Two weeks in Germany & Austria wasn't enough

I've been back from Germany & Austria for almost a week now and have been meaning to post something about my trip. I started to once while we were in Vienna, but I didn't get very far. In many ways I'm at a loss as to what to write. My son and I had a wonderful trip together. We started in Stuttgart, then moved on to a little town outside of Munich called Tutzing. From there we went to Vienna, Austria for a few days before ending up in Berlin. We did a lot in a short period of time. It was exhausting, but fantastic and definitely not long enough!

I wish I had kept a journal during the trip. I took tons of pictures and sent emails home, which chronicled the events of our journey, but not the feelings. The feelings and emotions are much harder to capture.

I spent three very formative years of my childhood in Germany. We moved back to Virginia when I was 12. A part of me has remained strongly tied to those years and experiences. Much like Marice so eloquently articulated, I was one of those TCKs, not sure of where I fit in--not German, but not exactly like the rest of the American kids at my school in Vienna, VA.

Having the chance to show my son where I grew up and meeting my old friends was a wonderful experience, but yet I once again realize that I'm out of place. I am an American, but I love Germany, but then in Germany I don't blend like a native, that's for sure. My German is more than a little rusty and culturally things have changed quite a bit and so have I. On the other hand, it was like returning home. Familiar smells awakened memories of going to the bakery near our house in Stuttgart for warm, fresh bread and those cookies with the chocolate filling. Alex had one of those while we were in Tutzing. I took a bite and it tasted just how I remembered.

But the trip was not without frustrations. As I already mentioned, my language skills proved to be inadequate at times. I struggled to communicate what I wanted or needed more than a few times, even for something as simple as wanting to pay cash for our hotel. Wie sagt man "cash" auf Deutsch? More often than not, it was amusing, but nonetheless it bothered me that I couldn't say the things I wanted to say. And now more than ever, I want to go back!

~Kelly F.

The TCK

Hey guys! I haven't posted on the blog yet, but I wanted to share my personal experience as a Third Culture Kid.

I am incredibly interested in the phenomenon of a Third Culture Kid. From what I have seen, the Third Culture Kid is the interesting by-product of an increasingly globalised world. We at the Elliott School often see globalisation as the death, or at least alienation, of culture. Westernisation, if you will.

The TCK phenomenon not only proves the relevance of culture in contemporary society, but it also strengthens the emergence of a new, global culture, one that is not inherently western but is, truly, a global culture. Although it takes from other cultures, the TCK culture is something completely new. You know how two people from China will automatically have that cultural connection simply because they're Chinese? TCKs do that too. And we find each other, somehow, and there's always this instant connection. After all, I ended up finding and dating one. It's culture that transcends skin colour, religion, and language. Interestingly, when a friend of mine came over to GWU, my roommate commented that we had the same accent. The only thing we had in common in terms of upbringing was our school--we were from completely different countries and had a different group of friends, but our accent was somehow the same.

I had the pleasure of studying in an international school, and while the strict definition of a TCK is someone who grew up in a different culture than their parents, the term applies to many different kinds of people who grew up in mixed cultures. I grew up in one country most of my life, but I can barely relate to being Filipino; after all, I didn't watch Filipino movies, I didn't attend a Filipino school, didn't have Filipino friends, I didn't even know Filipino slang. At first I thought that since I spoke perfect English, had good grammar, and watched American movies, I was culturally American. All I had to do was learn the Star Spangled Banner, how baseball was played, and get used to the over 21 drinking age and I was all set to be a perfect American college student.

Wrong.

To my surprise, it was even harder to be American than it was to be Filipino. I understood less American slang than I did Filipino slang. "Legit?" "Out of left field?" "Burgy?" "Baller?" Where in the world did these come from? And when people ask me how I am, they don't actually want to know how I am? And what in the world is Fahrenheit? Isn't football played with a black and white ball like in the World Cup? And why are people asking me why I "speak English so good?" (yes, "good") Aren't biscuits supposed to be flat and crunchy? Why is a nickel bigger than a dime? Why can't you just put the values on the coins instead of the unidentifiable faces to make things just a little easier? Oh, and for those of you taking History/International Affairs: How is American history supposed to be relevant/interesting?

Just because there's someone in ISO that speaks perfect English doesn't mean he or she will have an easier adjustment period than the rest of the kids who don't speak the language. Just because the person is white doesn't mean he will fit in America any more than a local Chinese would. In fact, many TCKs experience what it means to be the "invisible foreigner". When someone looks foreign and clearly has an accent, a group of people from the same culture, in this case, America, will often be polite and make accommodations for this person, teaching them more about the culture they are now living. Now, when you look American and speak English well, many Americans will assume you grew up in an American culture and will not make said accommodations, and embarrassment ensues if you do not pick up on their cultural cues. The invisible foreigner then shies away, afraid to interact with this new culture because he sees it as hostile and austere. TCKs are largely present in GWU. The point of this post is that the language barrier is not the only cultural barrier that ISO kids have to cross, and we need to be aware of that. Whether the new student is Chinese, Indian, Greek, or Canadian, whether he speaks English as a first, second, or third language, the average amount of time it takes people to adjust to a new culture is six months to a year. Hopefully we can make this adjustment easier.

Additionally, it's not only the people who attend ISO who are Third Culture Kids. When someone looks different but thinks alike, said accommodations are made by those from the host culture, and this accommodation is oftentimes seen as insulting. This phenomenon is especially true with Asian-Americans, who are often asked cultural questions about Asia when they may not know their parents' language, or may have never been to their parents' country at all. Get a TCK like this and mix him in with a few culturally insensitive, not-so-sober people and you get quite an aggravating situation.

