Year: 2009

TCK adventures: racing across Europe and Africa (part 2)

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This is a series focused on TCKs who contribute to charities while also exploring the world. The first installment explored why TCKs choose these journeys. The second installment will follow a group of TCKs as they embark on their adventure. The Search for Eternal Glory: Adventurists Africa Rally ’09 The goal: Travel from London to Cameroon via car to raise money for Cameroon farmers to receive sustainable farming training and resources such as livestock, seeks and trees. Denizen is an official sponsor of Team UhNoooo, a charity rally team venturing on a rather out-of-the-box excursion. On December 13th, Rezhan Majid, Ryan Nishimoto anda beat-up Peugeot 106 and its 1L engine, will start an arduous 5-week, 10,000 mile journey from London’s Hyde Park to Kribi, Cameroon. What do they want to accomplish? “Eternal glory. The ultimate road trip,” Rezhan said. “Who doesn’t want to get in a car with a good friend and drive a loosely charted course through Europe and Africa? … I hope at the end of it I get some invaluable life lessons …

TCK adventures: changing the world and yourself (part 1)

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For many of us, completing university means one thing: figuring out the next step. Whether it’s teaching English in Asia, backpacking across Europe or working for a charity group in Africa, many TCKs hunger to explore as much of the world as humanly possible. What drives us to travel like this? What are we looking for? What are the adverse effects of traveling? And perhaps most importantly, will we ever find whatever it is that we are looking for? We often seek adventure because, from the get-go, our lives are a journey into the unknown. All of us are raised in what some would call ‘unconventional’ circumstances: what is strange and foreign to some is perfectly normal to others. This very concept lies at the core of the mindset of most TCKs. In my opinion, we spend our first twenty-something odd years fighting to find our identity, only to find that the “box” doesn’t actually exist. We learn that the more we experience, the more we are able to adapt to our surroundings and appreciate …

What TCKs can learn from ‘Mean Girls’

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Mean Girls won’t win any Oscars, but peel away the glossy angst, and it is sociologically brilliant. The movie follows Cady Heron (played by Lindsay Lohan) as she starts her first day at an American high school. We quickly learn that Cady, a child of research zoologists, spent 12 years growing up in Africa. “P.S., Cady is a TCK” should have gone into the credits. “I had a great life [in Africa]” Cady narrates. “And then… my mom was offered tenure at Northwestern University. And it was goodbye Africa, hello high school.” Sound familiar? The sudden move from one culture to another provides a slew of Third Culture Kid moments, visible from just the first 10 minutes of the movie. On her first day of school in Illinois, Cady’s American parents are thoroughly unaware of how difficult the cultural transition could be for her. Walking up to the African-American students, Cady says “Jambo” in Swahili. She also deals with comments like, “So, if you’re from Africa – why are you white?” (“Oh my god Karen,” …

Global nomads arts project needs your help

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Artist and dancer Alaine Handa is working on a  multi-disciplinary arts project about global nomads, third culture kids and cross-cultural kids. It will incorporate visual art, short film, live music, spoken word/monologue, poetry, photography, animation, dance pieces that tell stories about individual TCKs. The project will be presented in New York City by University Settlement and A.H. Dance Company in spring 2010, and they are hoping to tour the project globally. But, she needs your help — she needs to find ever-elusive TCKs to interview. Here are instructions from Alaine. You can always contact her at ahdancecompany@gmail.com, or check out the project’s blog: I have been interviewing NYC-based TCKs lately and want to extend my invite to the rest of you. The video is for the documentary film I am currently putting together. Everyone will be credited in the film and programs of course! If you live in the NYC area, I would love to set up a time to interview you in person. In person interviews are much more efficient b/c I also ask …

When humor crosses borders

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One evening shortly after my sister returned from college, the family was sitting around the dinner table. “I think I’m getting all A’s this quarter”, said my sister. “Oh, wow, you have an A-girl”, said my mom to my father. “Well so long as she’s not Z-girl…” I added, which provoked overall laughter around the table. What was so funny about that last line? Well, it was delivered with a profoundly authentic French accent. I’m a TCK, like many others, but I’m also from a bilingual family. My father always spoke English – well, he would correct me and say “I speak American” – and my mother never strayed a sentence from Molière’s language. Our family’s communication is bilingual. Trilingual now, since my sister and I have learned Japanese in college. And there are many out there, who, like my sister and I, have jokes that just can’t be shared with many people. We have tons of funny things to say – but we’ll be laughing only with a few people about it. Humor styles …

A TCK reaches out for help. What would you have said?

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I recently got this email in our Denizen inbox the other day. What advice would you have given to this TCK? “i’m 15 just moved back from malaysia. i’m 100% american but i lived there for so long it’s home. coming back to the u.s. which some people would refer to as “my home” i now don’t know where home really is. i’ve always been familiar with that term and almost hated it because i don’t want to be labeled. but i went to a “tck” camp this summer, and meeting 20+ kids that were “just like me” was 1) completely lame and cheesy and 2) amazingly identifying hmm thats not the right word, well it was amazing and i truly FOUND myself in those people. ever since then i have been chatting and texting whenever i can with the ones that are still here but i just started at a public school. i hate it, i feel invisible there, more than i ever have in my life. i know so much about all the …