Mor" to describe other white people.
7. After coming back here you are appalled at how expensive text messages are in the U.S.
8. You know how to sing parts of the Singaporean national anthem.
9. You think going to Kuala Lumpur or Bintan, Indonesia for the weekend is no big deal at all.
10. You have no doubts on the superiority of using Celsius and the metric system.
11. You have the daily quandary of having to choose either Malay, Chinese, Teochew, Indian, Western, Japanese, Peranakan, Penang...etc. cuisine for your meals.
12. You go to Johor Bahru to buy your pirated DVDs.
13. You are not going to admit this, but you think Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew not only has a nifty title, but he is pretty awesome.

And the biggest reason you know you are an American Ang Mor who used to live in Singapore is when...

14. You go back there to "study abroad" at the National University of Singapore for an entire semester even though you lived in the region for nine years!

I honestly have no idea who this list describes. :)