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the good things
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so, i know there is a post somewhere about what i love about being tck but this is a bit different, this is more what i love about moving. i have been in mtl for 9 months now and the other day i was marveling over a couple of things, so here is my list on what i love about moving.
1. the giddyness i feel when i finally manage to get whatever i need to move to a new country. usually i am sick to death of whatever country i am in at that time and just that knowledge that i will be somewhere different soon, its so…i don’t know, i could get drunk on that.
2. arriving. when everything is brand spanking new. and everytime you meet some one and they ask how long you’ve been there and you say ‘2 days’ or ‘2 weeks’ and they marvel at what a newbie you are, and you marvel at yourself.
3. when you’ve been there long enough to give directions, understand basic language, recommend restaurants and not have to look at a map everytime you want to go soemwhere. i LOVE this part. that is where i am right now, i am still relatively new here, but i love that i have been here long enough to know where stuff is, switch easily from english to french (albeit broken french) and just generally feel that sense of belonging.
4. making new friends and hearing new stories. i recently met a guy who was on the canadian olympic fencing team and is now an actor (we are in a show together) i love stuff like that! and i must say montréal is particularly good for that because it is so genuinely international.
5. new slang and quirks. while i can’t say that i yell ‘tabernac!’ when i stub my toe, i have picked up a lot of franglais and general québecois gestures. also my english is already slanted towards the québecois side and i pepper my speech with ‘oui, ce ça’ and ‘pointe finale!’
well, that’s my 5 for now. i must say this is my favourite part. end of year one and year two, when its all still relatively new, but i’ve been here long enough so that its not painfully new and i feel like a part of the community.
i tell you, i ADORE moving (maybe not the physical act, but the consequence!) its so exciting and everythign is so new and wonderful. and then its like a challege, seeing how you can fit yourself into this particular community, or letting the community settle around you. its moments likethese that i thank Jah i am tck, because i swear, that whole living in once place forever thing? i don’t know how those monos do it…
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February 14th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
It’s funny, because I know it’s a TCK characteristic to love moving, but I HATE it. Maybe because the only move I had to make that I can remember was traumatic… When I was going to college, I could NOT make myself pack my room. Just couldn’t do it. Finally my dad turns to me and says, “We’re not having to leave Oman again” and I just lost it. Hadn’t even realized that was the problem.
I’m not even a typical TCK… lol. how ironic.
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February 15th, 2008 at 9:50 am
hey Warona!
wow, I’m a bit dissapointed to see so few comments in this thread
come on, guys there ARE good things!
since I’m in a good mood, I’ll start:
* there was a post about “is open-mindedness a weakness”. I think it’s not, because we open-minded people are able to see that we’re open-minded and to see our problems and our weaknesses, whereas narrow-minded people aren’t even close to that. So I thnk the benefits of open-mindedness outweight the ones of narrow-mindedness
* I know this isn’t true for all TCKs, but for me it’s SOOO easy to learn new languages. Just the other day a friend of mine showed me a finnish website and I started guessing words!
I learned French in 1,5 years and I’m studying German by myself and I’m finding it easy (many people in Brazil consider these languages “hard to learn”).
* I’m also very good at adapting to new cities, like you said. Faster than many people, I’ve already learned where the nearest market/grocery, public payphone, etc is. And I love that too. I love how I quickly feel at home anywhere. I quickly learn street names and bus routes
* I’m not afraid of going/moving to different countries, getting to know different people. Appart from my identity-crisis-related things (that I’m overcomming ever since I found out about TCK), I’m not afraid of anything. I’m not afraid of going out to the world and facing it, exploring, living.
* I beleive I can learn ANYTHING that I want to. I was taken from my “home” country and dropped in a totally different one, different language and differente culture, and I survived. I learned English and adapted to the British culture. Imagine people that have done that in MANY countries! I beleive we are people with an incredible abitlity to learn.
These are just some that come to my mind now.
I can come up with many more.
Let’s be happy and celebrate the good things!
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February 15th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I think TCKs are very aware of time, and limits of it, we know that we’ll have to say goodbye some day, so we take advantage of all opportunities that come our way, in a “carpe diem” way. I think that’s really positive!
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February 16th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
In a way - I think the only thing that really scares us is our own identity crisis! Other than that, we have been through so much we’re not too fazed if martial law is suddenly declared in the country we live in or war breaks out.
Yes, we do get scared and concerned and everything else, but we have this flexibility to adapt to changing situations because we’ve been doing it all our lives - so when there’s a crisis, it’s not as though it’s the first time it’s happened.
I think for normal people (:p) - it’s quite a shock when the rules of ordinary living change, but for us it’s nothing new!
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February 16th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I love how we can mix and mingle… Well it depends…
I don’t like the idea of trying to live up to an image of being TCK… but sometimes it’s not a bad thing!
For example, it encourages me to jump into different nationalities. I wouldn’t have done that normally, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing to do.
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