Incidentally, there exists a long list of "you know you're a TCK when..." jokes. Here are a couple of my favourites that relate to me and a lot of my friends. They're pretty funny, so check them out:

• You flew before you could walk.
• You feel odd being in the ethnic majority.
• You have a passport but no driver's license.
• You go into culture shock upon returning to your "home" country.
• You don't know whether to write the date as day/month/year, month/day/year, or some variation thereof
• 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 three types of plugs, know the difference between 110 and 220 voltes, 50 and 60 cycle current, and realise that a transformer isn't always enough to make your appliances work. You have also fried a number of appliances during the learning process.
• It doesn't matter how long you live in the US. You will *never* learn to think in Fahrenheit.
• 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 the urge to move to a new country every couple of years
• You see old friends at airports.
• 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 sort your friends by continent.
• Before buying something, you convert the cost to at least two different currencie

Marice Sy, ESIA 2013

Taste the World!

As I anticipate a DELICIOUS lunch of Panang Curry and Pad Thai, I thought I would write a rant about my favorite international foods restaurants in DC...

I absolutely love:

Thai- Thai Coast (on campus-ish) and Thai X-ing (on Florida Avenue)
Ethiopian - Meskerem (on U St)
Morrocan - Marakesh Palace (near Dupont)
French - Le Bistrot du Coin (Dupont)
Native American - American Indian Museum Mitsitam Café (Smithsonian)
Chinese - Sichuan Pavilion (on campus) and Tea Noodle Rice Cafe (Arlington)

And that's my shortlist for now, that I would recommend without hesitation! I love tasting what nourishment tastes like in other parts of the world. I love knowing what other people wake up in the morning craving (the way I woke up craving eggy bread and bacon for breakfast and a chicken avocado baguette for lunch). And now it seems I crave what they crave too, more often than not! Like panang curry and enjera and ginger chicken casserole and mussels and fry bread and tangine... Mmmm......

The world tastes good.
-Natasha

Coming and Going

Hello fellow Global Learner Emissaries!
(See what a thesaurus can give you: GLE(E)!)

It's that time of year again: everyone's moving. Some are moving in. Others are moving out. And some of us aren't physically going anywhere, but we still begin to move on.

Does this freak anyone else out?

One day we're all here, and then the next, we're scattered like leaves on the wind. Everything is so finite.

But here's the thing: would we really appreciate it if it weren't?

During the year, we tend to lock ourselves away into these little corners of our lives. "There's always tomorrow," we say.
But every time we prepare to move, in one way or another, that's when we really connect. We stop taking everything for granted and begin savoring the moments we have with those around us.

This isn't supposed to sound like some sort of second-lease-on-life, bucket-list kind of post. I think it goes deeper than just trying to take in everything before it's too late.

For me, I find this time to be a chance for self reflection. It's the one time I really stop and think about where I was and what I was doing the last time I moved. It's the time when I realize how much I've grown and changed.

Since last May, I've helped coach two girl's soccer teams, improved my yoga, spent a semester in Italy, traveled through Europe, lived with complete strangers, been published, got my first mediocre grade in a class, and so much more ... but those experiences are all in the past.

It's the things these experiences give us, the ways in which they change us, that we get to keep. Patience, harmony, independence, courage, language, friendship, confidence, perspective ... time can only take these from me if some new experiences come along and change who I am, yet again.
And that's one of the reasons I can't wait for our international students to get here. Seeing these transformations in ourselves is awe-inspiring, but seeing them in others and knowing that we were a part of their transformation, knowing that we helped them with the experiences that will not only shape their future stories, but also their future selves ... how fulfilling is that?

It's sad saying good bye to the past. It's scary facing an uncertain future. But wherever we go, we take ourselves.

Here's to a healthy, happy, life-changing summer.

-Kelly M.

Rio - Movie

Hi guys,
I took my 3-year-old son, Tito, to see Rio this past Sunday, but no one needs an excuse like mine to attend to this awesome cartoon. I was delighted to see through the lenses of my 3D classes the sinuous contour of Rio, given by the sea and the hills. I could feel the warm weather, the wind blowing on the beach and the rithm of the samba. How intense it was to see Atlantic Avenue, Leme, Sugar Loaf, Lapa Archs, Santa Teresa and so many places that all mean a lot to me. I actually met my wife in that yeallow trolley when we were neighbors in Santa Teresa.

Heitor Werneck

Some thoughts about Bin Laden... Kind of.

 

In the wake of all the "celebrations" about the death of Osama Bin Laden, and the mixed feelings people's various reactions give me, I found this video. It is a dialogue between the mother of a 9/11 victim and the mother of an accused terrorist. The ability of these women to find some semblance of redemption and humanity in the face of the greatest horror (the loss of one's children) is a comfort to me. I don't know quite how to feel about the destruction of a destroyer like Bin Laden, but I do know that a cross-cultural hospitality such as these women's gives me reason to believe there is hope for the world.

-Natasha

Welcome and let's get started!

First, I would like to thank all the new and returning International Student Ambassadors for volunteering your time and energy to help welcome new international students to GW.  The fall orientation will be a fun and exciting time for you and the new students.  It will also be a bit overwhelming for the new students who are coming from so far away, but their transition will be easier with you there to help them.  Sometimes just a friendly, reassuring smile is all it takes to help someone feel more comfortable and at home and that's where you come into play!

August is a ways off and I'm sure everyone will be busy this summer working or traveling.  This blog will be a way for all of us to stay in touch and share about our experiences this summer and hopefully help us to get to know each other better.  We will also use it to share tidbits of information throughout the summer to help you prepare for your role as an International Student Ambassador.

We are excited to be working with you and look forward to reading about your adventures, thoughts and inspirations this summer!

Best,
Kelly