Third Culture Kid(s)

Me - Hoping that 40 really is the new 30. Mom to MM, wife to M. Lived in Hong Kong for seven years until high school graduation, lived in Japan off and on for nine years working and studying. Speak/read/write much, much better Japanese than my Nikkei husband - know maybe 10 words of Cantonese. White as a sheet/snow/flour, with an unsightly tinge of pink at particularly bad moments. Currently writing a dissertation in media studies from Big University in the Cornfields, but living near my family (= free childcare) in Northern Virginia.

M. - Not-so-happily slogging off to work for the government at one of their less politically egregious institutions. Doing an MBA program at Local Commuter University in his “spare” time. 100% Southern Californian, trying to make sense of (first) life in a die-hard Red state and (now) the East Coast mentality. Dad is Japanese-American (but spent the war and several years before/after in Hiroshima), Mom is first-gen Korean. Has cerebral palsy (spastic diplegia) and uses a rapidly disintegrating scooter to get around. Spent 10 years in Japan doing three different jobs. Has much better stories than I have.

MM - Presently two and a half. Everything she knows, she learned on TV. Caught her this afternoon reenacting a sequence from the Blueberry Hill episode of “Dora the Explorer,” complete with counting in Spanish. Recognized “uno, dos, tres…” as counting. Absolutely refuses to have anything to do with Japanese language, unless there’s a song involved.

C. - The newest member of Chez Thirdculturekids. Eats, sleeps, poops.