Research Project on Identity: Looking for (Adult) Third Culture Kids!

I received an email from Jo. She's looking for people who grew up abroad and returned to their passport country for university (like I did) or employment. I am posting her request because I am glad that there are people researching this topic. So whether you were an expat kid, a military brat, a diplomat kid, a missionary kid or maybe even an immigrant kid just respond. If you are the person she is looking for please send her an email! Thanks. Any researchers out there, please just keep the research coming and we're looking forward to hearing your conclusions.

"Third Culture Kids: Experiences of Identity Formation
She's conducting a study of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) returning ‘home’ for university or similar

What is the purpose of the study?
This study will focus on third culture kids (TCKs) who have returned to their parental passport country in the last 8 years to attend university or seek employment. The purpose of the study is to understand the experiences of TCKs returning to this country and look at the resources such as possesions, media, people and activities you have used to help you understand your identity.

Have you lived outside your parental passport country for at least four years?
Returned to you parental passport country for university or employment?
If YES she would like to hear from you
For more information on the study please contact:

Jo Withers: jo.withers2@googlemail.com

The research is being conducted as part of an MSc Psychology course at Oxford Brookes University"

Related topics:

• Third Culture Kids Going to University 
• The Most Difficult Transition for Third Culture Kids 
• Counselors Be Curious About Their Upbringing 

Long ago I fell in love with tropical fruits: a heritage of growing up abroad

Well I have to confess that my third culture kid heart has been beating faster the last few weeks. I have been travelling! I had the privilege of spending some time in Indonesia. Even though I grew up in Africa and have only recently travelled to Asia a couple of times I have discovered that I feel at home in Asia too. 

I love the tropical fruit juices. There is just nothing like the taste of well ripened mango's. Every now and then I am tempted into buying a mango here in the Netherlands but it either rots or just does not taste good, it usually turns into a disappointment.

It was really warm here and this cool mango juice was such a delight. Apparently mango's were part of my basic diet when I grew up in Zambia. There are photo's of me in diapers when I was a couple of years old sucking on a mango pip.

Other juices I enjoyed were avocado, pineapple, banana, guava and papaya (pawpaw) juice. Seeing all these papaya's in the supermarket excited me. We used to have papaya trees in our backyard. I remember the days my dad used a long stick to get the fruits down. He made us stand on guard and catch the fruits as the fell down. It was so stressful. Low and behold if the papaya splat on the ground. Believe me papaya's make a real splat, it can make a real mess.   

Smells bring back memories but so can your taste buds bring back memories.
What did you fall in love with growing up abroad? What foods brings back your memories?





Related posts:

• My heritage of growing up overseas: Respect for malaria
• My heritage of growing up overseas: A Heart for the children of the World
• My heritage of growing up overseas: Close encounters of a tropical kind

Ice skating fever and third culture kids

We nearly had an Elfstedentocht this weekend! It is also called the Eleven cities tour on ice skates. There was excitement in the air and in the Dutch media as due to the cold winter weather there was a possibility that the race would take place. Our hopes were high. Even the Huffington post made mention of the possibility of the Elfstedentocht. I discovered that Tommy wrote on his blog Micro Adventures all about the Elfstedentocht in English. Nearly everyone was talking about the race and the newspapers were full of articles all about it: there is ice skating fever in the air.

You need to skate nearly 200 kilometres in one day to gain the "Elfstedenkruisje", this small medal shown on the photo. The race takes place in Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands and that is where my father comes from. I can proudly say that my grandfather and an uncle of mine have in the past completed this race and have the medal.

It is 15 years ago that the ice was thick enough for the race to take place. So our hopes were high but we were disappointed as the officials declared that the ice was still too thin. Aledys Ver writes about it on her blog. Now we need a way to handle our disappointment. Thousands of Dutch people put on there ice skates today and skated on one of the many channels or rivers, just like I did.

Photo taken 11.02.12 by Janneke @DrieCulturen the Netherlands

Young and old were on the ice. I saw young kids courageously attempting to master the art of ice skating. Falling and being helped up by their parents. These kids were three or four years old. It reminds me of my first time on ice skates. I was twelve or thirteen years old at the time. Way older than all the other Dutch kids who were great ice skaters while I was just starting my learning process. That's what happens when you are a third culture kid and you grow up on the warm African continent.

We did come on leave to the Netherlands every two or three years but we usually came back on leave in the summer. It was more practical to come back to the Netherlands in the summertime because we did not have any winter clothes. 

One thing I am glad about is that I did learn to ice skate. I did not give up, I did not give in. Sometimes our learning process is different as third culture kids but we get there in the end and that's what counts! Life is all about learning so just as those kids on the ice fell down and got up again let's do the same. After failing and falling, just get up, dust off the cold snow or ice and try again.

Photo taken 8.02.12 near Amsterdam by Janneke @DrieCulturen

Were there things you learned at another age than kids around you because you were a third culture kid? Maybe you are raising third culture kids, do they have a different learning process than other kids?

