A change of plans due to visa issue - TCK thoughts - Soul baring - Izmir

The second week. Jet lag gone, starting to adjust.

The dual shock of the American school system compounded by American culture.

A brief tale of my trip to the Baltics. A brand new destination for me. Two new countries and a bit of cultural shock.

We have come together not because of blood, but because we share bonds of a common outlook on life, a customary way of treating people with respect, and mutual values that resound within all of us - something which unfortunately does not always seem to happen in families related solely by blood (at least in my observation)...

The experience of being exiled ... to one's birth country

I am a local. I am multi-local: I am or have been a local of London, Lahore, Dacca, New Delhi, Kuwait City, Dhahran, Manila, Bangkok, Pattaya, Tokyo, Salt Lake City, Evanston (Wyoming), Istanbul, Saigon, Hong Kong, Toronto, Freetown, Addis Ababa, Singapore. It seems like a lot but it's kind of a blur.

... It really hit me. I have a serious blind spot as a TCK. And I think I've had it my whole life, and it has unwittingly gotten me into trouble many times.

Genetically I appear to be a white male. However, growing up as a TCK, I have a very checkered cultural makeup. I can discern five or six major cultural components to my personality.

Road To Buenos Aires – I (¡Voy a ir para Argentina!)

I will be going to my penultimate continent, South America. The only continent that I won’t have been to then will be Antarctica and I think I will get that too before too many years pass. I hope to be adding at least four or five countries to my tally, which is kind of cool for me personally.

My father was a civil engineer,  and, in his early years, a Wyoming cowboy who fought in WWII. He started going overseas, I believe, in the 50s. Certainly before I could walk he had taken his family to Europe on the Queen Mary, and I remember from stories that I was not yet speaking when we moved to Bangladesh (it was East Pakistan then). He worked on numerous projects all over the world, improving roads, dams, bridges, etc. And on average, up until I was 17 or so, we averaged a different country every 2 - 3 years. 

Minimalism. What does it mean? At the risk of sounding vague, this absolutely depends on the individual. However I am approaching it from the point of view of a serial expatriate, and as a TCK. And I'm sure other serial ex-pats and TCKs will be able to relate to this.

Although I understand and really identify with the idea of a tribe ... I remember from a podcast somebody, I believe Seth Godin, talking about finding the smallest number of people that you can have a positive impact on. I have yet to find that tribe, although I have a good idea of where to start looking.