familiy — Stories

“Where are you from?” Thrill and dread. That question we all prepare a thirty-second elevator pitch for…

Imagine the chaos of the first few years: Romanian, German and English mixed together in a way that it took us sometimes minutes to realize what exactly it was that our own children were trying to tell us…

Larry Gatlin and the Longing for Home

The song Piel Canela conjures images of my sister in traditional Costa Rican dress, dancing while it plays…

The ArtsBy Molly Kaitlin (From Peru, Costa Rica, Minnesota & Florida. Living in Tennessee)4 April 2020TCK, TCK TOWN, familiy, music, the arts, peace, home, Third Culture Adult, third culture kid, dancing, homesickComment

A Grim Balinese Summer

Isn’t that always the case? You plan for life to go a certain way, only for it to forge its own path…

Birthdays, GoodbyeBy Stephany Daal (From Suriname, Curaçao, Venezuela & Amsterdam. Living in Brussels)22 January 2020tck, TCK TOWN, Tck, third culture kid, Bali, summer, Jakarta, suicide, birthday, beach, Vietnam, Indonesia, familiy Comment

Dear Chook-Chook (A Letter To My Daughter)

You once said to your father: “Papa, you are brown.” He gently took you to mirror, “Yes Chook-Chook, so are you”…

My Joint Family Homes

I remember a few instances vividly from my childhood in Pakistan, which would now be looked at with horror in the west, as an invasion of privacy…

BoundariesBy Danish Khan (From Melbourne, Perth, Karachi & Islamabad. Living in Karachi)20 November 2019TCK, TCK TOWN, boundaries, familiy Comment

Bridging My Two Worlds

I adapted to the new environment, but life never became easier. As I walked down the street, students from my school would yell, calling me Chinese…

My Anger, My Shame

“He’s English, but we won’t hold that against him.” That’s probably one of the nicer remarks he invariably makes whenever anything touching the subject of England comes up…

Anger, FamilyBy Ashleigh Leyshon (From Melbourne, Tokyo & Nagoya. Living in Kharkiv)13 March 2019TCK, TCK TOWN, third culture kid, anger, parent, Dad, familiy, Mum, English, England, AustraliaComment

No More Walking on Eggshells

My dad’s anger had been a constant in my world of inconsistencies…

Anger, Moving, FamilyBy Molly Kaitlin (From Peru, Costa Rica, Minnesota & Florida. Living in Tennessee)6 March 2019TCK, TCK TOWN, third culture kid, anger, parent, parents, familiy, moving, home, mother, dad, father, sister Comments

Home Tastes Like Chicken Adobo

The meal is comforting but a little bittersweet, since the usual suspects aren’t around the dining room table tonight for this adventure with my Lola’s written recipes. The food just didn’t seem as complete without my Lola hovering over us to see if we’ve gotten enough sauce over our rice mounds…

FoodBy Sara Kline (From California, Philippines, India, & Thailand. Living in Washington, D.C.)19 December 2018TCK, TCK TOWN, tck, third culture kid, food, grandmother, grandparents, familiy, travel, homes, Philippines, chicken, adobo, cooking, recipeComment

Teach A Man To Fish

The three of us viewed the crowded steam venting streets being worked for subway tunnels as an industrial Disneyland. Men swarmed up and down bamboo scaffolding. We snaked our ways along the queues for the old red double decker buses that bumped their way around Kowloon...