Related posts:

• Third culture kids learning to be themselves
• Third culture kids learning their mother tongue
• Confession about the term "Third Culture Kids"
• Third culture kids and identity confusion
• Libby Stephens explains what third culture kids are

Twitter update week 38: news about kids growing up globally

Sorry to have become a little slack about writing my twitter updates. I posted a comment on an interesting blog Expat with Kids. She wrote a post about third culture kids and she has several posts on this topic. She gave me a compliment for my twitter update which made me feel I must write a new update.

Autumn started today on this side of the globe

This is what I twittered about recently. I hope the links lead you to information you are looking for. By the way autumn started today on this side of the globe.

InterNationsorg Are you a third culture kid? Do you agree with the term? Read blog for some thoughts: http://bit.ly/nyqyg4

Infographic of the modern third culture kid: http://bit.ly/qyBUva via @denizenmag interesting! Home? = complicated 

Great article @denizenmag Sharing TCK experience thro' design http://bit.ly/ghJ1P6 Nice information package on TCKs international project?

6 Positive strategies to make a teenage repatriation less traumatic:
http://bit.ly/nQOWxx any advice?

Heard of the @tckbookproject? visit site http://bit.ly/c7fNcn and click on "news" to read an interview by South China Morning Post 

@heyitsjohnnyc Culture shock: 24/7 or never again? bit.ly/q5QCm4  

Social media: What parents should know ow.ly/6q5m5 important for TCKs

Post by WifeinaSuitcase English as She is Spoke* bit.ly/os4kgw Is it "rubbish" or "garbage"?

TCK @childerschristy How to Cope with Change: my top 5 tips
http://bit.ly/pWXEOy 

@mdmaurer Are you global minded? How about your kids? What are you doing about it? http://bit.ly/obMncT

Love the suggestions in this blog post! Responsible global citizenship builds bridges http://ow.ly/6tYHt 

5 things to look for in your college hunt, part of our #college guide for #TCKs: http://ow.ly/6oeuF.

@membercaremedia What kind of stressors affect our TCK kids during times of transition? dld.bz/Sqzu 

Have you heard this? 101 pianos set up in Tilburg - play me, I'm yours!! http://bit.ly/ocYRu8

Nederlandse kinderen in het #buitenland in #schooluniform: artikel bij @RNW http://bit.ly/naGGJ0 wat vindt jij ervan?

If you would like to read more twitter updates about children growing up in other cultures:

• week 34
• week 33
• week 32 (at the time of writing this is my 3rd most read post on this blog, must be interesting..)
• week 31

 Please add your news or links. It's all about children growing up in other cultures. Thanks.

Twitter update week 31: news on third culture kids (TCKs)

Resource for multicultural parents & kids Bringing Up Children Bilingually: http://bit.ly/qTN53e

The story of a Third Culture kid (TCK) feeling foreign when she is not a racial minority "a stranger in my own skin"  http://t.co/XNYK7yO

All about Third Culture Kids (TCKs) starting careers http://t.co/ui8v2es 

Jo Parfitt interviewed Helen Maffini, author of  the children's storybook Sammy’s Next Move (written by an adult TCK for TCKs): http://bit.ly/rb6jxC

Building resilience in children&teens: Giving your children Roots and Wings! http://t.co/kyk3CpS 

Thandie Newton: Embracing otherness, embracing myself, a Video TED.com http://t.co/NvH1Wey

Have you found your story? Inspiration from the stage to the page http://t.co/gCICwv4 hear all about food: the Food Inspirer!

Jonathan Griffiths and Marion Knell discuss re-entry as it affects the entire family. http://bit.ly/pNoH6e

The End of Expatriate Life Leads to Re-Entry Shock http://ow.ly/4xaf1

Andrea Expat July Feature: Emotional Resilience & the expat child http://bit.ly/nO8OaY

Calling all Expats/Repats - here's a fun way to define "where's home?" Families in Global Transition are producing a cookbook http://www.figt.org 

10 ways to cope with any transition by Julia Simens: http://t.co/QfcSCLG 

Je puber veilig laten opgroeien in het buitenland http://t.co/Avg4Krp artikel van RNW

10 Nadelen van het opgroeien in het buitenland

Een buurvrouw zag mijn berichtje over de voordelen van het opgroeien in het buitenland maar ze zei zet je de nadelen er ook bij, nou bij deze dan:

1. Vaak verhuizen
2. Vaak afscheid nemen
3. Ver weg wonen van opa en oma en verdere familie
4. Soms niet weten waar "thuis" is
5. Rusteloos zijn
6. Vaak iets nieuws willen, verandering willen
7. Soms moeite met relaties
8. Nederlandse liedjes/ TV programma's enz. niet zo goed kennen
9. Niet goed weten wanneer je "u" en "je" moet gebruiken. Ik het Engels heb je alleen het woord you.
10. Geografie van Nederland niet goed kennen, niet goed weten waar een plek als "Best" bv ligt.

Ik kwam een Engelstalig filmpje tegen waar zo wel de voordelen als nadelen aanbod komen: