Culture in the Blender

I’ve been spending some time reading and commenting on posts at TCKID and since I started, for some reason, every time I’m in the shower I feel like I’m in Beijing. The showers don’t look alike. Nothing changed about this shower. But evidently, something about showering in a certain state of mind apparently makes me feel like I did in Beijing. I expect to step out into a Lido apartment and to see ISB outside. If I look to my right, I expect to see a lot of wet dirt and my showering buddy the bonsai plant.

Perhaps the common denominator is actively living in the third culture. In Beijing, being a foreigner allows you to mix and match cultures almost any way you like, and I have specific likes and dislikes in that department. Beijing let me put it together largely without questions. Perhaps reading stories and writing on the forums creates the same kind of inner mental space, where being a third culture kid in whatever way you in particular are one is just fine. I have to say, it’s a nice change.