Why I am not a big fan of Christmas and prefer the Festivus tradition of airing grievances.
Category Archives: Third Culture Kids
My Worst Cultural Blunder Ever
The title says it all. Mortification, thy name is Zuzu.
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”.
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.
Afraid To Do
Mr. Emerson and I are at odds today. Day 9 of the Ralph Waldo Emerson “Self-Reliance” project.
Travel
Three places I would love to visit before I die. Day 5 of the Emerson “Self-Reliance” project.
There’s No Place Like Home
Upheaval in the world and personally brings up the ever-present yet elusive question of “Where will I find home?”.
Zuzu Irwin’s Brush with a Bengal Tiger
A fitting end to the Year of the Tiger.
Zuzu Irwin and the Crocodile Farm
The second installment in the Zuzu Irwin global safari series: Zuzu and her family visit the largest crocodile farm in the world.
The Stephen King Challenge 2011
Announcing my participation in the 2011 Stephen King Challenge! Organised by Book Chick City, read and review 6, or 12, or more Stephen King works in 2011. Get your read on!
“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.
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.
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….
Wild Things Make My Heart Sing
Reflections on the magical and terrifying film “Where The Wild Things Are”.
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.
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…
‘Til Kingdom Come
I read my first Stephen King novel when I was 12 years old. The book was Carrie and the year was that of the Gulf War I, 1992. Thus began a love affair with King’s books that has continued to shape my life until today. This year I turned 30 and I’m even more in…
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 Ties That Bind
Five years ago at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, I met an amazing Californian Phillipina woman and we became fast friends, seeing in each other kindred spirits. Interestingly enough, it was the same year I met Paolo Coelho who told me: “Always keep your heart open; it will bleed, but it will heal.”…
Notes About Nothing
*It has been six weeks since my last post. *In the last six weeks I threw out my back, found out it wasn’t my back that was the problem but rather Irritable Bowel Syndrome, watched season 1-3 of ‘Medium,’ and been on a detox diet of vegetables, rice and beans. *I’ve written before about the…
Adaptation
They say that adaptation is one of nature’s most painful of processes, and for the seasoned traveller, it is no different. After having not only travelled, but lived in many different places, one begins to realise that it is impossible to be the same person everywhere. Behaviours that are acceptable in America are not acceptable…
good, bad, ugly
it’s good that aside from tommy i may have a new friend here in istanbul, a person not a cat. of course, she would be the one person that none of the other ditzy english teachers like because she is older and far more worldly than them. we connected over the stray cats and now…
i am the elephant man lost in translation
when i saw ‘the elephant man’ i felt i was him somehow. someone who never quite seems to fit in with the sea of people around him and someone who is always obvious no matter what he does to hide the fact. today after going to see a wonderful doctor who diagnosed my Middle Ear…
things that we learn the hard way
that things were not quite so bad before until we enter into an even worse situation, or go deeper into an existing one. drunk people are not wise no matter how much they think they are. they only get more glassy eyed, they slur their words and don’t remember the simple things you just spent…
moving forward
packers came today and put all of the possessions my family will keep into a container, soon to brave the wild tsunami-threatened oceans for sri lanka. moving day is always strange for me. i realised today that i have more attachment to the things that make up our home than the home itself. a carved…
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