No 40 years of friendship: the mass market distorts traditional hospitality

American culture
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Tourists in Istanbul’s shopping Mecca have been so traumatized they can no longer distinguish an invitation from an inquisition.

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Creative self-enterprise: life is a work in progress

career
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The quest to achieve our best situation (both micro and macro, that’s our global niche!) — as the creative entrepreneurship of self. Suggestions from career renegades, zen habitues, and life hackers.

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Hybrid domesticities: an artist mixes the professional and the personal

borderlands
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When an emerging American artist moves to Turkey and starts a family, she navigates new definitions of career and home life.

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Honor in defeat: what’s so great about losing?

community
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Can there be honor in defeat? How does your culture define national honor?

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Winged etiquette: do manners travel?

ANASTASIA ASHMAN
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“Manners are your passport to the world” say the etiquette queens. Yet, are manners culture blind?

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Same river, never twice: realities and atmospheres expats miss

community
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What do you miss most about your home country? The solid reality of family and places — or an atmosphere long since vanished?

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Expat. Immigrant. Assimilant.

American culture
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This American resident of Istanbul with Turkish citizenship may be fluent in Turkish but she can’t describe herself in any language.

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Out of the box: the lure of the wider world

American culture
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For nineteen years Elizabeth Briel was locked in a metaphorical box — first by others, and later by herself – unable to see an alternative to what surrounded her.

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Cultural jet lag: the effect of occupying multiple personas

community
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“Iranian by birth, French by citizenship and American by residence” is how my grandfather encapsulated 10-year old me. What does that make my daughter?

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Stranger in your own land: when globalization is a survival tactic

career
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Most expats are lucky to be identity adventurers by choice. What happens when you’re born a stranger to your nation?

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