The world of tck's

I think I've posted before about TCK's - the kind of kids we work with and the kind of kids both Kaleb and Annie are becoming. I think the following will help you understand:

"A third culture kid is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents' culture. The third culture kid builds relationships to all the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the third culture kid's life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of the same background, other TCKs."

You know you are a TCK if.....
- "Where are you from?" has more than one reasonable answer (Canada? Penang? Arlington Beach? Lumsden?)
- when you've said that you're from foreign country X, and your audience has asked you which US state X is in.
- You speak two languages, but can’t spell in either (this is so true!!)
- You feel odd being in the ethnic majority.
- You have a passport but no driver's license (Kaleb's present dilemma!)
- You go into culture shock upon returning to your "home" country (yep, just the salad dressing aisle at Superstore last summer was enough to put us into shock!)
- You wince when people mispronounce foreign words.
- You get confused because US money isn't colour-coded.
- You think VISA is a document that's stamped in your passport, not a plastic card you carry in your wallet.
- You own personal appliances with 3 types of plugs, know the difference between 110 and 220 volts, 50 and 60 cycle current, and realize that a trasnsformer isn't always enough to make your appliances work. And you fried a good number of appliances during the learning process.
- You believe vehemently that football is played with a round, spotted ball.
- You consider a city 500 miles away "very close."
- You get homesick reading National Geographic or watching Amazing Race (often, when watching the Travel and Living channel, our dorm kids will say, "Yeah, I've been there.")
- You think in the metric system and Celsius.
- You haggle with the checkout clerk for a lower price.
- Your minor is a foreign language you already speak.
- You miss the subtitles when you see the latest movie (subtitles are the best!)
- You've gotten out of school because of monsoons, bomb threats, and/or popular demonstrations.
- You speak with authority on the subject of airline travel.
- You have frequent flyer accounts on multiple airlines (Cathay, Northwest, Air Asia, Air Canada....
that's us).
- You constantly want to use said frequent flyer accounts to travel to new places.
- You know how to pack (Kaleb and Annie are more stringent about the LAGs than I am)
- You have the urge to move to a new country every couple of years.
- The thought of sending your (hypothetical) kids to public school scares you, while the thought of letting them fly alone doesn't at all.
- You think that high school reunions are all but impossible.
- You have friends from 29 different countries.
- You sort your friends by continent.
- You have a time zone map next to your telephone (again, so true!)
- You realize what a small world it is, after all.