Monday 8 August 2011

From the "Walk of the World" to Modern Technology: My 7 links

A big thank you to Tiffany at Clogs and Tulips who invited me to join in the 7 links Project. It's a real honour especially because I have a young blog. It is not even 2 months old. They say "time ripens all things", I think it ripens blogs too. So I hope my blog ripens into a nice juicy mature blog. I recently met Tiffany at a writing workshop run by Jo Parfitt. The funny thing was that I had already visited Tiffany her blog and even put a link to her blog on one of my posts. It was nice to meet, hope we meet again. Bloggers must be nominated to participate in the 7 links project. This gives me the opportunity to re-post 7 links to some of my best blog posts. Then I get to nominate 5 other bloggers.

Just as young kids struggle with languages especially when they grow up bilingually, so I have struggled on this blog with my language. I started in Dutch and recently switched to English. In my post Interesting worldwide third culture kid news I wrote about this language struggle. It complicates my links a little because some will link to a Dutch post and some to an English post. Please bear with me and give me some grace. Thanks I appreciate that.

My most beautiful post is Tropische bloemen en verhaaltjes. I like it because of the lovely photos of flowers like the Flame Lilly. The post is also about stories, my mum always had a story ready about something.

My most popular post is my post on Modern technology a blessing or a curse for our third culture kids? I do know that modern technology has really changed the lives of children growing up in other cultures. There was a time when my parents lived in Zimbabwe and I lived in the Netherlands and internet and email was not available yet, can you believe it? It seems ages ago! My most popular Dutch post is Voorbeelden van Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCK). The post gives examples of Dutch people who grew up in another culture. Adult third culture kids are creative, think in possibilities, have compassion and get into action.

My most controversial post well I don't really write controversial posts. Maybe this one will do: 10 nadelen van het opgroeien in het buitenland. The post is about the 10 disadvantages there are of growing up in another culture. There are also advantages of growing up overseas. Not everyone wants parents to read about disadvantages but they do exist.

My most helpful post is this one: Aga Magdolens TCK film Les passagers. It has a link to the trailer of this film on third culture kids. It can help children who have grown up in another culture. This short film speaks to my heart, it is so true. It helped me. The trailer starts with these words:
"I come from here I come from there
In truth I come from everywhere.
My tongue does not have a mother
my language is an open mind.
Before I learned how to walk I already knew how to fly!"

A post whose success surprised me is my post on the Nijmeegse wandel vierdaagse: The Walk of the World. The post is about things Dutch children growing up overseas should know about. This year it was the 95th time that the "Walk of the World" was organized. A real international event.

A post I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved Adult Third culture kids an under-tapped source of high quality expats? I enjoyed writing this post and I would have liked more comments. I would have liked to have a discussion on this topic, maybe something for in the future.

The post that I am most proud of is a Dutch post Spiegeltje Rondreis, opa en oma met kleinkinderen in Verwegistan. I just had so much fun writing it. I like Annie M.G.Schmidt her children's books. She is a very well known author of Dutch children's books. She wrote so many lovely stories and the post is based on one of her stories. It's about grandparents with grandchildren overseas.

I would like to nominate these bloggers to take part in the 7 links project:
  1. ExpatriateLife because I like your post on "third culture kids starting careers".
  2. Julia Simens author of the book "Emotional Resilience and the expat child", she helps families worldwide. She knows about kids, emotions, moving around and other cultures.
  3. Libby Stephens because Libby has such resourceful posts on third culture kids.
  4. Reflexions  She is from Nigeria and lives in Germany with her husband and two children who she calls the UFOs (Unlimited Flying Opportunities). I like your post on third culture kids and I love Africa.
  5. Tales from Windmill fields written by someone living in the Netherlands. She was a third culture kid too, has a British passport and grew up in Spain. Now raising a trilingual daughter.
Each blog is worth a visit. Please follow up the links and enjoy the visit. The blogs all have something to do with children growing up in other cultures, third culture kids, also called cross culture kids or global nomads.

What are your favorite posts? I would love to hear from you.

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