About: AmyElizabethRPCV
-
Name:AmyElizabethRPCV
- Profile
- Grew up in Louisiana, Ohio, NC, Texas, Florida, Wash St. Kansas, Jamaica, Germany and DC. As an adult I have also lived in Romania, Australia, Colorado and Virginia. Lots of UK connections. At the moment I live in the VA-DC metro area; a quality place but not decisively where I want to live forever. I went to three high schools in three countries; and I know I'm 'better' for it as experiences like this don't grow on trees. I'm an only child, of an Army Officer. I of course love to travel! I was a Peace Corps Volunteer- and I highly recommend it to all Americans with drive and passion. I recently got my MA, and I hope to be in the Dept of State as a Foreign Service Officer someday.
2008-06-16 22:24:15
http://
Posts by AmyElizabethRPCV:
Citizenship fenegalling…?
I wonder if anyone can help me out with this. My maternal grandmother was born in Bermuda and had British citizenship for much of her life, but became an American at some point. My mom was born with US citizenship, as was I. My question is, does anyone know if there is anyway I can claim British citizenship from this familial link?? In question as well is that my Bermuda side of the family was due to inherit property there, but basically got screwed out of it via many circumstances. Does anyone know if that link ie property claims, would also be beneficial somehow for laying claim to citizenship? It is probably a far-fetched idea, but having a UK passport would be so helpful and great (for jobs, fun and EU opportunities as well)… I have looked on the US-UK High Commission and Embassy sites, and nothing really says how to claim/get citizenship. Obviously the Bermudian gov is mostly autonomous but the UK handles foreign affairs so I figure they really wouldn’t be involved with the process and or how it works. I’d appreciate any thoughts!
INFJ
As TCKs, we are inquisitive; if you’re like me at all, you probably enjoy amusing tests etc., specifically, Meyers-Briggs. So I have taken it in several different capacities (knowingly and not, and at different ages etc) and was surprised to see I do get the same thing each time (makes me believe it more too). You may have surmised my ‘classification’ from the subject line. I am a proud INFJ, and I wondered if others of our TCK variety get this more often than others in the world population; is it more common for us? Obviously this can’t be easily or very scientifically measured, but as INFJ is the most rare type of the 16 possibilities, it occurred to me that we TCKs are similarly rare!
http://www.myersbriggs.org/more-about-personality-type/
Global grocery wanderings
At the moment I live in the ‘burbs, hard-core burbs right now. While it has its benefits at times, there is however, a ridiculous homogeneousness that can be a bit much as well. Today I found myself at a store called “Global Foods”; a gigantic ‘other’ grocery store and it was great! I don’t know if this happens to others at times, but I felt so relaxed there being the ‘other’ instead of the typical-of-my-area white girl.
There are two main generic sections to the store, Asian and Spanish; but it is the in between throughout the aisles which make its opportunities quite vast and delightful! Most victorious about today’s venture, to where I can trot around seeing and smelling things unfamiliar and reminiscent, is that I found guineps today! They weren’t called guineps but that is what they are; apparently they are also called “Mamoncio”(?) I definitely hadn’t seen them called that but then I’d only heard of them in the Caribbean… Anyway, my semi-main point was, I love just walking around there. It isn’t over air-conditioned, there are live fish, fresh ‘all sorts of things’, people speaking eight different languages just standing next to you, and nearly every type of food I miss or grew to love elsewhere- well every type but something typically”European”.
I bought mostly Caribbean things today, though they were out of Patties and Ting, they did have the lovely Vietnamese cookies I adore, Kola Champagne and seaweed! They have tamarind, and lychee, guineps, cho cho and dumplings! It feels like a friendly place, like I’m not in a burb, but anywhere I choose to be depending on which aisle. They have a store within it, and amongst aisles too, selling jeans and jewelry, plants and books. Throughout, I can let myself pretend I’m in Jamaica or Romania, any many other places too! In short, even if I don’t really need more authentic spice of some sort, or the choice between 12 kinds of rice, I like to simply be there. Oddly enough, I can feel this in a completely different way via the commissary… it’s like portable roots for my mind, different types of stores. Has anyone else ever done this, or felt this type of ‘forced’ experience?
