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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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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Strategic love: the embassy of intercultural marriage

community
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If marriage is the smallest unit of a community, then cross-cultural couples are ambassadors, peace-makers, and change-agents.

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The twinge of heritage: ghostly urges of a post-immigration life

American culture
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After four generations of immigration, a New World woman finds the mysteries of extended lineage often crop up as synchronicity, quirks of taste, wanderlust.

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Mapping the imagination: making sense of your worldview

global niche
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Moving abroad and having to live in a world she only imagined, a mapmaker’s art changes.

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Food communion: finding lost rituals

American culture
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A global nomad now back in the USA misses the special status of food.

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How *not* to write your life story

career
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These seven life-writing don’ts can be a waste of time and talent, and often destroy a good expat writer’s confidence.

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Floating and free-falling: inner transitions supported by a foreign environment

career
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They say your shoes will eventually fit if you keep wearing them. This Japanese Third Culture Kid tried to live his life like that.

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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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Questioning stable life: a rolling stone gathers confusing new moss

home
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The more a stable home life demands of this Third Culture Kid, the more she seeks out foreign interests and activities.

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