Denizen

21Dec09

I saw this link on another TCK’s blog (thanks “makinsense”!): http://www.denizen-mag.com/. I’ve been quite busy lately but I hope to sit down soon and really read through the articles.
“Denizen is an online magazine dedicated to Third Culture Kids, also known as TCKs.
What is this about?
Third Culture Kids are the citizens of the future. We possess the globalized views [...]

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Marukawa

18Dec09

I was in the store last night, spending about 5 minutes trying to decide which type of gum I wanted, when I saw the gum. When I was little, my brother, my Syrian friend and I used to eat this gum and we loved it. I haven’t seen it in stores for a long time, so [...]

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You Know You’ve Lived In The Middle East When…

17Dec09

Got this list from another blog. I edited it a bit for length and some of it, I think, applies specifically more to the Gulf than the Middle East as a whole. Here tis:
You expect the confirmation on your airline ticket to read “insha’allah“
You don’t expect to eat dinner before 10:30 p.m.
You need a sweater when it’s [...]

Filed under: Arabs, Middle East, Syria, TCK, Travel   |  Leave a Comment

Chaufage Squatting

09Dec09

It’s so cold! Brrrrrr! I was just telling my mom earlier today that if I was in the Donner Party, I’d be the first to go.
Speaking of family and freezing weather brings me to “chaufage squatting”. Chaufages are radiators and are what some people use to heat their houses in Syria. (I think it might come from the French [...]

Filed under: About Me, Family, Middle East, Misc., Photographs, Syria, TCK   |  1 Comment

Paltrow, Gerard, and Monelle

05Dec09

It’s amazing what you watch in a hotel in another country. 
Since I’m usually not staying in five-star hotels when I travel, the channels that are available are always fun. It depends on the country of course, but there’s usually your international news (BBC or CNN) as well as the European news, the European channels, the local channels, the local [...]

Filed under: TCK, TV (Isn't it sad I have a category for this?), Travel   |  Leave a Comment

Wherever You Go

04Dec09

I was watching So You Think You Can Dance (last season though, not the current one) on TV last night. One couple danced to Richard Marx’s Right Here Waiting. And that brought back a memory. I remember sitting in a small cafe in Damascus with my dad, working on my math for school. I was probably eight [...]

Filed under: About Me, Family, Music and Lyrics, Syria, TCK   |  Leave a Comment

Ech.

23Nov09

A friend of mine who also lives in Syria just recently blogged about Western things in Syria. See here. This post is not meant to, in any way, put what she said down, or anything like that. I’ve been planning to write on this subject for a while and this is simply a different perspective. [...]

Filed under: About Me, Arabs, Middle East, Syria, TCK, Travel   |  1 Comment

Turkish? Ne? Hayır.

21Nov09

We went grocery shopping this morning, stocking up on some stuff before the Eid (most stores close during Eid al-Adha).
Before my dad said anything to the cashier in Arabic, the guy asked if we were Turkish. That’s a new one. Generally my parents and brother are thought to be either Circassian, French, or Eastern European, although they can (and generally [...]

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Blogs Are For Ranting

16Nov09

Ok, no, they’re not. But they can be. I try to refrain from that but, if you’ve read my blog you know that I sometimes ”voice disapproval loudly”. This is one of those posts.
Sometimes people in the States/West ask about health in the Middle East. What kind of food do they eat? Is obesity a [...]

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The TCKs Who Went Up The Hill That Seemed Like A Mountain

14Nov09

Another random memory of my childhood in Syria:
My brother and I used to go to a Syrian school in Damascus (third grade and first grade, respectively). The bus would drop us off at the main street and we’d walk up the hill, which to my 6 year-old proportions, seemed like a mountain. Along the way [...]

Filed under: About Me, Family, Syria, TCK   |  1 Comment