I was with my parents there today too, and it sounds pathetic but it ‘brings us together’ being there. Maybe it is simply my perception of things but I think it hits them too; maybe not as strongly, positively or consciously as for me, but being there with them was like it used to be. I’m too old to be wandering around with them on a Saturday afternoon, but it’s still sort of nice. The only weird side is if you spend too much time in there, and then you go outside, it can be a little shocking to be reminded you’re in a burb in a grocery store with a lot of immigrants probably missing their land like you miss their land…
new perspective
So I recently met family I’d never known anything about. It was so weird and fun, but mostly helpful to me. As TCKs we often feel disconnected from our theoretical roots or traditions et., and so meeting these people I’m distantly related to was a completely new understanding of my family but moreover of my overall culture. I know we often try to fit in with our supposed heritage and sometimes don’t feel like we can because we don’t really understand that with which we are fitting into. Meeting people who have roots you ’should’ have too, was really interesting for me. I know they think I’m different from them and that is fine because we learn from each other. Listening to different accents and asking questions about typical things I ’should’ know more about or have experienced made me really start to understand what ‘typical Americans’ are like. I had never been on a motorcycle, which they thought was the weirdest thing ever, yet I could explain how to drive on the other side of the road and about the relative speed of the autobahn. Spending time with those who are so normal for the area they live in was very anthropological and fulfilling. It made me appreciate what I knew of my various cultures to begin with, as well as what I have learned through osmosis and by growing up as I have. I think this trip with the ‘new family’ was different and more ‘enlightening’ because I was more observant with new people than with family I’d always known. Not sure if that makes sense to others but it does to me! I’d always spent time with relatives who were also very typical of their region but I only saw them as family, not as having a distinct culture. We went bowling, and to church, had typical food and felt like insiders and outsiders; it was great! It was basically “this is what we do” and my mom and I were often thinking, this is what they do? Okk.. The only “bad-weird” thing for me was educational /opportunity background differences. My immediate family are all very well educated and work in what are considered careers, not jobs. They asked about my degrees, and career path which was nothing they understood and inadvertently made me feel elitist and not understood or relateable to at all. At one point, a cousin said “is there anywhere you haven’t been?” which was so funny to me because there are so many places I haven’t been to or know much about, but they think I must know something about everything; and I’m half their age! Anyway, seeing them more closely as people of a place, made me understand my country better, and it was nice to feel more connected.
All grown up… now what?
As an ATCK I am curious as to what university studies/professions other ATCKs have pursued. Do most of us tend to go the int’l route in some form? I myself did international affairs for my degrees with foci on culture and communication, and I wondered how common this is. Sometimes I wonder if we are more or less “qualified/differently influenced” into our life choices due mainly from what we know and have experience or from what we expect in our lives in order to be satisfied… Any thoughts?
Probably a topic for MKs?
So I was wondering if anyone else has this perception/reaction… or if it is just me! I am an Army Brat and was raised with going to church regularly. My mother always comments that I have weird “reverence and paranoia” for authority figures. Examples: I am driving perfectly fine down the autobahn and then I see Mr. PoPo driving by as cops do, and yet I get nervous for no reason. I also feel safer at this point and want to drive ‘perfectly’. Now, for the religion thing, I am not Catholic, yet Priests and Nuns, I don’t know, I feel guilty or the need to be very good when I see one; and I am a very law-abiding good person! I have huge respect for ranking officers, and ‘those in charge’ in general (haha pardon the pun) and even when I don’t agree with them politically or whatever, I certainly have enormous amounts of respect for them while questioning them/their ideas… Anyway, is that weird? Probably!!
identification
Ok, now I know people you’re close to- where ever you may be- want to identify with you. I don’t know though, maybe it’s a pet peeve of mine but I hate it when those whom you don’t consider to be similar to, you try to say they are.
I’m sorry but moving twice to a new high school or within the same location doesn’t qualify you to understand the TCK experience. I don’t want to be arrogant about it but it is just not the same thing as being allover the place!! I also don’t want to ‘invalidate’ or belittle their experiences but good lord, they have no idea, and if you try to explain this, they still don’t get it. I just feel guilty and annoyed with this happens. It’s like, why is this conversation even happening?!! Has anyone ever experienced this?
Hello All~
Hello!
I’m Amy, an American Army Brat. As an ATCK now, I still don’t quite know what to say/do etc sometimes. For the basic profile: I grew up in seven states, Jamaica and Germany. I went to university in Washington DC, a great place for people like us! I studied abroad in Australia, and then was in the Peace Corps in Romania; got my MA (did one paper on people like us) in Denver, and I’m now back in the DC area- NoVA.
My little family is semi-nomadic and semi-rooted; which makes it weird for me as the only TCK in the fam- and somehow even more so now as an adult. There are so many threads of different cultural identities that I can’t choose just one or how ‘to be’! I wonder sometimes if I have to choose what to be or where to go or if I simply feel that I should pick ‘an identity’, in order to be a ’successful’ adult. At the moment I’m trying to figure out life in general.
So, I think this site looks great and has some good recommendations for books, ideas and videos. When I first read the epic TCK book, which my mom bought me, I felt grounded like I was hit by lightening it was so great! Another good one- though not really the same type of book- is called, Daughters of Britannia: Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives, by Katie Hickman. It’s great for historical and social perspectives. For us military kids, the Kris Kristofferson film, Brats: Our Journey Home, is good too- though I think newer generations need to be represented within it- or maybe an additional film should made?? Anyway, I think being a TCK is the best way to grow up, difficult sometimes but think how average and dull the world would be otherwise? I could go on, but maybe I will just post again outside of the intro!
-
Top Commentators
- Ayako (690)
- Cynthia (506)
- Uncle Dan (488)
- miyon (428)
- kristine (356)
- mairabay (260)
- MsMerising (258)
- mmmmmm (249)
- Isa (219)
- marie (219)
Polls
Loading ...