Canada — Stories

Not Of Blood

We have come together not because of blood, but because we share bonds of a common outlook on life…

I Just Want a Matchstick

We were in Costa Rica, two months in, on a year-long adventure of travel, volunteering, and growth…

Shattered Plates In Mexico

I'm attracted to other international souls. As a TCK, I am fascinated by different cultures and I seek to be a part of them in exchange for mine, no matter how muddled it might become...

Life’s A Whirling Dervish: Bahrain Story #61

As an architect and an interior designer, I have a belief that space has an inherent cadence, much like an individual with their own story waiting to be discovered…

How Far Being a Banana Got Me

I still remember it vividly. I was 10 years old, and I had just come home from school. I opened the door to our townhouse and found my mum in a near foetal position on the chair sobbing. This was the first time I’d ever seen my mum in such a state...

The Accidental Career

I think the crux of this article is that my background as a TCK led me to never worry too much about the specific job I was doing. As long as it was somewhat in my area, and in a place I could live with — even if I wasn’t an expert I figured I could always learn...

Home is Where You’re Asked for Directions

I think of a mental curse to send telepathically to the man as the dust settles. “May the sharks of this city devour you,” something along those lines, but much less poetic and much more livid. I feel like I am a character in a film, complete with a story unfolding in front of me...

It’s a Small World When You Are Japanese in Montana

When I was first hired to teach, there was something that used to rub me the wrong way; students would interrupt my lessons to ask me questions about my hometown or cultural practices...

My Unicorn and I

I can choose how Japanese I am: I never leave my chopsticks standing up in a bowl of rice because that is a funeral practice here and I avoid the number 4 like the plague in food service...

The Dynamics of Coupling in Tokyo

Japanese women maybe have had about 50 years to figure out what an ugly foreigner looks like, so when you see a gorgeous, local woman with an almost repugnant non-Japanese man, you have to stifle the urge to alter your line of vision down to his goods.