All posts tagged: multicultural

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ David L. Merin

“Five years old I sat on a plane wondering aloud “Mom… can we still talk to each other in English when we get there?” The true honesty of a boy torn between a Filipino father and a New Yorker mother, born in Hawaii and now in transit to Nepal, a country unmatched in its ethnic diversity. My childhood was truly fit for a movie… In the many years to follow, my mother would try to comfort my confusion by giving me an identity. “You’re a Third Culture Kid,” she would say, dismissing my doubts, but I couldn’t understand what it meant. I was one of a large number of TCKs growing up overseas who didn’t identify with any one culture. Unable to relate to the country they once called home, TCKs are forced to adapt and survive an international adolescence separating them further from both their family and nationality. Though each of us has an original story, we all share a common experience, which we live every day. As for my friends and I, we …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Sophie Sarkar

“As a mixed-race American with international roots, my travels have often been about reconnecting with my heritage and exploring my intertwined cultural identities. Traveling to India, and especially Kolkata, has helped me understand so many things about my relationships, quirks, anxieties, styles, and propensities. It has also been the source of inspiration for most of my creative projects… In India, my senses are overwhelmed by highly saturated colors, smells, and sounds. When I stay at my family’s house in northern Kolkata, I wake up every morning to the sounds of water being pumped up to the roof of the house; birds cawing salutations to one another; unidentifiable bells; street vendors selling sugar cane juice, sweets, and plastic buckets; Bengali bickering; various conch shells calling the Gods into the houses; my aunties gossiping with each other through the windows; the extremely loud and incredibly close neighbors; the donkey-like screech of rickshaw horns; the barking of territorial street dogs; and the call of the garbage man going around on his bike-pulled carriage screaming, in a somewhat melodic …

Confessions of a Jetsetter w/ Gina Doost

“Beach hopping in Curaçao! I’ve never had so many turquoise water beaches to choose from — yes this was paradise!! On our last day on the breathtaking island in the Caribbean just off the coast of Venezuela, there sits this island that claims 38 different beaches with sunny skies along the southern and west coasts. We drove our car from beach to beach and took a dive in the crystal clear turquoise waters — so clear I could see colorful fish floating beneath me while I swam. It was one of the sweetest and most epic experiences in my life — nature at its finest! As a multicultural person, half Persian and half Afghan — born in Hungary and raised in Germany and California — I’ve seen and experienced a lot of beautiful cultures and lands. But never have I seen so much of paradise in one place like I witnessed on the island of Curaçao…  My travel tip is to allow yourself to get lost, you’ll be amazed at what you’ll find. With my beach hopping …