Just because I keep moving (countries) does not mean I am moving forward.
Category Archives: Expatria
Body Memory
After years of healing, why does the body remember a painful day before the mind catches up?
The Customer is Always Wrong?
My first horrible customer service experience in Köln brings back memories of four years of horrible service in Prague.
Live from Lothringer
My first post from my new home on Lothringer str., Cologne, Germany. Wilkommen!
Lost in Transition
Wracked with anxiety about our impending Prague departure, I try to make sense of my emotions with the help of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”.
The economics of migration, Alice Awards and other updates
Updates on my new guest posts live at the expat+HAREM and The Displaced Nation as well as the Alice Award I won, and more!
Courage To Connect: A Letter to Tim Burton
After 13 days of repetitive prompts, finally another Emerson Project post I can wholeheartedly endorse: Who have you always wanted to connect with and how will you make it happen? Tim Burton. No hesitation.
Dare To Be Bold
Now is not my time to be bold. Day 7 of the Ralph Waldo Emerson “Self-Reliance” project.
Parents of the Third Culture
My newest guest post, “Parents of the Third Culture: where to retire when all the world is home?”, is live over at the expat+HAREM!
The Culture of Violence
“I hold Sarah Palin responsible for all the deaths that took place in Tucson.” A new hybrid/AMBASSADORS blogring on the recent shootings in Tucson, Arizona.
Storm of the Century
Trapped on a freezing tram in a blizzard that shuts down Prague’s public transportation. A real-life nightmare.
Monster Brawl
My newest expat+HAREM collaboration is live: Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball turned violent in Prague when attendees were not allowed to dance.
My Foreign Body
My newest guest post for the stellar expat+HAREM poses the question: Do warm places make warmer people?
Remnants
The looming memorial of the September 11, 2001 tragedy has me thinking about things left behind.
“With/out borders” on the expat+HAREM
My newest expat+HAREM post, “With/out borders”, is featured on their beautiful site for the next week.
Whites Only?
A She Writes blog post by an African-American woman calling for “White Ambassadors To Help Me Cross Over” provokes a blog series, in which this piece is one of seven reactions.
A Love Letter To Beloved Dead
My friend Catherine’s amazing expat+HAREM post “Death at a distance”, one of the most powerful essays I have ever read, has left me processing a great deal of unresolved grief.
Self-Referentiality: Internal monologue turned external dialogue
What do the expat+HAREM, Dialogue 2010 and Lady Gaga have in common?
Intertextuality and Irony in Lady Gaga’s PAPARAZZI
My submission for this week’s www.RedRoom.com themed blog competition on “What is your favorite pop song?”
Why?
An explosive encounter with a racist Czech granny prompts me to once again consider why it is I continue to live in Prague.
Transitions Abroad Essay Competition Winner
Dear Readers, Just a quick note to let you know that the essay I wrote about life in Prague as an expat placed as a runner-up winner in the Transitions Abroad essay competition. The article, Living in Prague as an Expat: The Times They Are a-Changin’, will be on their website for the next year….
What’s In A Name?
The name on my birth certificate reads Sezin Piotruszewicz Menekshe Rajandran. I was named with the same initials as my grandfather on my father’s side, SPM Rajandran. He died just months before I was born, and in fact my mom was so upset at his funeral that her amniotic sack tore and she might have…
Born Hybrid
In 1990 Chris McCandless donated all of his life savings to OXFAM and went into the wild to live in the Alaskan outback. He had the feeling he didn’t belong in the life his parents planned for him. He knew they’d not take no for an answer, wearing him down like a chainsaw until he…
Intimate Strangers
The first in a series of reflections on the incredible Dialogue 2010, curated by Rose Deniz and on the topic of hybrid identities and location.
Fear Of Flying
In 1973 Erica Jong wrote the feminist anthem, Fear Of Flying. The heroine, Isadora, though terrified of flying, boards a plane and her subsequent journey leads to a spiritual and sexual awakening that was the one of the first of its kind in print. Jong’s thesis is that the fear of flying is the fear…
Inside Outsider: An expat+HAREM Guest Blog
My first ever guest blog has gone live at expat+HAREM, a neo-cultural hub for expats and voyagers. http://www.expatharem.com/2010/02/25/the-inside-outsider/
Miep, Myself and Wendy
My reflections on Miep Gies’ death as well as Wendy Soltero’s would-be 32st birthday.
In the “Nought”ies I:
Many of the things that I did in the Naughts Decade. I probably left out a bunch, but anyway.
Why I Don’t Celebrate Halloween Like I Used To
When I first moved to Europe going on seven years ago I was bummed that I felt they didn’t really celebrate Halloween, American style. Dressing up, spider webs, pumpkin carving, creepy music, Trick-or-Treating…Halloween was always my most favourite holiday. I love costumes and basically will use any excuse whatsoever to dress up. Movie premieres, themed…
In Memoriam
Eight years ago two planes flew into New York’s World Trade Centers killing thousands. I remember my then-boyfriend waking me up to tell me what had happened. It was 8am in California and so I laughed at the news, thinking that someone had pulled a Fight Club and destroyed two empty buildings. When he reminded…
The Local Expat
When I was a single twenty-something living in Spain it upset me to no end how difficult it was to make and integrate with a group of Spanish locals. I couldn’t understand why locals wouldn’t want to make a foreign friend and learn about someone’s life outside of Spain, in the same way that I…
The Mother Claws
Unlike most places in the world that can seem alien at first glance, Prague hides her true nature until she trusts you enough to share of herself. The longer you are here the more she undresses her darkest secrets and shows you her violent scars. Kafka called her a number of variations on “the little…
Rachel Tension
Regardless of whether or not a nation or people think they have racial tension within their borders or society, they do. Many nations (and people) will say that they don’t have problems of race, but rather problems of culture, or foreigners or socio-economic status. However this is far from true and racism exists on so…
Food of The Gods: The Ethiopan Experience
My introduction to Ethiopia and its cuisine was in a Rastafarianism, Reggae, and the African Diaspora course I took in university. What struck me the most was learning that Ethiopia had never been colonized, and is one of the few African nations never to have been. Not for lack of trying, mind you. The Italians…
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